ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – On 21st September, 455, Emperor Avitus entered Rome with a Gallic army and consolidated his power. Avitus was the son of a rich and distinguished family from the Arvernian region in Gaul. His Gallic connections served Avitus very well. In the war with Visigoths, it was Avitus who in AD 437 brought about peace between the two sides. In doing so he befriended the Visigoth king Theodoric I. Avitus was able in 451 to persuade their king, Theodoric I, to join the Roman general Aetius in repelling the invasion of Gaul by the Huns under Attila. Avitus was appointed “master of both services” by the Western emperor Petronius Maximus. However, when Maximus was killed, the Goths proclaimed Avitus emperor at Toulouse, and this claim was upheld by the Gallo-Romans at Arles. The new emperor proceeded to Rome, but a large faction of the Roman senate strongly disapproved of having a Gallo-Roman on the throne, particularly as their new emperor owed his accession more to the Visigoths than to anyone else. The general Ricimer defeated Avitus and forced him to abdicate in October, 456 AD. Having learned that the senate had ordered his execution, he fled toward the Alps, seeking to cross into his homeland of Gaul, but on the way he died. His cause of death is unknown.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 18:23:10 +0000
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