Egidius (Army Master)

Origin and career

Aegidius came from a noble Roman family in East Gaul . He was the grandson (or great-grandson) of the consul of 382, Afrania and cousin of the prefect of Gaul, 452, Tonantius Ferreola . Born in Lugdun . He served in the army under the command of Aetius , and then Avita . When Avit was proclaimed emperor in 455 and left for Rome, Aegidius assumed his post of commander of the Roman forces in Gaul. At the same time, about 12,000 Roman Britons moved from Britain to Gaul, among whom there were many warriors, which significantly strengthened the position of Aegidius ^[1] . In 456, after Ritzimer's rebellion and Avith 's removal from power, he became the military governor ( dux ) of the Gallic diocese , and in fact an independent ruler of Northern Gaul. He was a friend and supporter of the emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Majorian (they served together in the army of Aetius). In 457, he received the title of magister militum from him instead of the former Narbonian aristocrat Komit Agrippin (Agrippinus), with whom Egidius was in a hostile relationship.

Ruler of Gaul

According to Gregory of Tours, after the expulsion of his king Childeric I, the power of Egidius was recognized by the Salic Franks , electing him as their king (in April-May of 457). Although Egidius' power over the Franks was largely nominal, his rule provoked their discontent. According to chronicler Fredegar , Egidius, on the advice of a certain Viomadius, imposed heavy taxes on the Franks and executed 100 people. As a consequence, four years later, the Franks again called Childeric I and expelled from the country of Aegidius. It should be noted that this story is questioned by modern scholars, although the existence of a union between the Franks and Aegidius is not disputed.

In addition to the Franks, the allies of Egidius were the Britons who settled in Armoric and the Alans settled in the Orleans area . According to one version, it was precisely the Aegis that the Roman-Britons turned to, asking for military help against the Anglo-Saxons invading Britain (although, according to another point of view, they turned to Aetius).

In 457, Majorian ordered Egidius to restore order in Gaul, where the local Gallo-Roman aristocracy refused to recognize Majorian as emperor and, having entered into an alliance with the Burgundians , surrendered them to Lugdun.

In the summer of 458, Egidius, along with the Franks, took Lugdun, driving out the Burgundians from there, and returned him to the control of the empire. At the same time, the city was brutally plundered. In the same year, he began a war against the Visigoths together with Majorian and liberated Arelat besieged by the Goths, which forced King Theodorich II of the Visigoths to renew the federal treaty with Rome. In 460 he accompanied the emperor Majorian to Spain on his campaign against the vandals .

War of the Visigoths

After the death of Majorian in 461, Egidius refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new emperor - the protégé of Ricimer Libius Severus, and proclaimed the independence of his province, located between the Loire and the Seine and known as the Soissons region. His possessions were almost immediately cut off from the main territory of the Western Roman Empire, after the Burgundians regained control of Lugdun and the Sona Valley.

In 462, under the pretext of providing assistance to the new emperor Liby Severus, the King of the Visigoths Theodoric II opposed Egidius. At the same time, Ricimer again appointed the commander Agrippin, who passed the Visigoths to Narbon, as ruler of Gaul. Then the Visigoth troops under the command of Frederick (brother of Theodorich II) moved to the middle reaches of the Loire. Under their onslaught, Aegidius retreated behind the Loire, but at the Battle of Orleans ( 463 ), having received reinforcements from the Salic Franks of Childeric I and the Alans , he managed to defeat the Visigoths, and then threw their troops behind the Loire. After this victory, Aegidius entered into negotiations with the vandal king Geiserich , planning a simultaneous attack on Italy and the kingdom of the Visigoths. However, these plans were frustrated by the invasion of Gaul by the Saxons in 464 . Aegidius in alliance with the Franks opposed them.

Death and Heirs

In the winter of 464 or 465, at the height of the war with the Saxons, Aegidius died in a camp on the Loire in unclear circumstances during the plague epidemic (it is believed that he was poisoned). After his death, the command of the Roman forces in northern Gaul and the power over the Soissonskaya region passed to the committee of Pavel , and after the imminent death of the latter, they were inherited by the son of Aegidius Siagrius .

• Grevs I.M. ,. Egidius, Roman governor // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Martin Jones AH, Martindale JR, Morris J. Aegidius . - PLRE . - Cambridg University Press, 1992.- T. II. - P. 11-13. - 1355 p. - ISBN 978-0521201599 .

• Gregory of Tours: History of the Francs
• Korsunsky A. R., Gunter R. The decline and death of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of German kingdoms
• Panny MacGeorg Late Roman Warlords
• Paul Erdkamp "A companion to the Roman army"