L’aristocratie italique, les fils fragiles de Valentinien Ier et la boulimie administrative de Petronius Probus (364-388 apr. J.-C.)

Sex. Petronius Probus was the most powerful senator of the second half of the 4th century AD. In less than 20 years, between 368 and 385 AD, he held the praetorian prefecture of Italy-Africa and Illyricum four times. Valentinian I, an Augustus who was decentralised to Trier, had conflicting relations with Rome’s senatorial aristocracy. His sons, Gratian and Valentinian II, were much weaker than their father. Probus was the leader of a part of the Roman aristocracy resident in Rome and Italy who had decided to support the two young Augusti. The Valentinian dynasty sought and found in Probus and his vast entourage decisive political support during the years of the Gothic crisis and the usurpation of Maximus (376-388 AD). The duties of the praetorian prefect in the administrative system of the Late Empire favoured the political efficiency of the senator-prefect’s collaborators.