Anicius Auchenius Bassus (consul 431)

Flavius Anicius Auchenius Bassus (fl. 425–435) was a high official of the Western Roman Empire. He was appointed as consul by the Western court with Antiochus Chuzon as a colleague.^[1] In 435 he held for the second time the office of praetorian prefect of Italy.

Biography

Bassus belonged to the noble gens Anicia; his father was the Anicius Auchenius Bassus consul in 408.

In 425 he held the rank of comes rerum privatarum at the Western court;^[2] the following year was praetorian prefect, perhaps of Italy.^[3]

He made accusations against Pope Sixtus III; when Emperor Valentinian III learned of these accusations, he ordered a synod to be convoked, at which the accusations were investigated and the Pope cleared by 56 bishops.^[4]

Notes

1. CIL X, 7178; CIL III, 9516
2. Codex Theodosianus xvi 5.64a, given at Aquileia on 6 August 425; Codex Theodosianus xvi 2.47a, given at Aquileia on 8 October 425.
3. Codex Theodosianus x 26.1a, given at Ravenna on 6 March 426; Codex Theodosianus iv 10.3a, given at Ravenna on 30 March 426; Codex Theodosianus xvi 7.7a, given at Ravenna on 7 April 426; Codex Theodosianus xvi 8.28a, given at Ravenna on 8 April 426.
4. Raymond Davis, translator, The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) (Liverpool: University Press, 1989), p. 35

Bibliography

• John Robert Martindale, Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Morris, "Fl. Anicius Auchenius Bassus 8", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-20159-4, pp. 220–221.