Fravitta

Flavius ​​Fravitta ( Fravitus , Phrabithas ; † around 402/03) was a late antique Roman army master ( magister militum ) of visigotic descent.

Fravitta was of noble descent and belonged to the Terwingian Visigoths, who were settled as federates by Emperor Theodosius I in 382 on the lower Danube . At that time he was probably still a young man, but already a tribal leader. When some Visigoths rebelled in 391, Fravitta stood by the Romans and fought against the Visigoth Eriulf , who had risen against Rome. Unlike many other “barbaric” generals of Germanic descent, Fravitta remained loyal to the Roman state throughout his life, although over time he also had to fight against old tribesmen. He was married to a Roman woman and advocated the assimilation of the Goths in the Roman Empire.

In 395 he was appointed magister militum and fought against robbers in the east. In 400 he saved Emperor Arcadius by putting down the rebellion of the Visigoth Gainas and restoring order in Thrace . As a reward, he was allowed to continue his pagan cult practices. In 401 he held the consulate , but shortly afterwards he was involved in the power struggles at the imperial court in Constantinople , unjustifiably accused of treason and finally executed.

literature

• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John R. Martindale, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Volume 1: AD 260-395. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, pp. 372 f.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 3: Faber Felix - Juwayni, Al- . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2012, ISBN 978-2-503-53243-1 , pp. 15-16.
• Herwig Wolfram : The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the sixth century. Draft of a historical ethnography. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-33733-3 .