Gerontius

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Gerontius (disambiguation) .

Gerontius († 411 in Hispania ) was a general of the Western Roman counter-emperor Constantine III. (407-411). In 409 he rebelled against Constantine and had Maximus proclaimed emperor.

Life

Gerontius came from Roman Britain and had joined the usurper Constantine in 407 . Sometimes it is even suspected that he was the real strong man behind Constantine. In the same year he moved out together with the Franconian Edobich to break the resistance of Stilicho's general Sarus , who had recently defeated Constantine's generals Justinian and Nebiogastes . Gerontius and Edobich forced Sarus, who was besieging Constantine in Valentia (Valence), to retreat across the Alps, but did not pursue him, as they probably wanted to secure the conquests first before daring to attack Italy. This included the submission of Hispania , where relatives of the legitimate emperor Honorius remained loyal to the emperor. Constantine probably feared they would open a second front from there, and first intervened in Hispania. Constantine also took his eldest son Constans out of a monastery, elevated him to Caesar (lower emperor) and sent him with Gerontius to Spain. The loyal Western Roman forces there were defeated, with two relatives of Honorius, Didymus and Theodosiolus, being captured, while two others, Lagodius and Verianus, managed to escape to Constantinople.

Constans left his wife and his household in the care of Gerontius in Caesar Augusta ( Zaragoza back) in order to Arles to go, where his father had established his residence. There, however, he received the order to return to Hispania to fight the Germanic peoples who had crossed the Rhine almost two years ago (see Rhine crossing from 406 ). These had plundered through Gaul and reached the Pyrenees in 409 .

Gerontius was apparently to be recalled from his post in this context. During the preparations for this, however, the news reached Constans that Gerontius had risen and Maximus , according to Olympiodorus of Thebes , his own son, had become emperor. In recent research it is also considered possible that Maximus was not a son, but a subordinate, a staff officer ( domesticus ) in the service of Gestonius.

It is very likely that Gerontius did not seek emperor himself because he wanted to maintain direct control over the military subordinate to him, which was the decisive power factor.

410/11 (the chronology is uncertain) Gerontius succeeded in enclosing Constans in Vienne . He captured him and had him executed. He then besieged Constantine in Arles in 411. At the same time, Honorius found himself able to counterattack after finding a new general, the future Emperor Constantius III. who appeared before Arles. Constantius put Gerontius to flight and now besieged Arles himself. After Constantius had defeated Edobich's relief army, Constantine surrendered, who was executed.

Gerontius had to give up his fight, his troops abandoned him and he committed suicide in the old Roman tradition. His wife was also killed. Maximus fled, found accommodation with Germanic foederati who had remained in Spain, and continued to claim the empire before he was defeated and executed in 422.

literature

• Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity. Roman history from Diocletian to Justinian 284-565 AD (= Handbook of Classical Studies. 3rd section, 6th part). 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , p. 180.
• Stuart Laycock: Warlords. The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain. History Press, Stroud 2009, ISBN 978-0-7524-4796-4 , pp. 19-40.
• Adolf Lippold : Gerontius 3rd In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 773.
• Ralf Scharf: The Spanish Emperor Maximus and the settlement of the Visigoths in Aquitaine. In: Historia . Volume 41, 1992, pp. 374-384.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Stuart Laycock: Warlords. The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain. Stroud 2009, p. 27.
2. ^ Adolf Lippold : Maximus 10. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 1115. cf. Adolf Lippold : Gerontius 3rd In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 773.