Sebastianus (usurper)

Siliqua of Sebastianus

Sebastianus († 413 ) was a southern Gaulish aristocrat and western Roman counter-emperor .

Life

After the defeat of Constantine (III) against Constantius , the general of the emperor Honorius , Jovinus , the brother of Sebastianus, had proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul in 411 with the support of Burgundy . Sebastianus was appointed co-emperor ( Augustus ) in 412 after failed negotiations with the Visigoth king Athaulf . Snubbed by this approach, the Visigoths allied themselves with Honorius and defeated Jovinus' troops. Sebastianus was immediately executed.

Jovinus fled to Valence , where he was captured after a brief siege. Athaulf handed him over to Claudius Postumus Dardanus , the Praetorian Prefect for Gaul, who was loyal to the emperor and who beheaded him by hand in Narbonne . The heads of the two usurpers were sent to the imperial court in Ravenna .

Coins were minted for Sebastianus in Arles and Trier .

literature

• John F. Drinkwater: The Usurpers Constantine III (407-411) and Jovinus (411-413) . In: Britannia 29, 1998, pp. 269-298.
• Michael Kulikowski: Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain . In: Britannia 31, 2000, pp. 325-345.
• John Robert Martindale: Sebastianus. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4 , p. 983.
• Ralf Scharf : Iovinus - Emperor in Gaul . In: Francia 20, 1993, pp. 1-13. ( Digitized version )
• Sandra Seibel: Typological research on the usurpations of late antiquity. Diss. Duisburg 2006.

Web links

• Hugh Elton: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).