Basilides (Greek: Βασιλίδης) was a Byzantine official who held the office of magister officiorum during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565).
His title of praetorian prefect has been suggested to be honorific, as modern historians find it strange that Basilides could have served in this high-ranking position prior to holding lower offices.
[1] In January 532, the Chronicon Paschale identifies Basilides as the deputy magister officiorum, replacing Hermogenes who had taken up military duties in the Iberian War against the Sassanid Empire.
Their report to the Byzantine emperor placed the blame for the uprising on the unpopular financial ministers John the Cappadocian, Tribonian, and Eudaemon, leading to their dismissal from office.
Basilides replaced Tribonian as quaestor sacri palatii, the senior legal authority in the Byzantine Empire.
John of Ephesus reports that Pope Agapetus I, visiting Constantinople, sent a magister and the Excubitors against Zooras, an adherent of Monophysitism.