family;
who shared with Gratian the honors of the consulship, and exercised,
four times, the high office of Praetorian praefect. [20] His immense
estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world; and
though the public might suspect or disapprove the methods by which they
had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortunate
statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients, and the admiration of
strangers. [21] Such was the respect entertained for his memory, that
the two sons of Probus, in their earliest youth, and at the request
of the senate, were associated in the consular dignity; a memorable
distinction, without example, in the annals of Rome. [22]

[Footnote 13:

Nec quisquam Procerum tentet (licet aere vetusto
Floreat, et claro cingatur Roma senatu)
Se jactare parem; sed prima sede relicta
Aucheniis, de jure licet certare secundo.
---Claud. in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 18.

Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has amazed
the critics; but they all agree, that whatever may be the true reading,
the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family.]

[Footnote 14: The earliest date in the annals of Pighius, is that of M.
Anicius Gallus. Trib. Pl. A. U. C. 506. Another tribune, Q. Anicius, A.
U. C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet of Praenestinus. Livy (xlv.
43) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome.]

[Footnote 15: Livy, xliv. 30, 31, xlv. 3, 26, 43. He fairly appreciates
the merit of Anicius, and justly observes, that his fame was clouded
by the superior lustre of the Macedonian, which preceded the Illyrian
triumph.]

[Footnote 16: The dates of the three consulships are, A. U. C. 593, 818,
967 the two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second
of these consuls distinguished himself only by his infamous flattery,
(Tacit. Annal. xv. 74;) but even the evidence of crimes, if they bear
the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance,
to prove the genealogy of a noble house.]

[Footnote 17: In the sixth century, the nobility of the Anician name is
mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. l. x. Ep. 10, 12) with singular respect by
the minister of a Gothic king of Italy.]

[Footnote 18:

Fixus in omnes
Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras
Hac de stirpe virum, certum est de Consule
nasci. Per fasces numerantur Avi, semperque
renata Nobilitate virent, et prol