Flavius Olybrius (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Ολύβριος ''fl''. 491-after 532) was an aristocrat of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

during

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

, and a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

for 491. He is sometimes referred to as "Olybrius Junior" in the sources. Olybrius was through his mother

Anicia Juliana Anicia Juliana (Greek: Ανικία Ιουλιανή, Constantinople, 462 – 527/528) was a Late Antique Roman imperial princess, wife of the ''magister militum'' of the eastern Roman empire, Areobindus Dagalaiphus Areobindus, patron of the ...

a descendant of the conjoined Valentinianic and Theodosian dynasties, and the grandson of the emperor

Olybrius Anicius Olybrius (died 2 November 472) was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as ''Augustus'' in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling ''Augustus'' in the eastern Roman ...

() and the great-grandson of Western Roman Emperor

Valentinian III Valentinian III ( la, Placidus Valentinianus; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying ...

(). He was also a potential ''

augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

'' on the death of the Eastern Roman Emperor

Zeno Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...

() of the

Leonid dynasty The Leonid dynasty produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 457 to 518. The dynasty's patriarch was Leo I, who was made Roman emperor in 457. Leo's daughter Ariadne became empress and mother to an e ...

Life

Areobindus presides over the games MNMA Cluny 13135 n02

Olybrius was the son of Areobindus Dagalaifus Areobindus,

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

from 503 to 504 and

in 506, and of

, the daughter of the Western Roman Emperor

and wife

Placidia Placidia () was a daughter of Valentinian III, Roman emperor of the West from 425 to 455, and from 454/455 the wife of Olybrius, who became western Roman emperor in 472. She was one of the last imperial spouses in the Roman west, during the Fall ...

, who was the daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III and wife Licinia Eudoxia. Alan Cameron explains, "It may be that, alone among the consuls here discussed, Olybrius was actually known as 'Olybrius the younger' in social as well as consular contexts. Nor is it hard to think of a reason why: he became consul as a mere child, barely ten years old, perhaps even less."Cameron
"Junior Consuls", ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik''
56 (1984), p. 162 He was appointed consul at a very young age in 491. Afterwards, Olybrius married Irene, the daughter of Paulus and niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I (); Anastasius wanted to strengthen his rule through a bond with the Theodosian dynasty through this marriage. Olybrius and Irene had only daughters, including Proba, who married Flavius Probus. He was exiled in 532 by Eastern Roman Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

() after being implicated in a plot. His properties were seized, including the Church of St. Polyeuctus which his mother had commissioned and a great house which stood on an adjoining site to the church. He was eventually allowed to return sometime later and his seized properties were returned. Nothing is known about how he or his family fared after this.

Notes

References

* Croke, Brian, ''Count Marcellinus and His Chronicle'', Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 89. {{end 5th-century Romans 5th-century Roman consuls Imperial Roman consuls 480s births Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown