Arnegisclus was a ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

'' of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

in 447 AD. Possibly of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

descent, Arnegisclus is mentioned in 441 as an officer in

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...

, where he murdered the magister militum Johannes (father of Iordanes), with whom he had feuded in the imperial palace. In 443 Arnegisclus was a ''

comes ''Comes'' ( ), plural ''comites'' ( ), was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count". Before becoming a word for various types of title or office, the word originally meant "companion", either i ...

'' in Thrace battling the Hunnic ruler

Attila Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European traditio ...

. In 447, Arnegisclus was appointed magister militum of Thrace. In the same year, he led from

Marcianopolis Marcianopolis or Marcianople (Greek: Μαρκιανούπολις), also known as Parthenopolis was an ancient Greek, then Roman capital city and archbishopric in Moesia Inferior. It is located at the site of modern-day Devnya, Bulgaria. The an ...

an attack against Attila but was defeated at the

Battle of the Utus The Battle of the Utus was fought in 447 between the army of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, and the Huns led by Attila at Utus, a river that is today the Vit in Bulgaria. It was the last of the bloody pitched battles between the Eastern ...

and killed. Arnegisclus was the father of

Anagast Anagast or Anagastes () was a ''magister militum'' in the army of the Eastern Roman Empire. He was probably a Goth, as his name (as well as that of his father, '' Arnegisc(clus)'') seems to be of Gothic origin. He was sent to negotiate with Deng ...

, who was a magister militum in Thrace in 468/469 AD.

Sources

* Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Volume II: A.D. 395–527. Cambridge 1980, , S. 151. * Year of birth unknown 447 deaths 5th-century Byzantine military personnel 5th-century Romans of Gothic descent Attila the Hun Byzantines killed in battle Gothic warriors Magistri militum {{Byzantine-bio-stub