Riothamus

Riothamus was a late antique military leader in the 5th century and is considered to be king of the Brittons around 470. Since the name probably means "Hochkönig" (in a Latinized Celtic form), it is often assumed that it is a title, not a personal name.

To person

Little is known about the person of Riothamus, especially since he is only mentioned in a few sources. It is often assumed that the Brittons or Brittani denotes the Bretons or the population of the British "colony" in Aremorica ( Brittany ). But the mention in Jordanes in his work De origine actibusque Getarum ( The Origins and Deeds of the Goths ) that Riothamus with his allegedly 12,000-strong army came across the "ocean" into the Biturigen area to get from there the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius against Euric , king of the Visigoths to rush to the rescue, suggesting that Riothamus a leader in the Roman formerly Britain or the leader of the romano-British population on both sides of the English Channel was. On the other hand, Jordanes is often not very reliable and he only wrote decades later, so that the question cannot be finally decided. Overall, in the opinion of many researchers, it is rather unlikely that a Romano-British leader would have left the island at that time to become active on the mainland.

In any case, Riothamus still seems to have felt a bond with the western Roman state , because, as I said, he took part in the campaign of Anthemius against Eurich around 471. He arranged a combined attack on the Visigothic Empire with Anthemius, but met the armed forces of Eurich at Vicus Dolensis (today's Déols ) before he could combine his troops with those of the Emperor and was defeated by them. Thereupon he withdrew to the Burgundy empire and probably stayed with his troops in the Loire area for some time . From now on he disappears from the sources. Riothamus is said to have died in the Burgundian city of Avallon as a result of the injuries he sustained in the battle against the Visigoths. A letter to Riothamus from Sidonius Apollinaris , calling for support against rebellious Bretons, has been preserved.

Riothamus was viewed by some researchers as a historical model for King Arthur (such as Geoffrey Ashe and Léon Fleuriot ); like all such attempts at identification, this hypothesis is also problematic. Assuming Riothamus actually ruled Britain, his activities in Gaul could provide a basis for later tradition (first reported by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae ) that King Arthur crossed the Channel to attack Rome . Mordred's betrayal of Arthur can also be found in Ashe's alleged betrayal of Riothamus under the Gaulish Praetorian prefect Arvandus . In this case Avallon could have been the model for the island of Avalon , to which the heavily wounded Arthur is said to have retired, according to legend.

literature

• John Martindale, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Vol. 2. Cambridge 1980, p. 945.
• Frank D. Reno: The Historic King Arthur. Authenticating the Celtic hero of post-Roman Britain . McFarland & Co, Jefferson NC et al. 1996, ISBN 0-7864-0266-0 , pp. 286ff. (detailed description of the various hypotheses).
• Otto Seeck : Riothamus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IA, 1, Stuttgart 1914, column 846.
• Christopher A. Snyder: An Age of Tyrants. Britain and the Britons, AD 400-600 . Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park PA 1998, ISBN 0-271-01742-2 , pp. 82f.

Remarks

1. ↑ Form of the name Riothamus in Sidonius Apollinaris , Epistulae 3, 9; at Jordanes , De origine actibusque Getarum 45, 237f. he is called Riothimus or Riotimus .
2. ↑ Riothamus . In: Rudolf Simek : Artus-Lexikon , Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-15-010858-1 , p. 294.
3. ↑ Jordanes, De origine actibusque Getarum 45, 237.
4. ↑ Jordanes, De origine actibusque Getarum 45, 237f .; Gregory of Tours , Ten Books of Stories 2, 18.
5. ^ Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistulae 3, 9.