Theodorus ( 505–523) was an Italian 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
Sabinianus as his colleague in 505.
Theodorus was son of
Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius (
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 throu ...
in 480), and brother of
Albinus (consul in 493),
Avienus (consul in 501), and
Inportunus (consul in 509).
While helping his brother Inportunus organize the games to celebrate Inportunus' consulate, the two of them were accused by the
Greens of attacking them and killing one of their members. A surviving letter of Theodoric commands both of them to provide answers to these allegations before the tribunal of the ''inlustrius'' Caelianus and Agapitus.
John Moorhead identifies Theodorus as the recipient of a surviving letter from bishop
Fulgentius of Ruspe
Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius, also known as Fulgentius of Ruspe (462 or 467 – 1 January 527 or 533) was North African Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Ruspe, in modern-day Tunisia, during the 5th and 6th century. He has been ca ...
, written in 520. While Fulgentius admits they do not know each other, he is writing Theodorus on account of a number of mutual friends, providing him a good deal of spiritual advice, and ends by asking Theodorus to pass his greetings to his mother and wife. "The letter," Moorhead notes, "providing as it does scarcely any concrete information about Theodorus, is doubtless chiefly of interest to the historian of spirituality, but it does enable us to locate Theodorus within another context, that of the circle of Fulgentius' correspondents."
In 523, he was part of the entourage of
Pope John I
Pope John I ( la, Ioannes I; died 18 May 526) was the bishop of Rome from 13 August 523 to his death. He was a native of Siena (or the "Castello di Serena", near Chiusdino), in Italy. He was sent on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople by the ...
, who had been ordered by King Theodoric to proceed to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
and obtain a moderation of
Emperor Justin's decree of 523 against the
Arians
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
. Theodoric threatened that if John should fail in his mission, there would be reprisals against the orthodox Catholics in the West. Other
Senators accompanying Pope John included his brother Inportunus,
Agapitus, and the patrician Agapitus.
[Raymond Davis (translator), ''The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis)'', first edition (Liverpool: University Press, 1989), p. 49]
References
{{end
6th-century Italo-Roman people
6th-century Roman consuls
Decii
Imperial Roman consuls
Patricii