Modestos

Almost certainly Domitius Modestus, one of the most powerful imperial officials of the mid-fourth century and a frequent correspondent of the Antiochene rhetorician Libanius, who addressed at least eleven surviving letters to a 'Modestos.' Domitius Modestus rose through a series of high offices, serving as comes Orientis (governor of the eastern provinces, based at Antioch) around 358-362, then as prefect of the city of Constantinople, and finally as praetorian prefect of the East under the emperor Valens from 369 to 377. A pagan who later professed Christianity to advance under Christian emperors, he was a major patron whose favor Libanius and others actively courted, and he features in the wider record of fourth-century administration. (A small number of other men named Modestus appear in Libanius's vast correspondence, so the identification of every individual letter is not certain, but the prominence of Domitius Modestus makes him the leading candidate for this addressee.)