Peter (usurper)

Peter († 506 in Tortosa ) was a late antique Roman usurper in Visigothic Spain in the early 6th century.

Life

Peter is mentioned in the Consularia Caesaraugustana and in Victor von Tunnuna as tyrannus . In contemporary political parlance and in view of the nature of the sources, this can only mean that Peter claimed imperial dignity and authority against Alaric II - and indirectly against Anastasios I , who was also the nominal overlord of the Visigoth kings. When the Visigoths took Tortosa in 506, Peter was captured and executed, his head sent to Saragossa as a trophy . Peter was evidently the second novel after Burdunellus who wanted to establish himself as ruler in the Ebro Valley after the fall of the Western Roman Empire .

literature

• Roger Collins : Visigothic Spain, 409-711. Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-631-18185-7 , p. 35.
• Edward A. Thompson : The End of Roman Spain: Part III. In: Nottingham Mediaeval Studies 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).