Flavius The gens Flavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members are first mentioned during the last three centuries of the Republic. The first of the Flavii to achieve prominence was Marcus Flavius, tribune of the plebs in 327 and 323 BC; how ...

Strategius Apion (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: Στρατήγιος Άπίων; died between 577 and 579) was a patrician and jurist of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

and the sole

Roman consul The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

of the year 539. He was a member of the wealthy and prominent Apion family of

Oxyrhynchus Oxyrhynchus ( ; , ; ; ), also known by its modern name Al-Bahnasa (), is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo in Minya Governorate. It is also an important archaeological site. Since the late 19th century, t ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Biography

Strategius Apion was the son of a senior Strategius and a patrician in the Byzantine Empire. He had a son named Strategius, named in one of the

Oxyrhynchus Papyri The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrology, papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient Landfill, rubbish dump near Oxyrhync ...

. This son and his wife Eusebia maintained friendly relations with

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...

, mentioned in his extant correspondence.. The youngest Strategius was not the only heir of Apion mentioned in the latter's will. He shared his inheritance with Praejecta, another Apion, and Georgius. An interpretation of the text suggests Praejecta was the widow of Apion, while Strategius, Apion, and Georgius were their three sons. Strategius Apion is mentioned variously as consul, ''

vir illustris The title ''vir illustris'' () is used as a formal indication of standing in late antiquity to describe the highest ranks within the senates of Rome and Constantinople. All senators had the title ''vir clarissimus'' (); but from the mid fourth ce ...

'', and ''

comes domesticorum The origins of the word ''domesticus'' can be traced to the late 3rd century of the Late Roman army. They often held high ranks in various fields, whether it was the servants of a noble house on the civilian side, or a high-ranking military pos ...

'' during the 530s. He was a contemporary of the emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

, by whom he is named in terms of high commendation in the 82nd Novell of Justinian's ''

Novellae Constitutiones The ("new constitutions"; ), or ''Justinian's Novels'', are now considered one of the four major units of Roman law initiated by Roman emperor Justinian I in the course of his long reign (AD 527–565). The other three pieces are: the ''Codex Jus ...

'' on account of the excellent discharge of his legal duties as the assessor of Marcellus. Perhaps owing to his legal services or to his role in the imperial household, he was made consul of the East in 539; one of the last

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 ...

s, preserved in

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

, commemorates his consulship. Texts from circa 547-548 mention him as a patrician. Texts from circa 548/549 to 550/551 mention him as ''

dux ''Dux'' (, : ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux'' coul ...

'' of the

Thebaid The Thebaid or Thebais (, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nome (Egypt), nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos, Egypt, Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximit ...

. This position typically came with the honorific title of ''patrician''. He is called patrician in a 556 text indicating he had already received the title. He was mentioned at the time as ''a stratelates'' and pagarch of Arsinoe. This placed him in charge of the pagarchy local to Oxyrhynchus and its vicinity. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri preserve information about the extent of the familial estates and their business affairs.

John Malalas John Malalas (; ; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch in Asia Minor. Life Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name ''Malalas'' probably derive ...

also mentions a residence of Apion in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

for an incident in May 562, when certain persons of the House of Apion hurled verbal insults at the Green faction of the

Hippodrome Hippodrome is a term sometimes used for public entertainment venues of various types. A modern example is the Hippodrome which opened in London in 1900 "combining circus, hippodrome, and stage performances". The term hippodroming refers to fr ...

. Apion is presumed active in the Byzantine Senate when present at Constantinople capital. He is last mentioned alive in 577, mentioned as already deceased by 579.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strategius Apion 6th-century eastern Roman consuls 570s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain Patricii Apion family 6th-century jurists Byzantine jurists Comites domesticorum