Flavius Felix

Flavius Felix (380 – 430), was a Consul of Rome in the West [cite book |title=The Numismatic Chronicle |author=Vaux, W.S.W, John Evans and Fred W. Madden, "eds." |publisher=John Russell Smith |date=1861] in the year 428. His carved ivory consular diptych is notable for depicting his clothing in great detail. The diptych, believed to be the earliest yet known, [cite web |title=Consular diptych |work=The Grove Dictionary of Art |publisher=MacMillian |date=2000 |url=http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0192/T019201.ASP |accessdate=2007-05-07] survived intact until the French Revolution, when the right leaf was stolen; it is now believed lost. [cite book |title=Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science |author=Kunz, George Frederick |publisher=Doubleday |date=1916]

Felix served during the reign of emperors Valentinian III and Theodosius II.

Little is known of his personal life, although records remain of a vow made with his wife Padusia. It is known that he served as commander in defense of Gaul from 425 to 429, but despite a brief mention of one of his military actions in the "Notitia Dignitatum", his subordinates were considered more significant in this regard. [cite book |title=History of the Later Roman Empire |author=Bury, John Bagnall |publisher=Macillan |date=1923 |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/8*.html |accessdate=2007-05-07] He was an "ancestor of Felix, Consul in 511" (?). He was a son of Ennodius and he might have been the son of his father (b. 380) who was the husband of a daughter (b. 385) of Flavius Julius Agricola, Consul of Rome in 421 and perhaps the father of Emperor Avitus, being the parents of Flavius Magnus, Consul of Rome in 460 and Felix Ennodius, Proconsul in Africa in ca 420 or 423.

References and citations

* Christian Settipani, Continuite Gentilice et Continuite Familiale Dans Les Familles Senatoriales Romaines A L'epoque Imperiale, Mythe et Realite, Addenda I - III (juillet 2000- octobre 2002) (n.p.: Prosopographica et Genealogica, 2002).

ee also

* Descent from antiquity