Clodius Celsinus Adelphius

Clodius Celsinus Adelphius or Adelfius (fl. 333–351) was a politician of the Roman Empire.

Life

He was married to the poet Faltonia Betitia Proba, and they had two sons, Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius (consul in 379) and Faltonius Probus Alypius. His wife converted to Christianity after 353, and later Celsinus probably converted too;^[1] he probably dedicated a column ad altare majus S. Anastasiae, near the main altar of the church of Sant'Anastasia,^[2] or that was his and his wife's funerary inscription.^[3]

Before 333,^[4] Adelphius was corrector of Apulia et Calabria, with the see of his office at Beneventum, where he was a patron too. In 351 he was proconsul of an unknown province, probably Africa, and he was already married to Proba. From 7 June to 18 December 351 he is attested as praefectus urbi of Rome, under the usurper Magnentius. In this period he was accused by some Dorus of conspiring against Magnentius; it is probable that this accusation was true, as shown by the fact that Proba wrote a poem celebrating Emperor Constantius II's victory over the usurper.

Notes

1. Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman time: the codex-calendar of 354 and the rhythms of urban life in late antiquity University of California Press, 1990, ISBN 0-520-06566-2, p. 229.
2. So suggests J.F. Matthews in "The Poetess Proba and Fourth-Century Rome: Question of Interpretation", in M. Christol, S. Demougin, Y. Duval, C. Lepelley, and L. Pietri, Institutions, société et vie politique dans l'empire romain au IVe siécle ap. J.-C., Colletiones de l'École française de Rome, 159 (1992), 277-304.
3. So maintains Rita Lizzi Testa in Senatori, popolo, papi: il governo di Roma al tempo dei Valentiniani, Edipuglia, 2004, ISBN 88-7228-392-2, pp. 117-118.
4. After that year, Beneventum passed from Apulia et Calabria to Campania province.

Bibliography

• John Bagnell Bury; et al., The Cambridge Ancient History - Volume XIII The Late Empire 337-425, Cambridge University Press, 1925. p. 21 ISBN 0-521-30200-5
• John Robert Martindale, Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp. 192–193.