Fame
On various inscriptions, Probus is described as "the summit of the Anician house" (Aniciae domus culmen), "most learned in all subjects" (omnibus rebus eruditissimus) and "the acme of the nobility, the light of literature and eloquence" (nobilitatis culmen, litterarum et eloquentiae lumen). As these phrases suggest he was a patron of literature, including the poet Ausonius. His two sons Probinus and Olybrius continued the tradition by being the patrons of Claudian, who paints a flattering picture of Probus in his Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus written to celebrate his sons' joint consulship in 395.
Ammianus Marcellinus portrays him as a vain and rapacious man who "owned estates in every part of the empire, but whether they were honestly come by or not is not for a man like me to say". Ammianus says he was one who was benevolent to his friends and a pernicious schemer against his enemies, servile to those more powerful than him and pitiless to those weaker, who craved office and exercised enormous influence through his wealth, always insecure and petty even at the height of his power.
Read more about this topic: Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus
Famous quotes containing the word fame:
“The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.”
—Heraclitus (c. 535–475 B.C.)
“There are names written in her immortal scroll at which Fame blushes!”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he was better worth translating. I believe even the best things are not equal to their fame. Perhaps it would be better to translate fame itself,—or is not that what the poets themselves do? However, I have not done with Pindar yet.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)