Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus

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Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus was a leading Roman aristocrat of the later 4th century, renowned for his wealth, power and social connexions. A pagan and a scion of the powerful Anician family from Verona, he married Anicia Faltonia Proba, the daughter of his first cousin Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius, by whom he had two sons. He held an administrative post in Africa and was consul as colleague of the Emperor Gratian in 371. He also held the posts of Prefect of Illyricum in 364, Prefect of Gaul in 366, Prefect of Italy in 368-375 and again in 383. Ammianus Marcellinus, in his History (Book 27, ch.11) portrays him as a vain and rapacious man who 'owned estates in every part of the empire, but whether they were honestly come by or not is not for a man like me to say' (Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire selected and translated by Walter Hamilton (Penguin, 1986), p.345). Ammianus says he was one who was benevolent to his friends and a pernicious schemer against his enemies, servile to those more powerful than him and pitiless to those weaker, who craved office and exercised enormous influence through his wealth, always insecure and petty even at the height of his power.

In 372 he defended Sirmium against barbarian attack and in 375 was accused of corruption and repression in extorting taxes for Valentinian I. On various inscriptions he describes himself vaingloriously as 'the summit of the Anician house' (Aniciae domus culmen), 'most learned in all subjects' (omnibus rebus eruditissimus) and 'the acme of the nobility, the light of literature and eloquence' (nobilitatis culmen, litterarum et eloquentiae lumen). As these phrases suggest he was a patron of literature, including the poet Ausonius. His two sons Probinus and Olybrius continued the tradition by being the patrons of Claudian, who paints a flattering picture of Probus in his Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus written to celebrate his sons' joint consulship in 395. Through his sons, Probus was the paternal grandfather of two Emperors, Petronius Maximus and Olybrius.

His date of death is unknown, though he was still living in 390 when, according to the Vita Ambrosii of Paulinus of Nola, two Persian noblemen presented themselves before Theodosius I at Mediolanum but departed the next day for Rome in order to see for themselves Petronius Probus, the pride of the Roman aristocracy, a legend in his lifetime.