Ecdicius

Ecdicius was a Western Roman officer ( magister militum ) in the 5th century.

Ecdicius came from the Auvergne and was a son of the Western Roman general and emperor Avitus . So he came from the Gallo-Roman Senate aristocracy . His brother-in-law was Sidonius Apollinaris , whose letters are an important source for this phase of late ancient Gaul , who had married Ecdicius' sister Papianilla. Both were apparently good friends.

In 471 he is said to have reached Clermont-Ferrand with only a few men , which was then besieged by the Visigoths . Ecdicius raised troops at his own expense and organized the resistance. For this act, the then emperor Anthemius promised him the high title of Patricius , but Anthemius died shortly afterwards. Ecdicius carried on the war against the Goths on his own, without holding a military post. In 473 he provided several thousand hungry people with food from his own estates. Shortly afterwards, the Visigoths advanced towards Arles and Marseilles , both cities fell. Ecdicius avoided the territory of the Burgundy , where he also owned goods.

At the end of 474 he was awarded the title of patrician by the new emperor Julius Nepos , and he was also appointed magister militum (army master) for Gaul. In 475, Nepos signed a treaty with the Visigoths and gave up the Auvergne. Ecdicius had to withdraw and was replaced by Orestes , who now rose against the emperor and forced Nepos to flee.

literature

• Martin Heinzelmann : Gallic Prosopography 260-527. In: Francia . Vol. 10, 1982, pp. 531-718, here p. 594 .
• John Robert Martindale: Ecdicius. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4 , pp. 383-384.
• Karl Friedrich Stroheker : The senatorial nobility in late antique Gaul. Tübingen 1948 (reprint Darmstadt 1970), p. 165, no.110.