Aioulf or Ag(r)iwulf (died June 457) was an obscure king of Galicia from 456. In 448, after eight years in captivity, the Roman ambassador Censorius was executed by one Agiulf at Seville (Hispalis). This Agiulf has sometimes been identified with Aioulf. [1]
According to the local and contemporary chronicler Hydatius, after the sack of Braga and the execution of Rechiar, the previous Suevic king, by the Visigoths, the Gothic king, Theodoric II, led his army south into Lusitania while one of his commanders, Aioulf, deserted him and remained behind in Galicia hoping to make himself king of the Sueves there. [2]
However, the later, Pannonian historian Jordanes records that Aioulf was a Warnic cliens (retainer) of Theodoric appointed by the king to administer the Suevi and who, being provoked by the Suevi themselves, sought to make himself king but was defeated by Theodoric's army in the first engagement, captured, and executed. [2] According to E. A. Thompson, Jordanes is less reliable than Hydatius for three reasons: he lived further away both in time and space from events in Galicia, his record for accuracy is less reputable, and his bias for the Goths led him to make the disloyal Aioulf a Warni and to involve the Suevi themselves in the act of betraying Theodoric. [2] More significantly, however, Jordanes mentions the Suevic bishops being greeted by Theodoric "with the reverence due to episcopal rank (pontificali reverentia)", an anachronism considering the Suevi were pagans in 457. [3]
After Aioulf, the Suevi chose Remismund to be their king and he was accepted by Theodoric.
The Suebi were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names such as the Marcomanni, Quadi, Hermunduri, Semnones, and Lombards. New groupings formed later such as the Alamanni and Bavarians and two kingdoms in the Migration Period were simply referred to as Suebian.
Flavius Ricimer was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 461 until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with Anthemius. Deriving his power from his position as magister militum of the Western Empire, Ricimer exercised political control through a series of puppet emperors.
Eparchius Avitus was Roman emperor of the West from July 455 to October 456. He was a senator of Gallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza.
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition - led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and by the Visigothic king Theodoric I - against the Huns and their vassals - commanded by their king Attila. It proved one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. Whether the battle was strategically conclusive remains disputed: the Romans possibly stopped the Huns' attempt to establish vassals in Roman Gaul. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later in 453, and after the Battle of Nedao (454) a coalition of the Huns' Germanic vassals dismantled his Hunnic Empire.
Hydatius, also spelled Idacius was a late Western Roman writer and clergyman. The bishop of Aquae Flaviae in the Roman province of Gallaecia, he was the author of a chronicle of his own times that provides us with our best evidence for the history of Hispania in the 5th century.
This is a historical timeline of the Iberian Peninsula during the period of the post-Imperial kingdoms.
Hermeric was the king of the Suevi from at least 419 and possibly as early as 406 until his abdication in 438.
Witteric was the Visigoth King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia. He ruled from 603 to 610.
Rechila was the Suevic king of Galicia from 438 until his death. There are few primary sources for his life, but Hydatius was a contemporary Christian (non-Arian) chronicler in Galicia.
Rechiar or Rechiarius was the Suevic king of Gallaecia from 448 until his death. He was the first Chalcedonian Christian (Catholic) Germanic king in Europe and one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarchs. Despite his orthodox Christianity, Hydatius, the contemporary bishop and chronicler from Galicia who is the sole contemporary source for biographical details of Rechiar, established his reputation as that of a barbarian with little sense of Roman law, culture, or custom.
Maldras was the Suevic king of Galicia from 456 until his death. After the execution of Rechiar by the victorious Visigoths, the Suevi are said to have established Maldras on the throne. During his reign the Suevic nation became fragmented.
The Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallæcia or Suebi Kingdom of Gallæcia, was a Germanic post-Roman kingdom that was one of the first to separate from the Roman Empire. Based in the former Roman provinces of Gallaecia and northern Lusitania, the de facto kingdom was established by the Suebi about 409, and during the 6th century it became a formally declared kingdom identifying with Gallaecia. It maintained its independence until 585, when it was annexed by the Visigoths, and was turned into the sixth province of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania.
Framta, Framtan or Framtane was one of the kings of the Suevi in Galicia in 457.
Richimund or Rechimund was a Suevic leader in Galicia from 457 until about 464. He was not recorded as a king (rex), though Hydatius wrote that inter Frumarium et Rechimundum oritur de regni potestate dissensio. In 457 the Suevi split into two factions, one headed by Maldras raiding Lusitania and another led by Framta remaining in Galicia. After a few months of rule, Framta died and Rechimund appeared as his successor. While it is possible that the Suevi were living under a diarchy, it is more likely that the two factions remained independent of one another. Maldras' eventual successor, Frumar, was also not described as a king, but in 464 or thereabouts the entire Suevic nation was unified under a king named Remismund. Presumably, Rechimund and Frumar had battled for the throne and both had been eliminated, paving the way for Remismund. Some scholars have equated Remismund with Rechimund, but this seems far-fetched.
Remismund was the Suevic king of Galicia from c. 464 until his death.
Censorius was a count (comes) of the Western Roman Empire from 432 until his death. He is mentioned in the Chronicle of Hydatius under the years 432 and 440.
Ajax was an Arian missionary to the pagan Suevi of Galicia who converted them to Christianity in 464 or 466.
Veremund or Veremundus was a Suevic king of Galicia around 500. His existence is conjectured on the basis of a sixth-century inscription discovered at Salvador de Vairão. The date in the inscription is interpreted as either 485 or 535. Some scholars have dated the inscription to the eighth century, arguing that the Veremundus of the inscription is King Bermudo I of Asturias.
Theodoric I was the King of the Visigoths from 418 to 451. Theodoric is famous for his part in defeating Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was killed.
