Felix (consul 428)

Left leaf of the consular diptych of Flavius Felix

Flavius Felix (died 430) was a general of the Western Roman Empire, who reached the prominent rank of patrician before being killed by order of Flavius Aetius. For his consulate, in 428, he issued some consular diptychs, one of which has been preserved until modern times.

Felix served during the reign of emperors Valentinian III and Theodosius II. Between 425 (year in which he was made patricius) and 429 he served as magister utriusque militae in defense of Italy, but despite a brief mention of one of his military actions in the Notitia Dignitatum, his subordinates Bonifacius and Flavius Aetius were considered more significant in this regard.^[1] In 426 he ordered the death of Patroclus, bishop of Arelate, and of Titus, deacon in Rome. The following year he opposed Bonifacius' rebellion in Northern Africa sending some troops to this province. This force was defeated by the troops loyal to Bonifacius.^[2]

In 428 he was elected consul for the West. In May 430, Felix, his wife Padusia and a deacon were accused of plotting against Aetius, arrested in Ravenna and killed by order of Aetius himself.^[3]

His carved ivory consular diptych is notable for depicting his clothing in great detail. The diptych, believed to be the earliest yet known,^[4] survived intact until the French Revolution, when the right leaf was stolen; it is now believed lost.^[5]

According to a recent reconstruction of his familiar bonds, he was an ancestor of Felix, Consul in 511, and a son of Ennodius. Born about 380 he might have been the man who was the husband of a daughter (born 385) of Flavius Julius Agricola, Consul of Rome in 421 and perhaps the father of Emperor Avitus, being the parents of Flavius Magnus, Consul of Rome in 460 and Felix Ennodius, Proconsul in Africa. in ca 420 or 423.^[6]

Notes

1. Bury, John Bagnall (1923). History of the Later Roman Empire. Macmillan. pp. 240ff. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
2. Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of the West: The Slow Death of the Roman Superpower, Orion Books Ltd, London. Paperback Edition, 2010, p.328.
3. John of Antioch, fragment 201.3; translated by C.D Gordon, The Age of Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1966), p. 50
4. "Consular diptych". The Grove Dictionary of Art. Macmillan. 2000. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
5. Kunz, George Frederick (1916). Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science. Doubleday.
6. Christian Settipani, Continuite Gentilice et Continuite Familiale Dans Les Familles Senatoriales Romaines A L'epoque Imperiale, Mythe et Realite, Addenda I - III (juillet 2000- octobre 2002) (n.p.: Prosopographica et Genealogica, 2002).

Sources

• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, "Fl. Constantius Felix 14", volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN ISBN 0-521-20159-4, pp. 461–462.