Last updated Animation showing Rechila's conquests (438–48).
Rechila[1] (died 448) was the Suevicking 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.
When his father, Hermeric, turned ill in 438, he retired from active political life (dying in 441) and handed the reins of government and the royal title over to his son.[2] He endeavoured to expand the Suevic kingdom to fill the vacuum left by the retiring Vandals and Alans. In 438 he defeated Andevotus, the comes Hispaniarum, on the river Genil (Singillio).[3] The Roman position in Iberia became so tenuous that three magistri utriusque militiae (masters of both services) were sent to the peninsula between 441 and 446.
Invading southern Iberia, Rechila took the provincial capitals of Mérida in 439 and Seville in 441.[4] These conquests were extremely significant, but nothing of the sequence of events leading to them is known. The provinces of Lusitania, Baetica, and Carthaginiensis were subjected to the Suevi with the exception of the Levante and the Mediterranean seaboard.[5]
Rechila was involved in near constant war with the Romans. While returning in 440 from his third embassy to the Suevi, the Roman legate Censorius was captured by Rechila near Mértola (Myrtilis). The king had him imprisoned for the remainder of his reign.
Rechila died a pagan in Mérida: gentilis moritur ("died a gentile") according to Hydatius, but Isidore of Seville, writing well over a century and a half later, and whose source was Hydatius, says ut ferunt, gentilitatis vitam finivit ("finished his life a gentile, so they say"). There is no reason, however, for accepting Isidore's doubts, which were probably precipitated by the fact that Rechila's son and successor was the Catholic Rechiar.[6] Some scholars have raised the contention that his father raised him that way in order to foster good relations with the Church and bring about the easy conversion of the Suevi.[7]
Gillett, Andrew. "The Birth of Ricimer." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte44, 3 (1995): 380–84.
Thompson, E. A. "The Conversion of the Spanish Suevi to Catholicism." Edward James, ed., Visigothic Spain: New Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. ISBN0-19-822543-1.
Thompson, E. A. Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. ISBN0-299-08700-X.
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.
Ricimer was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 after defeating Avitus, 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. Ricimer's death led to unrest across Italy and the establishment of a Germanic kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.
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.
Rechiar or Flavius Rechiarius was the third Suevic king of Gallaecia, from 448 until his death, and also the first one to be born in Gallaecia. He was one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarchs. 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; accusations already discredited, but very common at that time.
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 Galicia or Suebi Kingdom of Galicia, 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.
Aioulf or Ag(r)iwulf 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.
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.
Chararic or Chararich was the King of Galicia according to Gregory of Tours, who is the only primary source for a Suevic king of this name.
Theodemir or Theodemar was one of the last Suevic kings of Galicia and one of the first Chalcedonian Christians to hold the title. He succeeded Ariamir sometime between the end of May 561 and the year 566 and ruled 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.
Ariamir was the Suevic King of Galicia, with his capital at Bracara, from 558/9. The bishops of the First Council of Braga recorded Ariamir as the king who summoned them and under whose auspices they deliberated. Because the bishops mention theirs as being the first Nicene synod to be held in Galicia in a long while, Ariamir is sometimes assumed to have been the king who led the conversion of his people from Arianism to orthodoxy and thus to have lifted the ban on Nicene councils.
Heremigarius was a Suevic military leader operating in Lusitania in the early fifth century. He may have been a joint monarch with Hermeric or his successor, but no primary source directly attests it. Writing in the mid-seventh century, Fredegar calls Heremigarius rex Suaevorum, king of the Suevi.
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 stopping Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was killed.
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