Praetextatus, Vettius Agorius (Vettius Agorius Praetextatus)

PRAETEXTATUS, Vettius Agorius (Vettius Agorius Praetextatus). - A characteristic representative of the religious syncretism of the educated classes in the 4th century, he was, together with Nicomachus Flavianus and Symmachus, one of the most tenacious defenders of paganism in Rome. Proconsul of Achaea in 362, prefect of Rome in 367 and praetorian prefect in 384, he died in that year, when he had been designated consul.

Initiated into several mystery cults, he was also a pontiff of Vesta, whose cult he zealously promoted with such ardor as to earn a statue in the atrium of the goddess's temple. He obtained from Valentinian the suspension of the decree that forbade nocturnal sacrifices. He took an interest in philological criticism and in the revision of Greek and Latin texts. He was in contact with Pope Damasus, who sought in vain to convert him to Christianity, and he intervened, as prefect of Rome, in the disorders stirred up by Ursinus over the election of that Pontiff. The laudatory epitaph that his wife dedicated to him shortly after his death is still preserved.

1912, pp. 44, 110, 131, 320; R. Paribeni, Da Diocleziano alla caduta d'Ill'Impero d'Occidente, Bologna 1942, p. 205 ff.; P. De Labriolle, La réaction païenne, Paris 1942, pp. 349-51.

Agostino Amore