of the Hellenic cults in Greece; the second historian is Joannes Laurentius Lydus, who lived in the second half of the 6th century, and who talks about a hierophant named Praetextatus, but this identification is uncertain. Biography Early life Praetextatus' birthday is unknown, but the sources show he was born before Quintus Aurelius Symmachus and Virius Nicomachus Flavianus. They also state that in 384, the year of his death, Praetextatus had been married to his wife Aconia Fabia Paulina for forty years; if Paulina was his first wife and if they married when he was twenty/twenty-five years old, as was customary among the senatorial aristocracy, his birth can be assumed between 314 and 319. According to Joannes Lydus, however, a "Praetextatus the hierophant" and the Neo-platonic philosopher Sopater of Apamea participated to the polismós ceremony during the foundation of Constantinople, around 330. As aristocrats took sacerdotal roles very young, it is possible that this Praetextatus was Vettius Agorius, who actually was Pontifex Vestae; in this case, he would have been born between 310 and 324. As regards Praetextatus' family, sources are silent and only hypotheses can be drawn. Gaius Vettius Cossinus Rufinus (Praefectus urbi of Rome in 315–316) could have been his father, both because of their names and because they followed a similar career (corrector Tusciae et Umbriae, proconsul Achaiae, pontifex Solis and augur): in the senatorial aristocracy, the sons often held the same political, administrative and religious positions as their fathers. However, many years separated their careers (Praetextatus was praefectus urbi in 367), so it has been proposed that Cossinus Rufinus was the father of Vettius Rufinus (consul in 323) and the latter was Praetextatus' father. Nonetheless, we know that Praetextatus' family was ancient and noble, and therefore he possessed a network of relationships with other members of the senatorial aristocracy, a network that was used also to gain advantages. His acquaintances included Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, his father Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus and probably the senators Volusius Venustus and Minervius. An example of this network of relationships is the very wedding between Praetextatus and his wife Aconia Fabia Paulina, celebrated around 344 (they had been married for 40 years in 384); Paulina, in fact, was the daughter of Aconius Catullinus Philomatius, Praefectus urbi in 342–344 and Consul in 349. They had at least one son, recalled in the funeral eulogy and the author of an