| Avitus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Roman emperor in theWest (unrecognized in theEast) | |||||
| Reign | 9 July 455 – 17 October 456 | ||||
| Predecessor | Petronius Maximus | ||||
| Successor | Majorian | ||||
| Eastern emperor | Marcian | ||||
| Born | late 4th century[1] Arvernis,Gaul | ||||
| Died | 456/7 Arvernis, Gaul | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Issue | |||||
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| Father | Agricola (possibly) | ||||
| Religion | Chalcedonian Christianity | ||||
Eparchius Avitus[i] (died 456/7) wasRoman emperor of theWestern Empire from July 455 to October 456. He was asenator ofGallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well asBishop of Piacenza.
He opposed the reduction of theWestern Roman Empire toItaly alone, both politically and from an administrative point of view. For this reason, as Emperor he introduced several Gallic senators in the Imperial administration; this policy, however, was opposed by the senatorial aristocracy and by the people of Rome, who had suffered from thesack of the city by theVandals in 455.
Avitus had a good relationship with theVisigoths, in particular with their kingTheodoric II, who was a friend of his and who acclaimed Avitus Emperor. The possibility of a strong and useful alliance between the Visigoths and Romans faded, however, when Theodoric invadedHispania at Avitus' behest, which rendered him unable to help Avitus against the rebel Roman generals who deposed him.
Avitus was born inClermont, in a town now within modern day France, into a family of theGallo-Romannobility. His father was possiblyAgricola, Romanconsul in 421.
Avitus had two sons,Agricola (fl 455 – living 507, avir illustris) andEcdicius Avitus (laterpatricius andmagister militum under EmperorJulius Nepos) and a daughterPapianilla; she marriedSidonius Apollinaris, whose letters and panegyrics remain an important source for Avitus' life and times.
Avitus followed a course of study typical for a young man of his rank, including law. Before 421 he was sent to the powerfulpatriciusFlavius Constantius (briefly Emperor in 421) to ask for a tax reduction for his own country; this embassy was successful. His relative Theodorus was held hostage at the court of the King of theVisigoths,Theodoric I. In 425–426, Avitus went and met him and the King, who let Avitus enter his own court. Here, around 439, Avitus met the son of Theodoric,Theodoric II, who later became King. Avitus inspired the young Theodoric to study Latin poets.
He then started a military career serving under themagister militumAetius in hiscampaign in the Alps against theJuthungi and theNorics (430–431) and against theBurgundians (436). In 437, after being elevated to the rank ofvir illustris, he returned toAvernia, where he held a high office, probablymagister militum per Gallias. In the same year, he defeated a group ofHunnic raiders near Clermont and obliged Theodoric to lift the siege ofNarbonne. In 439, he becamePraetorian prefect of Gaul and renewed the friendship treaty with the Visigoths.
Before the summer of 440, he retired to private life at his estate, Avitacum, near Clermont. Here he lived until 451, when theHuns, led byAttila, invaded the Western Roman Empire; Avitus persuaded Theodoric into an alliance with Rome, and the combined forces of Theodoric and Aetius defeated Attila in theBattle of Châlons; Theodoric died in the battle.
In the late spring of 455, Avitus was recalled to service by emperorPetronius Maximus and was elevated to the rank ofmagister militum, probablypraesentalis; Maximus sent Avitus in an embassy to the court ofTheodoric II, who had succeeded his father, atToulouse. This embassy probably confirmed the new king and his people asfoederati of the Empire and asked for their support for the new Emperor.[2]
While Avitus was at Theodoric's court, news came of the death of Petronius Maximus (31 May) and of thesack of Rome by theVandals ofGaiseric. Theodoric acclaimed Avitus Emperor in Toulouse; on 9 July,[3] the new Emperor was acclaimed by the Gallic chiefs gathered in Viernum,[4] nearArelate (Arles), and later, around 5 August, before Avitus reached Rome, he received the recognition of theRoman Senate.[5]
Avitus stayed in Gaul for three months, to consolidate his power in the region that was the center of his support, and later went to Italy with a Gallic army, probably reinforced with aGothic force. He probably travelled toNoricum to restore the imperial authority in that province, and then passed throughRavenna, where he left a Gothic force under the newpatricius andmagister militumRemistus, a Visigoth. On 21 September, finally, he entered Rome.[6]
The effective power of Avitus depended on the support of all the major players in the Western Roman Empire in the mid-5th century. The new Emperor needed the support of both the civil institutions, theRoman Senate and the Eastern Roman EmperorMarcian, as well as that of the army and its commanders (the generalsMajorian andRicimer) and theVandals ofGaiseric.
On 1 January 456, Avitus took the consulate,[7] as traditionally the Emperors held the consulate in the first year upon assuming the purple. However, his consulatesine collega (without a second Consul) was not recognised by the Eastern court, which nominated two consuls,Iohannes andVaranes. The fact that the two courts did not agree on a couple of consuls but each nominated its own means that despite the efforts of Avitus to receive the recognition of the Eastern Emperor,[8] the relationship between the two halves of the Empire was not optimal.
Treaties underMarcian and a treaty of 442 between emperorValentinian III and the Vandal kingGaiseric had failed to reduce Vandal incursions and raids along the Italian coast. Avitus' own efforts secured a temporary winter truce with them; but in March 456, Vandals destroyedCapua. Avitus sentRicimer to defendSicily, and the Romans defeated the Vandals twice, once in aland battle nearAgrigento and another in anaval battle offCorsica.[9]
During the reign of Avitus, theVisigoths expanded intoHispania, nominally under Roman authorisation but actually to promote their own interests. In 455, Avitus had sent an ambassador,comes Fronto, to theSuebi and then toTheodoric II to ask them to formally recognise Roman rule. When the Suebi invaded the Roman province ofHispania Tarraconensis, the Visigoths attacked and defeated them 5 October 456 at the Campus Paramus, twelve miles fromAstorga, on the banks of theÓrbigo (Urbicus),[10] subsequently occupying the province as nominalfoederati of the Empire.
In the meantime, resentment amongst the population of Italy against the "foreigner" Avitus grew. The population of Rome, devastated by thesack of Rome, suffered from food shortages due to the Vandal control of the naval routes, aggravated by the requirements of the foreign troops that had arrived with Avitus. The imperial treasury was almost empty and, after disbanding his Visigoth guard because of popular pressure, Avitus was obliged to pay their huge wages by melting down and selling the bronze of some statues.[11]
Counting on the popular discontent, on the disbandment of the imperial guard, and on the prestige gained through their victories,Ricimer and thecomes domesticorumMajorian rebelled against Avitus; the Emperor was obliged to leave Rome in early autumn and to move north. Ricimer had the Roman Senate depose Avitus and ordered the murder of themagister militumRemistus in thePalatium atClasse, on 17 September 456.[12]
Avitus decided to react. First he chose Messianus, one of his collaborators in his embassy to the Visigoths ordered byPetronius Maximus, as the newmagister militum; then he probably went to Gaul (Hydatius says toArelate)[13] to collect all the available forces, probably the Visigoth guard he had just disbanded; finally he led his forces against the troops of Ricimer, nearPiacenza. The Emperor and his army entered the city and attacked the huge army led by Ricimer, but after a great massacre of his men, including Messianus, Avitus fled on 17 or 18 October 456. In the immediate aftermath Ricimer spared his life, but forced him to becomeBishop of Piacenza.[14]
Avitus' Gallic supporters may still have recognised him as emperor, despite his deposition.Sidonius Apollinaris tells ofa failedcoup d'état in Gaul organised by one Marcellus[15] and probably aimed at bringing Avitus back to the throne.[16] The contemporary historianHydatius, who lived in Spain, considered the year 457 the third of Avitus' reign;[17] Avitus' own intentions are not known, nor are the manner and date of his death, of which there are several versions. In some, he was told that theRoman Senate had condemned him to death, and so he tried to flee to Gaul, officially travelling there to bring donations to the basilica of Saint Julian inAvernia, his homeland; according toGregory of Tours, he died during this journey.[18] Other sources have him strangled or starved to death, by order of his successor. Avitus died in 457, or late in 456, very soon after his deposition, and was buried atBrioude, next to Saint Julian's tomb.[19]
Major source for Avitus' life until his rise to the throne is the panegyric written in occasion of his consulate by Sidonius Apollinaris (431–486):
For the history of his reign, the major sources are the Spaniard historian Hydatius (400 c. – 469 c.) and the Byzantine chronicler John of Antioch (first half of the 7th century):
Media related toAvitus at Wikimedia Commons| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by | WesternRoman emperor 455–456 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Roman consul 456 withIohannes andVaranes | Succeeded by |
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