page_title: Virius Nicomachus Flavianus
section_title: Pagan circle of Flavianus
hierarchical_section_title: Virius Nicomachus Flavianus / Pagan circle of Flavianus
context_page_description: Virius Nicomachus Flavianus was a grammarian, a historian and a politician of the Roman Empire.
  A pagan and close friend of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, he was Praetorian prefect of Italy in 390–392 and, under usurper Eugenius, again praetorian prefect and consul. After the death of Eugenius in the battle of the Frigidus, Flavianus committed suicide.
context_section_description: Flavianus belonged to the pagan circle which included also Vettius Agorius Praetextatus and Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. This circle was at the centre of the pagan movement of the late 4th century and, in particular through the work of the  Nicomachi and Symmachi families, has been credited with preserving into modern times the works of several pagan authors, such as Livy, Martial and Apuleius.
  The relationship between the Nicomachi and the Symmachi was strengthened through weddings: in 393/394 the son of Flavianus, Nicomachus Flavianus, married Galla, the daughter of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, whose son, Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus, married in 401 a daughter or a nephew of Flavianus. The bond between the two families was celebrated, either in occasion of one of the two weddings or at the time of a joint endorsement of religious offices, with the issue of a diptych, the valves of which are entitled Nicomachorum and Symmachorum.
  Praetextatus, Symmachus and Flavianus are the main characters of Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius' Saturnalia, written in the 5th century but set in the summer holidays of 384; the author describes the leaders of the pagan movement who host in turn different pagan intellectuals to discuss philosophical and religious matters.
  Flavianus also has a connection with Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius via Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, adoptive father of Boethius. Symmachus named one of his daughters after the daughter of Flavianus. This is used to demonstrate the strong pagan influence on the household to which Boethius owed his loyalty.
caption: Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych; the left leaf is at the Musée National du Moyen Âge, Paris, the right leaf is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
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