Decius Marius Venantius Basilius

Inscription erected by Basilius at the Colosseum in Rome, one of the two copies produced in occasion of a restoration funded by Basilius after the damages of an earthquake (CIL VI, 1716).

(Caecina) Decius Marius Venantius Basilius (fl. 484) was a Roman official under Odoacer's rule.

Biography

He was the son of Caecina Decius Basilius and the brother of Caecina Mavortius Basilius Decius and Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius, all Roman consuls. Basilius Venantius, consul in 508, was probably his son.

Venantius was Praefectus urbi and consul in 484, working in the post-Roman Kingdom of Odoacer and thence Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, with Theodoric the Great as colleague.

He financed the restoration of the damages made by an earthquake[which?] to the Colosseum of Rome; two inscriptions are still extant, reading (CIL VI, 1716 b and c):

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Decius Marius Venantius Basilius.
  • A. H. M. Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris (1992), "Decius Marius Venantius Basilius 13", Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. II, p. 218. ISBN 0-521-07233-6
Political offices
Preceded by
Anicius Acilius Aginatius Faustus,
Post consulatum Trocundis (East)
 Roman consul
484
with Theodericus 		Succeeded by
Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus,
Post consulatum Theoderici (East)
Preceded by Urban prefect of Rome
484 		Succeeded by