Basilius (Bagaudenführer)

Basilius († 454 ?) Was a Hispanic Bagaudenführer who in the middle of the 5th century in the upper Ebro Valley with the support of the Suebi king Rechiar against the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III. he lifted.

In 441 and 443 the army masters Asturius and Merobaudes undertook campaigns in the Tarraconensis with the support of Visigoth federations in order to overthrow the rebellious Bagauden and to restore the Roman state power . This called the Suebi, expanding from neighboring Gallaecia, under their rex Rechila , who in 446 inflicted a heavy defeat on the magister utriusque militiae Vitus. The aggressive actions of the imperial troops, who had plundered through the Baetica and the Carthaginiensis before the battle , may have induced the Bagauden under their leader Basilius to unite with the Suebi king Rechiar, who ruled since 448, against the common enemy - one in the history of the Migration of peoples is a one-time process.

Basilius' rebels attacked Turiaso (presumably Visigothic) federation contingent in the spring of 449 . The survivors fled to a church and were killed there; The city's bishop, Leo, also fell victim to the massacre. In July 449, the Bagaudi-Suebi coalition sacked the city of Caesaraugusta and captured Ilerda .

It was not until 454 that the Visigoths succeeded in suppressing the Bagauden uprising with an army still sent over the Pyrenees on behalf of Aetius under the leadership of Frederich (a brother of Theodoric II ). Two years later they also decisively defeated the Suebi. This success heralded the Visigoth occupation of Hispania. But even decades later, the new rulers were confronted with rebellious novels ; so tried Burdunellus (496) and Peter (506) to establish itself in the Ebro valley as ruler.

swell

• Hydatius : Continuatio Chronicorum Hieronymianorum , 141-142, 158. In: Theodor Mommsen (ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 11: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II). Berlin 1894, pp. 25-27 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )

literature

• Henning Börm : Hydatius von Aquae Flaviae and the unity of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. In: Bruno Bleckmann , Timo Stickler (ed.): Greek profane historians of the fifth century AD ( Historia-Einzelschriften Volume 228). Stuttgart 2014, pp. 195-214 ( PDF ).
• Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann : Philological studies on the chronicle of Hydatius of Chaves. Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06385-4 ( PDF ) (p. 11 f.).
• Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-43543-7 .
• Michael Kulikowski: Late Roman Spain and Its Cities . Baltimore / London 2004, ISBN 0-8018-7978-7 (on Basilius: p. 185 f. ).
• John Robert Martindale: Basil 3rd In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 3A, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 , p. 214.
• Timo Stickler : Aëtius. Scope of design for a master in the late Western Roman Empire (= Vestigia . Vol. 54). Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48853-6 (also: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2000; on Basilius: pp. 193-198 ).
• Edward A. Thompson : The End of Roman Spain: Part III. In: Nottingham Mediaeval Studies. Vol. 22, 1978, ISSN  0078-2122 , pp. 3-22, doi : 10.1484 / J.NMS.3.81 (reprint: The Gothic Kingdom and the Dark Age of Spain. In: Edward A. Thompson: Romans and Barbarians. The Decline of the Western Empire. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison (Wisconsin) 1982, ISBN 0-299-08700-X , pp. 161-187).

Remarks

1. ↑ The name Basilius (Greek βασιλειος basíleios , "royal") could indicate the imperial ambitions of the Bagauden leader; see. Halsall, Barbarian Migrations , p. 250.
2. ↑ See Stickler, Aëtius , p. 193.