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An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
Avitus (455-456 A.D.)
Ralph W. Mathisen

Avitus' Early Career

Eparchius Avitus, who was born of a senatorial family circa A.D. 400, was a native of the Auvergne in Gaul. His father may have been the Agricola who was consul in 421. He pursued a distinguished career, and early in his life formed close contacts with the Visigothic court at Toulouse. After serving under Flavius Aetius in several military posts, he became Praetorian Prefect of Gaul by 439, in which capacity he was able to re-negotiate the treaty with the Visigoths. In 451, he was influential in gaining the aid of the Visigoths against the invading Huns. In 455, he was appointed by the short-lived emperor Petronius Maximus (455) to the office of Master of Soldiers, and was sent as an ambassador to the Visigoths. When the news arrived of Maximus' death during the Vandal sack of Rome, the Visigothic king Theoderic II urged Avitus to seize the purple himself. He did so shortly thereafter at Arles, and in October of 455 he entered Italy with a retinue of Gauls and Visigoths.

Avitus' Reign

As a Gallic emperor in Italy, Avitus was not popular. By this time, the different sections of the western empire had begun to go their own ways, and Italy was no exception. Antipathy toward Avitus only increased when he removed the half of the bronze roof of the Capitoline temple that the Vandals had left in order to pay off his Gothic supporters. Although the commanders of the Italian army, Ricimer and Majorian, were able to hold the Vandals at bay, they themselves soon began to conspire against the new emperor. Eventually, local unrest forced Avitus to depart Rome and return to Gaul in the summer of 456. He returned in the fall, only to be defeated by Ricimer at Piacenza. He then was forcibly consecrated bishop of Piacenza, the first time that this novel method was used to dispose of a deposed emperor, but hardly the last. Soon thereafter, however, he attempted to make his was back to Gaul, and after being chased down by Majorian he either starved to death or was strangled. Avitus' brief reign was the last attempt in the western empire to reverse the trend toward the Italianization of the empire. Its failure indicates the degree to which this trend had become irreversible.

Bibliography

Brehier, L.. "Un empereur romain a Brioude, Flavius Eparchius Avitus." Almanach de Brioude (1930): 39-55.

Bugiani, Carlo. L'imperatore Avito. Pistoia, 1909.

Mathisen, Ralph W. "Avitus, Italy and the East in A.D. 455-456." Byzantion
51(1981) 232-247.

"Resistance and Reconciliation: Majorian and the Gallic Aristocracy after
the Fall of Avitus." Francia 7(1979): 597- 627.

"Sidonius on the Reign of Avitus: A Study in Political Prudence."
Transactions of the American Philological Association 109(1979): 165-171.

"The Third Regnal Year of Eparchius Avitus.," Classical Philology 80(1985)

 

 

 

Copyright (C) 1996, Ralph W. Mathisen. This file may be copied on the condition that the entire
contents,including the header and this copyright notice, remain intact.

 

 

Comments to: Ralph W. Mathisen.

Updated: 6 August 1996

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