Syagrius
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Syagrus, a genus of palm tree.
- For the saint with this name, see Saint Syagrius.
Afranius Syagrius (born 430, died 486 or 487) was the son of Aegidius, the last Roman magister militum per Gallias, who had preserved a rump state around Soissons after the collapse of central rule in the western empire. Syagrius governed this Gallo-Roman enclave as Dux from the death of his father in 464 until 486, when his kingdom was destroyed by the territorial expansion of the Frankish kingdom of Clovis I.
Having been defeated at his capital in the Battle of Soissons, Syagrius sought refuge with Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, based at Toulouse, but was instead imprisoned and repatriated to Clovis, and was murdered in 487, stabbed in secret according to Gregory of Tours.
His regime represented the last recorded instance of native Gallo-Roman authority in Gaul: in fact he was known to the Germanic barbarians as the "King of the Romans".
[edit] External link
- Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: Syagrius