Flavius Astyrius or Asturius ( 441–449) was a general and a politician of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

Biography

Astyrius was the father-in-law of Merobaudes and belonged to an aristocratic family. He followed a military career: between 441 and 443 he is attested as ''dux'' or ''magister utriusque militiae''. In 441 he was in Tarraconensis (Spain), where he defeated the

Bagaudae Bagaudae (also spelled bacaudae) were groups of peasant insurgents in the later Roman Empire who arose during the Crisis of the Third Century, and persisted until the very end of the Western Empire, particularly in the less-Romanised areas of Gal ...

. In 443 he was succeeded by his son-in-law Merobaudes. He was appointed consul for the year 449. At the beginning of his office he was in Gaul (probably in the capital city of the praetorian prefecture,

Arelate Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

), and Nicetius delivered a panegyric in his honour. A

consular diptych In Late Antiquity, a consular diptych was a type of diptych intended as a de-luxe commemorative object. The diptychs were generally in ivory, wood or metal and decorated with rich relief sculpture. A consular diptych was commissioned by a ''con ...

produced by Astyrius in 449 is preserved at

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far fr ...

. The diptych shows Astyrius seated on a

curule chair A curule seat is a design of a (usually) foldable and transportable chair noted for its uses in Ancient Rome and Europe through to the 20th century. Its status in early Rome as a symbol of political or military power carried over to other civilizat ...

wearing complete consular ''regalia'' and the inscription ''Flavius Astyrius vir clarissimus'' ''et inlustris'' ''comes'' ''ex magistro utriusque militiae consul ordinarius''.Mathisen.

Notes

Bibliography

* "Fl. Astyrius", ''

Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', Volume 2, pp. 174–175. * Ralph W. Mathisen, ''People, Personal Expression, and Social Relations in Late Antiquity'', University of Michigan Press, 2003, , pp. 18–19. {{end 5th-century Romans 5th-century Roman consuls Comites Imperial Roman consuls Magistri militum