Anastasius (consul 517)

Anastasius wearing the robes and insignia of a Roman consul. On his right hand, he holds a staff with the aquila, and on his right, the cloth that was dropped to signal the start of the Hippodrome races. From his consular diptych, 517.

Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Sabinianus Pompeius Anastasius (floruit 517) was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Life

Anastasius was the son of Sabinianus, consul in 505, and of a niece of emperor Anastasius I.^[1] According to another possible reconstruction, he might be a great-nephew of Anastasius and a brother of Anastasius Paulus Probus Moschianus Probus Magnus, consul in 518.^[2]

He held the consulship for the year 517. One of his consular diptychs is preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. According to the inscription (CIL V, 8120 CIL XIII, 10032) he held the honorary title of comes domesticorum equitum.

Marriage and Descendants

He married Theodora, born circa 515, natural daughter of Empress Theodora, although Emperor Justinian I apparently treated her and her son Athanasius as fully legitimate,^[3] and had:

• Anastasius (ca 530 - aft. 571), married firstly to Joannina, only daughter of General Flavius Belisarius and wife Antonina,^[4] a marriage that lasted for eight months when they were forced to separate by her mother and father, without issue, and married secondly aft. 548 Juliana (b. ca 533), daughter of Flavius Anicius Probus Iunior (ca 495 - aft. 525), Roman Consul in 525, and wife and cousin Proba (b. ca 510 - ), and had by this second marriage:
  • Placidia (b. ca 552), married to John Mystacon (ca 545 - 591), a magister militum per Orientem from 579 to his death in 591, and had issue
  • Areobindus (b. ca 550), married and had, apparently:
    • Anastasia Areobinda (b. ca 570), married to Peter Augustus (ca 550 - 602), curopalates and brother of Emperor Maurice, killed at the same time of his brother, and had female issue:
      • Flavia Juliana (b. c. 590), married to Athanagild (b. c. 585), the son of Saint Hermenegild and wife Ingund, Princess of the Franks, and paternal grandson of Liuvigild, the Visigoth King of Hispania
        • Ardabast
          • Erwig, king of the Visigoths
• John^[5]
• Athanasius^[6]

Notes

1. Croke.
2. Martindale.
3. Diehl, Charles. Theodora, Empress of Byzantium ((c) 1972 by Frederick Ungar Publishing, Inc., transl. by S.R. Rosenbaum from the original French Theodora, Imperatice de Byzance), 69-70.
4. "For the two entered forthwith into a relationship by marriage and Joannina, the only daughter of Belisarius, was betrothed to Anastasius, grandson of the Empress." (The Secret History of Procopius, Chapter 4. 1935 translation by H. B. Dewing)
5. Syriac Historia Ecclesiastica of John of Ephesus (German transl., p55): "The blessed John, who was sprung from the family of the Emperor Anastasius and also was a son of the Empress Theodora's daughter."
6. Syriac Historia Ecclesiastica of John of Ephesus (German transl., p196): "Athanasius, son of the Empress Theodora's daughter." Also, in a German rendering of John of Ephesus, p269, Schoenfelder notes: "Athanasius appears in Bar-Hebraeus as an intermediary between Ascosnagh and Philoponus: he says: 'At that time the Empress Theodora had a grandson, by name Athanasius. . . .'. Also Michael the Syrian., p197: "Athanasius, grandson of the Empress Theodora." (The Secret History of Procopius, Chapter 4. Introduction by H. B. Dewing) The daughter of Theodora is never named in sources despite the mentions of at least three of her sons. (Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 3)

References

• Croke, Brian, Count Marcellinus and His Chronicle, Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-19-815001-6, p. 89.
• Martindale, John R., "Fl. Anastasius Paulus Probus Sabinianus Pompeius Anastasius 17", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 82–83.
• Christian Settipani fr:Continuité des élites à Byzance durante les siècles obscurs. Les princes caucasiens et l'Empire du VIe au IXe siècle, 2006