Flavius Avienus ( 501–509) was a Roman politician during the reign of

Theodoric the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy ...

. He held the

consulship A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

with Pompeius as colleague in 501. He probably belonged to the '' gens Decia''; he was the son of Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius (consul in 480), and brother of Albinus (consul in 493), Theodorus (consul in 505) and Inportunus (consul in 509). John Moorhead argues that the brothers were on different sides of the

Laurentian schism Laurentius (possibly Caelius) was the Archpriest of Santa Prassede and later antipope of the See of Rome. Elected in 498 at the Basilica Saint Mariae (presumably Saint Maria Maggiore) with the support of a dissenting faction with Byzantine sympat ...

, with Albinus and Avienus supporting Symmachus and Theodore and Inportunus supporting

Laurentius Laurentius is a Latin given name and surname that means "''From Laurentum''" (a city near Rome). It is possible that the place name ''Laurentum'' is derived from the Latin ''laurus'' ("laurel"). People with the name include: In Early Christian ...

. He was a correspondent of

Magnus Felix Ennodius Magnus Felix Ennodius (473 or 47417 July 521 AD) was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet. He was one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the fifth to sixth-century whose letters survive in quantity: the others are Sidonius A ...

; one letter by Ennodius to Avienus has been preserved.Ennodius, ''Epistulae'', III.8. By 507/509, Avienus and his brother Albinus had already become ''

patricii The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...

''; around this time, but after the death of their father, they were asked to become patrons of the Greens and to appoint a

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...

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