A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

18. SILENTIARIUS (Σιλεντιάριος). Vossius (De Historicis Graecis, 4.20) and some other writers incorrectly call him Paulus Cyrus Florus. Agathias, from whom what little we know of his personal history is derived, calls him (Hist. 5.9, p. 153, ed. Paris, p. 106, ed. Venice, p. 296, ed. Bonn), Παύλος Κύροι τοῦ Φλώρου or τοῦ Κύρου τοῦ Φλώρον, which may be interpreted "Paul, the son of Cyrus Florus," or more probably, "Paul, the son of Cyrus, the son of Florus." It is supposed by Ducange that Cyrus, the father of Paul, was the ἀπὸ ὑπάτων, consul codicillaris, who wrote several of the Epigrammata in the Anthologia Graeca (vol,ii. p. 454, ed. Brunck, vol. iii. p. 159, ed. Jacobs). But if Jacobs is right in identifying the Cyrus of the Anthologia with the Cyrus of Panopolis, in Egypt, whose poetical talents are celebrated by Evagrius and Suidas [CYRUS, Christians, No. 1], and who lived in the time of the emperors Theodosius II. and Leo I., he can hardly have been the father of Paulus, who belongs to the time of Justinian I. Ducange seems disposed to identify Florus, the grandfather of Paulus, with Florus, ἀπὸ ὑπάτων, "consul codicillaris," mentioned in several of the Novellae, and in the Codex of Justinian; but Fabricius thinks this Florus is of too late a date to be the grandfather of Paul. That the ancestors of Paul were illustrious, and that he inherited great wealth, are facts mentioned by Agathias (ibid.), who also tells that he was chief of the silentiarii, or secretaries of the emperor Justinian (δς δὴ ταπρῶτα τελῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀμφὶ τὸν βασιλέα σιγῆς ἐπιστάταις).