Aristaenetus (consul 404)

Aristaenetus (c. AD 365 – after AD 404) was a Roman politician who was appointed consul in AD 404 alongside the western emperor Honorius.

Biography

Aristaenetus was the son of Bassianus (a notarius in the eastern court around the year 371) and Prisca. His grandfather was Thalassius, the praetorian prefect of the East.^[1] Possibly a pagan, he was related to the rhetorician Libanius, under whom Aristaenetus was a pupil.

Aristaenetus was a supporter of Flavius Rufinus, and through his influence Aristaenetus was made praefectus urbi of Constantinople in the second half of AD 392.^[2] He also visited Antioch for some purpose in AD 393.^[3] In AD 404, he was made consul posterior in the East alongside the emperor Honorius, although his position was not recognized in the West by the power behind the western court, the magister utriusque militiae, Stilicho.^[4]

References

1. Martindale & Jones, pgs. 124-125; 906
2. Alan Cameron, Jacqueline Long, Lee Sherry, Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius (1993), pg. 180
3. Martindale & Jones, pg. 125
4. Burns, Thomas S., Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: A Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, Ca. 375-425 A.D. (1994), pg. 195

Sources

• Martindale, J. R.; Jones, A. H. M, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I AD 260-395, Cambridge University Press (1971)