Ariamir (died before 566) was the

Suevi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) 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 ...

King of Galicia Galicia is an autonomous community and historical nationality in modern-day northwestern Spain on the Iberian Peninsula, which was a major part of the Roman province known as Gallaecia prior to 409. It consists of the provinces of A Coruña, ...

, with his capital at

Bracara Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (i ...

, from 558/9. The bishops of the

First Council of Braga In the First Council of Braga of 561, eight bishops took part, and twenty-two decrees were promulgated. In a number of canons, the council took aim directly at doctrines of Priscillianism. Those decrees included the following: that in the service ...

recorded Ariamir as the king who summoned them and under whose auspices they deliberated. Because the bishops mention theirs as being the first

Nicene The original Nicene Creed (; grc-gre, Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας; la, Symbolum Nicaenum) was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is a ...

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 Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

to orthodoxy and thus to have lifted the ban on Nicene councils. The conversion of the Suevi to Catholicism, however, is presented very differently in the primary records, of which the minutes of the council of Braga are the only contemporary ones. Specifically, the minutes of the council—which met on 1 May 561 (in the era of the province 599, the third year of his reign, ''anno tertio Ariamiri regis'')—state explicitly that the synod was held at his orders, ''ex praecepto praefati gloriosissimi Ariamiri regis'', and the bishops allude to him as "our most glorious and pious son" (''gloriosissimus atque piissimus filius noster''). Based on the dating clause, Ariamir's reign can be said to have begun between 2 May 558 and 1 May 559. While his Catholicism is not in doubt, that he was the first Catholic monarch of the Sueves since

Rechiar Rechiar or Flavius Rechiarius (after 415 – December 456) 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 monarch ...

has been contested.Thompson, 86. It has also been suggested that Ariamir was the same person as

Theodemir Theodemir, Theodemar, Theudemer or Theudimer was a Germanic name common among the various Germanic peoples of early medieval Europe. According to Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel (9th century), the form ''Theudemar'' is Frankish and ''Theudemir'' is Gothi ...

, who is mentioned by

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...

in connection with the Suevic conversion and

Martin of Dumio Martin of Braga (in Latin ''Martinus Bracarensis'', in Portuguese, known as ''Martinho de Dume'' 520–580 AD) was an archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal), a missionary, a monastic founder, and an ecclesiastical ...

. He is likewise also said to have been a son of Chararic, a king mentioned by

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

in connection with the conversion and

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

. It is likely, however, that Chararic and Theodemir must have reigned after Ariamir, since Ariamir must have been the first Suevic monarch to lift the ban on Catholic synods and it is inconceivable that a Catholic monarch could have continued the ban for "a long time". On the other hand, some scholars see the conversion of the Suevi as progressive and stepwise and regard Ariamir's lifting of the ban on synods as the second step following Chararic's public conversion.Ferreiro, ''passim''. Aside from the council held in his name, nothing else is known of Ariamir except that he was probably succeeded sometime between the end of May 561 and the year 566 by Theodemir.

Sources

*Ferreiro, Alberto
"Braga and Tours: Some Observations on Gregory's ''De virtutibus sancti Martini''."
''

Journal of Early Christian Studies The ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' is an academic journal founded in 1993 and is the official publication of the North American Patristics Society. It is devoted to the study of patristics, that is Christianity in the ancient period of roug ...

''. 3 (1995), p. 195–210. *Thompson, E. A. "The Conversion of the Spanish Suevi to Catholicism." ''Visigothic Spain: New Approaches''. ed.

Edward James Edward Frank Willis James (16 August 1907 – 2 December 1984) was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement. Early life and marriage James was born on 16 August 1907, the only son of William James (who had inherite ...

. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. .

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariamir 6th-century Suebian kings 560s deaths Christian monarchs History of Braga Year of birth unknown 6th-century Christians