Arbogast the Elder

Arbogast the Elder (* 4th century ; † September 8, 394 ) was a Roman general of Frankish origin. He was appointed Comes by Emperor Theodosius I and thus the actual governor of Gaul .

Life

Flavius ​​Arbogast is said to have been the son of Franconian Bauto (also Baudogast), an important advisor to Emperor Valentinian II . However, this is based solely on a note with John of Antioch and is not certain.

From 388 to 394 Arbogast acted as army master and initially fought for Theodosius I against the usurper Magnus Maximus . Arbogast seems to have been the first master who was not appointed by the emperor but proclaimed by his own troops. Because of this, it was difficult for any emperor to remove him. He then headed the politics of the western part of the empire under the young emperor Valentinian II, which at that time mainly meant the defense of the Rhine border, where the Franks had already defeated 388 Roman troops. This emerges from the report by Sulpicius Alexander , which is preserved in the history of Gregory of Tours (II 9); see Marcomer , Sunno and Gennobaudes . Arbogast was able to stabilize the border again. Although he was not a Christian, he had good relations with, for example, Bishop Ambrosius of Milan .

When Valentinian II tried to free himself from the influence of the powerful army master and publicly presented him with a deed of deposition, according to Zosimos , Arbogast tore it up with the words that the emperor had not given him his power and therefore could not take it from him. A little later, on May 15, 392, Valentinian was found hanged in the palace of Vienne . The circumstances of the death are not entirely clear, as various accounts appear in the sources. It was later said that Arbogast had murdered the emperor. It is more likely, however, that Valentinian, who had been humiliated and was completely at the mercy of his army master, could no longer endure this situation and then committed suicide. This is supported by the fact that Arbogast initially waited three months for a new emperor from the east after Valentinian's death. He was probably hoping for an underage son of Theodosius I, whom he could have controlled - probably Honorius . Theodosius I did not take this risk, but hesitated and initially did not appoint a new emperor for the West.

Thereupon Arbogast, who needed an emperor for the West, but could not hold this office himself as a non-Roman, on August 22, 392, with the help of the Roman upper class, which was still dominated by non-Christians like Symmachus and Nicomachus Flavianus , forced the rhetoric teacher and imperial Registrar Eugenius to Augustus of the West. Eugenius was a Christian, but was considered tolerant of the Old Believers. Even under the new ruler, Arbogast was probably the actual ruler, who, after the Christian church had refused to cooperate, entered into an alliance with the non-Christians in the Senate in order to restore the pagan cults (to a certain extent) in 393. At most, this meant a policy of relative tolerance; a complete turning away from the Christian religion was no longer conceivable for any emperor. It is significant that Eugenius did not accept the title of pontifex maximus , that is, a high priest of the pagan cults, and did not have the altar of Victoria erected again in the Senate Curia; It is also testified that he and Arbogast sought the support of the church to the end. On the other hand, Nicomachus Flavianus showed a burning passion to restore the old cults to their old standing, however unrealistic that might be, and gratefully used the leeway that Eugenius and Arbogast allowed him.

The elevation of Eugenius to Augustus called the strictly Christian-minded Emperor Theodosius to Italy ; he wanted to clear up the situation in his favor. He defeated Eugenius and Arbogast on September 5 and 6, 394 in the extremely bloody battle of the Frigidus in the valley of the Wippach / Vipava , a tributary of the Isonzo . Eugenius was executed and Arbogast committed suicide shortly afterwards.

One of his descendants was very likely Arbogast the Younger .

literature

Above all, reference should be made to the literature listed in the article Theodosius I.

• Brian Croke: Arbogast and the Death of Valentian II. In: Historia . Vol. 25, No. 2, 1976, pp. 235-244, JSTOR 4435500 .
• Klaus Düwel :  Arbogast. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1973, ISBN 3-11-004489-7 , p. 388.
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Arbogast the Elder. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , pp. 95-97.
• Otto Seeck : Arbogastes 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 415-419.