Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the north-western provinces 507
because of the bagaudic uprising of Tibatto. 56 The subsequent activities of
the Alans seem to have been somewhat high-handed, to say the least – they
dispossessed the landowning classes (domini ), which may or may not have
been what Aetius wanted. 57 Perhaps rather closer to the experience of the
people of Comagenis was that of Sidonius in Lyons, where he objected to
the Burgundians stationed in his house. 58
In parts of Gaul it is also possible to find parallels to the more aggressive
policies of Ambrosius Aurelianus. While Sidonius, by this time bishop
in Clermont, raised the morale of his flock – much as numerous other
bishops seem to have done – his brother-in-law Ecdicius broke the
Visigothic siege of the city, apparently with only eighteen men, 59 a number
subsequently reduced yet further by Gregory of Tours to a mere ten. 60
Ecdicius showed what a man with military experience and a private following
could manage in central Gaul. 61 For such a man Nepos’ cession of
Clermont to the Visigoths would have been nothing short of betrayal. 62
Another independent military figure, albeit one whose career as a warlord
grew directly out of imperial service, was Aegidius. Effectively left without
an emperor to follow after the murder of his patron Majorian, he ploughed
his own furrow in northern Gaul with the troops he had with him at the
time of his master’s death. 63 As a result, he was able to set up something
like a kingdom of his own, based on Soissons, though how far beyond that
it stretched must be open to doubt. 64 There is certainly nothing to suggest
that Aegidius or his son Syagrius ruled over the Aremoricans, whose submission
to the Franks is noted, somewhat obscurely, in the pages of
Procopius. 65
The one other late Roman military leader in northern or central Gaul in
the second half of the century of whom we know anything more than his
name was the Briton Riothamus, who sailed from Britain or Brittany and
proceeded to Bourges with substantial forces, even if not with the 12,000
spoken of by Jordanes. He is said to have done so in response to an appeal
for help from the emperor Anthemius. 66 Riothamus was defeated by the
Visigothic king Euric, and retired to the Lyonnais with his remaining
troops, where they were still numerous enough to cause problems for the
local inhabitants. 67 Almost everything about Riothamus is a mystery. If he
indeed came from Britain, why should a man with so many troops abandon
the island at a time when the Saxons were not apparently dominant? Does
he represent a legitimist faction, determined to stay within the empire at all
56 Constantius, Vita Germani 6.28; 7.40; Chronicle of 452 117, 119, 127. 57 Chronicle of 452 127.
58 Sid. Ap. Carm. xii; compare Ep. 3.4.1 for a more general assessment of the threat posed by federates.
59 Sid. Ap. Ep. 3.3.3; see the comments of Harries (1994) 228–9.
60 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.24, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, MGH, SRM 1 (Hanover 1951).
61 On this private army, Harries (1994) 228–9. 62 Sid. Ap. Ep. 7.7.5.
63 Elton (1992) 172–4. 64 James (1988) 67–71. 65 Procop. Wars, v.12.12–15.
66 Jord. Get. 237–8; cf. Sid. Ap. Ep. 1.7.5. 67 Sid. Ap. Ep. 3.9.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008