inscription in honour of his father, dated to shortly after his death and found in their home on the Aventine. Even if most historians identify the commissioner of the inscription with a son, this could be also a daughter, maybe the Praetextata cited by Jerome. Finally, Vettius Agorius Basilius Mavortius, consul in 527 and with a similar interest in literature, could have been his great-grandson. Political and religious career The tomb of Praetextatus and of his wife Aconia Fabia Paulina, conserved at the Musei Capitolini, records his cursus honorum. Praetextatus held several religious positions: pontifex of Vesta and Sol, augur, tauroboliatus, curialis of Hercules, neocorus, hierophant, priest of Liber and of the Eleusinian mysteries. He also held several political and administrative positions: he was quaestor, corrector Tusciae et Umbriae, Governor of Lusitania, Proconsul of Achaea, praefectus urbi in 384 and was praetorian prefect of Italy and Illyricum, as well as consul designated for the year 385, an honour he did not achieve because he died in late 384. In 370, several senators were tried for alleged magic practices by prefect Maximinus; Praetextatus led a senatorial legation to emperor Valentinian I, including Volusius Venustus and Minervius, charged with asking Valentinian to forgo torture for those senators involved in trials; the three of them were allowed in the presence of the Emperor, who denied having given such a disposition, but, thanks to the influence of the quaestor Eupraxius, the rights of the senators were restored. While holding the office of praefectus urbi, he gave back to the Bishop of Rome, Damasus, the basilica of Sicininus and had the other bishop, Ursicinus, expelled from Rome, thus restoring peace in the city, even if he granted an amnesty to the followers of the defeated bishop. His justice was celebrated; he had removed those private structures that were built against pagan temples (the so-called maeniana) and distributed within the whole city uniform and verified weights and measures. He also restored the Porticus Deorum Consentium in the Roman Forum. After his death, the Emperor asked the Roman Senate for a copy of all his speeches, while the Vestal Virgins proposed to the Emperor that they be allowed to erect statues in his honour. Support of traditional Roman religion Praetextatus was one of the last political supporters of the res divina, the Roman religion, in Late Antiquity; he was particularly devoted to Vesta, as was his wife.