Remismund

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Remismund (port / Spanish Remismundo ) was a Suebian king of the Suebian kingdom in Galicia in the second half of the 5th century (464–469). He is said to have been the son of the Suebi king Maldras (457-460) and is considered to be the last chronologically tangible Suebi king before the phase of the Período Obscuro (around 470-550) with few sources. Remismund is possibly identical to its supposed predecessor Rechimund . In some sources Thorismund is instead referred to as king of the Suebi for this period . Possibly it is about Theodoric II , king of the Visigoths (until 466), who had gained dominance over the Suebi. Remismund was initially only a vassal of the Visigoths.

Remismund and Rechimund

Although or precisely because almost all the records of the events since the Germanic invasions on the Iberian peninsula refer to a single source, the chronicles of the Roman bishop Hydatius of Aquae Flaviae , historians argue about whether Remismund and his supposed predecessor Rechimund ( Requimundo , 460 –464) were identical or two different rulers. According to Hydatius, copyists may have combined the two similar-sounding names into one person, but did not consistently stick to it to the end. The same name change appears in the Chronicle of Isidore of Seville based on Hydatius .

The Galician Suebenreich during the civil war (456-464), Rechimund (Remismund) ruled the north

At the beginning of the 5th century were during great migrations Vandals, Alans and Suevi into the Western Roman Empire invaded part of Iberian Peninsula. Rome had to use the federated (allied) Visigoths as auxiliary troops, who intervened twice (415-418 and 455-460) to drive the Vandals to North Africa, to destroy the Alans and the Suebi to Gallaecia (Galicia) in the northwest of the peninsula to push back. Formally, Roman rule was re-established, but in fact a Roman-Visigoth dual rule arose and the Suebi fell under Visigoth suzerainty.

After the death of Aiulf († 457), the Visigoth military governor in the conquered Suebi empire, the Suebi rose, made Maldras their king and conquered Porto and even Lisbon. King Framtas (457-458) , who was raised by another Suebi faction, waged a civil war against Maldras . According to Hydatius, Framtas is said to have been Maldras' brother. While Framtas ruled the capital Braga and the south of Galicia, Maldras ruled the north of Galicia. After Framta's murder († 459), Maldras seems to have briefly reunited the Suebi before he was murdered himself in 460 and civil war broke out again between his successors. Frumarius ruled Braga (and held Hydatius prisoner there); Rechimund (Remismund?) ruled in Orense and Lugo (where the Roman population fell victim to a Suebi pogrom). Lisbon was initially lost again.

Different sources gave contradicting views:

  • Remismund / Rechimund and Frumar were sons of Maldras
  • Frumiar was not a rival brother, but a rebel / counter-king against Remismund / Rechimund
  • The name of Frumar makes a paternity of Framta seem possible
  • Rechimund was a son or successor of Framtas and not identical with Remismund

Remismund and Theodoric II.

Remismund's protégé and father-in-law Theoderich II.

Remismund (Rechimund?) Relied on Visigoth help, sent emissaries to King Theodoric II and married a Visigoth princess (possibly a daughter of Theodoric, or at least a relative). After Frumiars (or Rechimunds?) Death († 464) Remismund was finally able to assert himself as the sole ruler of all Suebi. The price for Visigoth recognition was a Visigothic-Suebian alliance, and under the influence of the missionary Ajax sent by Theodoric, Remismund converted from Catholic to Arian Christianity at the latest in 466 . Theodoric withdrew most of the Visigoth troops from Galicia, Lusitania and the Baetica in order to consolidate and expand the Visigoth position in Gaul (Toulouse).

Remismund and Lusidius

After Theodoric († 466) was murdered by Eurich , Remismund again acted independently of the Visigoths, the Visigothic-Suebian alliance broke up, as did the Visigothic-Roman alliance. But since Euric was busy fighting the Roman emperor Anthemius and conquering Gaul, he initially seemed ready to tolerate Remismund's expansion into Galicia and Lusitania.

The Suebi initially concentrated more on looting the surrounding Roman settlements than on their permanent rule. In doing so, they clashed with the Visigoths, who had similar intentions, mainly in Asturias, but also in Astorga and Palencia, as well as in Saragossa and Pamplona . In the race with Eurich for the remnants of the Roman territory on the peninsula, Remismund 467 or 468 occupied Conimbriga , the Roman population was abducted or fled and instead founded Coimbra . Given the choice between plundering and destructive Suebi and plundering and destructive Visigoths, the Romans of the region saw the Suebi as the lesser evil. With the approval of the local Roman population, the Roman governor and commander of the Lisbon city ​​militia , Lusidius , handed the city over to the Suebi in 468 or 469 so as not to let it fall into Visigoth hands. This did not save Lisbon from sacking by the Suebi, but its inhabitants from murder, deportation or displacement. Lusidius, who in fact had little choice, was wrongly described as a "traitor" by subsequent chroniclers.

Alarmed by the fall of Lisbon, the Visigoths reinforced their troops in Lusitania's capital, Emerita Augusta ( Mérida ), finally conquered Saragossa and Pamplona and devastated the Suebian-ruled Roman areas of Asturias. In an effort to establish a Suebo-Roman alliance against the Visigoths, Remismund sent the Roman Lusidius to Emperor Anthemius in 469, but after the failed campaigns against the Vandals (468 and 470) and in view of several defeats against Eurich, no help was to be expected from the Western Roman side . In return, Eurich ousted the Suebi from Lusitania from 470 onwards. Anthemius († 472) was killed after the conquest of Rome by Ricimer , but only two months later Ricimer also died. (Ricimer is said to have been a son of the Suebi king Rechiar and grandson of the Visigoth king Wallia.)

Período Obscuro

Immediately after the dispatch of Lusidius, the Chronicle of Hydatius ends suddenly, abruptly and abruptly, presumably with the death of the chronicler in 469. Hydatius could no longer report on the Suebi kings who followed Remismund, and Isidore, who could have done it, ignored them too apparently because of their supposedly heretical Arian beliefs. When and how Remismund died and when shortly afterwards Lisbon fell to the Visigoths (between 472 and 475?) Is therefore in the dark. Between Remismund and King Theodemund (around 550) there is a gap of around 80 years in history. This epoch of the history of Galicia and Portugal is therefore called the "dark epoch" or Período Obscuro . Numerous documents, sources and chronicles were destroyed or disappeared during the Roman-Suebian-Visigoth battles, and a large part of the few surviving copies were probably burned in the earthquake of 1755 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dr. Gustav Diercks: Portuguese History , page 31f., Göschensche Verlagshandlung, Leipzig 1912
  2. ↑ Knut Schäferdiek: The church in the realms of the Visigoths and Suewen up to the establishment of the Visigoth Catholic state church . Berlin 1967, page 109 .
  3. ↑ According to other sources, Frumar ruled in the northwest and Rechimund (Remismund?) In the northeast and the Visigoths in the south under Theodoric II.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Anders: Flavius ​​Ricimer - Power and Powerlessness of the Western Roman Army Master in the Second Half of the 5th Century . Berlin 2010, pages 490 and 493 .
  5. ↑ Michael Kulikowski: Late Roman Spain and Its Cities , Baltimore 2004, pp . 199ff .

literature

  • Knut Schäferdiek: The church in the realms of the Visigoths and Suewen up to the establishment of the Visigoth Catholic state church . Berlin 1967, p. 109f.

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personal data
SURNAME Remismund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Remismundo; Thorismund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Suebian king in Galicia
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century
DATE OF DEATH 469