The Council of the Seven Provinces (Concilium septem provinciarum) was a governing body of the Seven Provinces (Septem Provinciae) in the praetorian prefecture of Gaul, then part of the Western Roman Empire. Between its establishment in 418 and its decline in the 460s, it met annually in Arles between mid-August and mid-September. Its members belonged to the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, including the bishops.
An annual council was established by the praetorian prefect Petronius in 402 (or 408), perhaps in connection with a fifteen-year tax assessment. It was re-founded by the Constitutio saluberrima [1] issued by the emperor Honorius on 17 April 418 at Ravenna, capital of the Western Empire. The Constitutio was directed to the prefect of Gaul, Agricola. According to Honorius, the council was convened "on account of public and private necessities" (propter privatas ac publicas necessitates) because the previous council had fallen defunct "either because of the indifference of the times or the neglect of usurpers" (vel incuria temporum, vel desidia tyrannorum). [2] Although the council has been blamed for encouraging Gallic particularism, Honorius intended merely to return to the situation before the upheavals of 407–13. From this point on, however, high offices in Gaul usually fell to Gallo-Romans and not, as previously, Italians. [3]
The public acclamation of Avitus as emperor took place in Arles on 9 July 455. The historians Edward Gibbon and J. B. Bury believed that the acclamation took place at a regular meeting of the Concilium, but this has been rejected on the grounds that Avitus arrived in Arles at the wrong time of year for this, that the public meeting include representatives from outside the Seven Provinces and that Sidonius Apollinaris records that the meeting was arranged specifically to greet Avitus. [4]
In 468, the council indicted the praetorian prefect Arvandus and sent him to the Senate to be tried. [5]
Honorius was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho, ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. His reign over the Western Roman Empire was notably precarious and chaotic. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time in almost 800 years.
The 410s decade ran from January 1, 410, to December 31, 419.
Glycerius was Roman emperor of the West from 473 to 474. He served as comes domesticorum during the reign of Olybrius, until Olybrius died in November 472. After a four-month interregnum, Glycerius was proclaimed as emperor in March 473 by Gundobad, the magister militum and power behind the throne. Very few of the events of his reign are known other than that an attempted invasion of Italy by the Visigoths was repelled by local commanders, diverting them to Gaul. Glycerius also prevented an invasion by the Ostrogoths through diplomacy, including a gift of 2,000 solidi.
Valentinian III was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying for power amid civil wars and the invasions of Late antiquity's Migration Period, including the campaigns of Attila the Hun.
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. 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.
Procopius Anthemius was the Western Roman emperor from 467 to 472. Born in the Eastern Roman Empire, Anthemius quickly worked his way up the ranks. He married into the Theodosian dynasty through Marcia Euphemia, daughter of Eastern emperor Marcian. He soon received a significant number of promotions to various posts, and was presumed to be Marcian's planned successor. However, Marcian's sudden death in 457, together with that of Western emperor Avitus, left the imperial succession in the hands of Aspar, who instead appointed Leo, a low-ranking officer, to the Eastern throne, probably out of fear that Anthemius would be too independent. Eventually, this same Leo designated Anthemius as Western emperor in 467, following a two-year interregnum that started in November 465.
Eparchius Avitus was Roman emperor of the Western Empire 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.
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.
Constantine III was a common Roman soldier who was declared emperor in Roman Britain in 407 and established himself in Gaul. He was recognised as co-emperor of the Roman Empire from 409 until 411.
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.
The term Western Roman Empire is used in modern historiography to refer to the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from 395 to 476 AD, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by 554 AD, at the end of Justinian's Gothic War.
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire.
In the Late Roman Empire, usually dated 284 AD to 641 AD, the regional governance district known as the Roman or civil diocese was made up of a grouping of provinces each headed by a Vicarius, who were the representatives of praetorian prefects. There were initially twelve dioceses, rising to fourteen by the end of the 4th century.
The Praetorian Prefecture of Gaul was one of four large prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided.
Tonantius Ferreolus was the praetorian prefect of Gaul from 451.
Agricola was a West Roman statesman who served twice as praetorian prefect and became consul for 421.
The Diocese of the Seven Provinces, originally called the Diocese of Vienne after the city of Vienna, was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, under the praetorian prefecture of Gaul. It encompassed southern and western Gaul, that is, modern France south and west of the Loire, including Provence.
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context. The well-studied meld of cultures in Gaul gives historians a model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other less-studied Roman provinces.
Apollinaris was Praetorian Prefect of Gaul from May 408 or earlier until 409 AD, when he was succeeded by his friend Decimus Rusticus. He was the grandfather of Sidonius Apollinaris and was the son or grandson of another Apollinaris who was Prefect of Gaul under Constantine II between 337 and 340.
Gothic revolt of Theodoric I was an uprising of the Gothic Fouderati in Aquitaine during the regime of Emperor Valentinian III (425-455). That rebellion was led by Theodoric I, King of the Visigoths and took place in the South of France. The uprising took place between 425 and 426, in the period shortly after the death of usurpator John and was terminated by a military operation under the command of Aëtius.