Faustus, Praetorian

Flavius Anicius Probus Faustus Niger, a leading Roman senator of the great Anician house, served as praetorian prefect of Italy under the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great in the early sixth century. He had earlier held the consulship in 490 and acted as Theoderic's envoy to the Eastern court at Constantinople, and as praetorian prefect (c. 507-512) he stood at the head of the kingdom's civil administration, which is why so many official letters in Cassiodorus's Variae are addressed to him on matters of taxation, grain supply, and provincial governance. A devout Catholic aristocrat and literary patron, he also corresponded with Ennodius of Pavia, and his family connections tied him to the cultural and ecclesiastical elite of post-Roman Italy.