Background
Volusianus was the son of Caeionius Rufius Albinus and Albina.
Volusianus was the son of Caeionius Rufius Albinus and Albina.
He is best known for his exchange of letters with Saint Augustine. His family owned property at Tubursicubure near Hippo Regius. Peter Brown states that was part of a literary circle, characterized—to use Augustine"s words—for his "cultivated, polished style, made outstanding by the charm of true Roman eloquence."
"Yet he was in an awkward position," notes Brown.
He was the servant of Christian Emperors, and so not free to voice his opinion.
And, as the son of a pious mother, he was constantly approached by bishops such as Augustine, and by enthusiastic laymen, such as Flavius Marcellinus. Augustine exchanged letters with Volusianus around 410, when the latter, by Brown"s estimate, was about 30 years of age.
Augustine later wrote of his own encounter with Volusianus in De Civitate Dei, in which he, politely, refuses to be baptised. Not long after their exchange of letters, Volusianus became proconsul of Africa, then praefectus urbi (417-418) and later praefectus praetorio italiae.
Volusianus left Rome in 436, and reached Constantinople where he delivered his message and initiated preliminary arrangements for the marriage before he fell fatally sick.