Apollinaris of Clermont | |
|---|---|
 Apollinaris of Clermont at the Battle of Vouillé. | |
| Count of Auvergne | |
| Reign | 489-515 |
| Predecessor | Victorius |
| Successor | Hortensius |
| Died | 515 |
| Issue | Arcadius |
| Father | Sidonius Apollinaris |
| Mother | Papianilla |
Apollinaris (died 515) was a Count of Auvergne who led a auvergnat army for the Visigoths in the
Battle of Vouillé, and was bishop of Clermont for four months before his death.
Apollinaris was the son of the aristocrat and poet Sidonius Apollinaris and Papianilla. A number of contemporary Romano-Gallic aristocrats were his cousins, including bishops Avitus of Vienne and Ruricius of Limoges.
Earliest records of Apollinaris are in the letters of his father Sidonius. Although Apollinaris is the recipient of one letter (Epistulae III.13), E.H. Warmington considers it a "show-piece" which was never actually sent to him. [1] Sidonius mentions Apollinaris in several of his letters: two allude to his youth (in V.11, he describes Apollinaris as "in these budding years of manhood", and in V.9 hopes that Apollinaris would have children), another mentions Apollinaris' love of hunting, [2] and in the last laments his disinterest in literature. [3] Despite his father's opinion, Apollinaris did at least once display an interest in literature: according to a letter of Ruricius, he helped to distribute his father's writings. [4]
After the Visigothic capture of Clermont, Apollinaris fled the town with comes Victorius to Italy; there Victorius was killed, and Apollinaris was taken captive, but managed to escape with his servant and return home. [5]
Apollinaris apparently got along with king Alaric II far better than Alaric's predecessor, for Gregory of Tours records that Apollinaris led a militia raised in Clermont on the Visigothic side of the Battle of Vouillé in 507. [6] Although several letters written to him from his other cousin, bishop Avitus of Vienne, are dated to the years after that battle, [7] Apollinaris' activities until 515 are unknown. In that year, with the help of his sister Alcima and his wife Placidana, he was appointed bishop of Clermont by the Frankish king Theuderic I. However, he held the office only four months before he died. [8]
He was survived by a son, Arcadius, of whom Gregory of Tours tells several unflattering stories.
Alaric II was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis.
Majorian was the Western Roman emperor from 457 to 461. A prominent commander in the Western military, Majorian deposed Avitus in 457 with the aid of his ally Ricimer at the Battle of Placentia. Possessing little more than Italy, Dalmatia, as well as some territory in Hispania and northern Gaul, Majorian campaigned rigorously for three years against the Empire's enemies. In 461, he was murdered at Dertona in a conspiracy, and his successors until the Fall of the Empire in 476 were puppets either of barbarian generals or the Eastern Roman court.
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Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris, was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Born into the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, he was son-in-law to Emperor Avitus and was appointed Urban prefect of Rome by Emperor Anthemius in 468. In 469 he was appointed Bishop of Clermont and he led the defence of the city from Euric, King of the Visigoths, from 473 to 475. He retained his position as bishop after the city's conquest, until his death in the 480s. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic church, the Orthodox Church, and the True Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 21 August.
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Gundobad was King of the Burgundians (473–516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472–473, three years before its collapse, succeeding his uncle Ricimer. He is perhaps best known today as the probable issuer of the Lex Burgundionum legal codes, which synthesized Roman law with ancient Germanic customs. He was the husband of Caretene.
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Alcimus EcdiciusAvitus was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings.
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Tonantius Ferreolus was the praetorian prefect of Gaul from 451.
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Adelfius I or Adelphius I was a bishop of Augustoritum (Limoges) in Haute Vienne from c. 420. Through his son or daughter, born around the same year, he was the grandfather of St Ruricius.
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Victorius or Victor was an arvernian aristocratic, Count of Auvergne and then dux of aquitania prima from 480 to 489 under the visigothic king Euric.