Individual Page

Person Info

• Name: Flavius Afranius Sygarius, Consul
• Sex: M
• Death: After 382 ^d


Parents:

• Father:
  
• Afranius
Mother:

• Syagria

Family:
Children:

1. Sygaria
2. Syagrius

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

parents:

[Ref: Mommaerts chart-Ansbertus-Main]

Sources for death Information

date:

after 381 [Ref: Weis AR7 #180]

after 382 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p7]

consul in 382 [Ref: Houdry CharlAnc]

occ 382 [Ref: Mommaerts chart-Ansbertus-Main]

Sources with Information about marriage to unknown

child:

[Ref: Houdry CharlAnc, Kelley Carolingians p111f, Mommaerts chart-Ansbertus-Main, Moriarty Plantagenet p7, Weis AR7 #180]

Research Notes:
382: consul [Ref: Mommaerts chart-Ansbertus-Main]

a Gallo-Roman senator, i.e. of paternal Roman descent [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

364-75: Notary under Emperor Valentian I, who during a campaigne against the Alamanni sent him with dispatches to the Duke Arator. [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

379: Proconsul Africae [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

Proconsul for Africa, Magister Officiorum of the Palace, and Pretorian Prefect in Illyria [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

Jun 27 380: sole Pretorian Prefect of the West, for Gaul and Italy, a triplicate prefecture [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

381: Praefectus Urbis Romae [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

381: shortly after Ausonius, he was Consul, with Eucherius, the uncle of Theodosius, as his colleague, having the consular authority of the West. [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

382: Consul [Ref: Houdry CharlAnc]

selected by the emperor Gratian as Consul, serving with Antonius [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

There were two different consuls names Syagrius in two successive years, 381 and 382. The consul of 381 was a friend and correspondent of Symmachus, the noted orator and vigorous efender of the pagan religion. The consul of 382 was probably the one who was the maternal grandfather of Tonantius Ferreolus; he may also have been the Syagrius who was a pupil and friend of the poel Ausonius. Each of these two Syagrii held a number of offices besides consul, and determining which office goes with which Syagrius is somewhat difficult [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

appears to have been a close relative of the Syagrius, who was Consul in 382, and who was perhaps allied to the imperial family [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

382: Praefectus Praetorio Italiae [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

Gallo-Roman Consul 381 [Ref: Weis AR7 #180]

buried beneath an imposing monument at the city gate of Lyons, and a statue of him was erected in the city [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

The office of consul had great prestige and was eagerly sought by Roman citizens. In the second half of the fourth century it was usually attained as the culmination of a distinguished career; at this time it was largely an honorary office with minimal political responsibilities. Description of duties: The old capital, Rome, retains its Senate, over which the consuls preside; that of Constantinople has a pro-consul for its presiding officer. The Emperor selects these functionaries, and makes known his choice to the magistrates and the cities by sending out ivory tablets which bear the likeness of the consuls and their names; this is necessary since these names serve to date all legal acts, whether public or private. These successors of the great consuls of the Republic still had their curule chairs, their purple robes embroidered with silk and gold, their gilded slippers, their lictors and rods surmounted by axes which were no longer used; and on the first of January they solemnly entered upon their office by going to the Forum, where they enfranchised a slave, and then to the circus, where they gave the signal for the games to begin. [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/22/1995]

Family name of Afranius inducates descent from the Afranii, but exact descent is not known. The Afranii appear early in South Eastern Gaul, several appearing in the first century. In the year 51 Sextus Afranius of Vaisson (near Orange) was Pretorian Prefect. In the third century Afranius Hannibalianus was Pretorian Prefect in the time of the Emperor Probus (276-282), Consul in 292, and Prefect of Rome in 297. [Ref: Moriarty Europe1956 p39]

There are, at best, three problem with this man (the genealogists are interested by him because he is the ancestor of the Ferreoli, given in late medieval texts as ancestors of Charlemagne).
First, the distinction between him and another Syagrius. One was consul in 381, the other in 382. Many important fonctions were attested to a Syagrius in this years, but it is very difficult to determine to which one. See the recent synthesis of the papers of these last years (by Martindale, Demandt and Clauss) in J. Fitz, Die Verwaltung Pannoniens in der Römerzeit, 4 vols, Budapest, 1993-5, III, p. 1222-1223 (the view in PLRE is that of Martindale, not necessarly the more accurate).
Second, the link between Syagrius and emperor Theodosius. In 382, the orator Themistius thanks emperor Theodosius to make consul a best friend of him. At this occasion, he praises the emperor for have given consulate in the last years to his paternal uncle (patradelphos) and his brother-in-law (kedestes). The paternal uncle is Eucherius, consul in 381, so the brother-in-law could be Syagrius, cos. 382. This is the general assumption since 1883, and even today. But in 1967, J.Martindale have argued that the brother-in-law was in fact Claudius Antonius, consul in 382, who have a brother Marius and so could be a brother of Maria, wife of Honorius, brother of Theodosius. The argument is good, but the word "kedestes" doesn't fit very well for this relation. Most scholars think that Afranius Syagrius is actually the consul of 382 AND the brother-in-law of Theodosius, so the brother of Aelia Flavia Flacilla.
Last the origins of Syagrius are unknows. Sidonius Apollinaris praises agnatic his great-grand-son as a very noble Gallo-Roman in Lyon. But Flacilla, Theodosius' wife, was born in Spain. The names Syagrius and Afranius are very rare. The first points to a patrician italian family of the third century who give an imperatrice. We met the second in South France (Vaison), at the beginning of Empire, and in Orient in late third century. In my book, I give epigraphical and onomastical reasons for an oriental origin both for Afranius Syagrius and Flacilla (with links in Gaul and Spain). They COULD be issued of an important family of Tralleis, and so of an ancient family of Thera, of a Commagenian princess, and of the greatest sacerdotal athenian family who attested ancestors were Themistocles, Conon, Pericles and Alexander the Great (and implicitely, many others of course). [Ref: Christian Settipani SGM 10/19/1999]



Pedigree of Flavius Afranius Sygarius, Consul
                            /-----Hannibalianus Of Tralles, Consul
                   /-----Afranius Hannibalianus Consul
          /-----Afranius
         |         \-----Eutropia
 /-----Afranius
Flavius Afranius Sygarius, Consul
|                                                               /-----T Flavius Clemens, Consul
|                                                      /-----T Flavius Titianus Praefect Egypt
|                                                     |         \-----Flavia Domitilla
|                                             /-----T Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus Procons Asia
|                                    /-----Titus Flavius Titianus, Consul
|                           /-----T Flavius Postumius
|                          |         \-----Postumia Varia
|                  /-----Flavius Postumius Sygrius
|         /-----Flavius Postumius Syagrius
 \-----Syagria



Descendants of Flavius Afranius Sygarius, Consul

2nd generation


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5th generation