Heremigarius (also Hermigarius or Hermegarius) ( fl. 427–428) was a

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 ...

c military leader operating in

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...

in the early fifth century. He may have been a joint monarch with

Hermeric Hermeric (died 441) was the king of the Suevi from at least 419 and possibly as early as 406 until his abdication in 438. Biography Before 419 Nothing is known for sure about Hermeric before 419, the year in which he is first mentioned; ...

or his successor, but no primary source directly attests it.Thompson, 166. German historian

Felix Dahn Felix Dahn (9 February 1834 – 3 January 1912) was a German law professor, German nationalism, German nationalist author, poet and historian. Biography Ludwig Julius Sophus Felix Dahn was born in Hamburg as the oldest son of Friedrich (1811–1 ...

, in his monumental ''Die Könige der Germanen'', entertained the possibility that he was a relative of and successor to Hermeric. Writing in the mid-seventh century,

Fredegar The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century. The chronicle begins ...

calls Heremigarius ''rex Suaevorum'', king of the Suevi. According to

Hydatius Hydatius, also spelled Idacius (c. 400 – c. 469) was a late Western Roman writer and clergyman. The bishop of Aquae Flaviae in the Roman province of Gallaecia (almost certainly the modern Chaves, Portugal, in the modern district of Vila Real), h ...

, a contemporary source, Heremigarius had attacked the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

-controlled cities of

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

and Mérida and committed an unspecified offence (''iniuria'') against the Basilica of Saint Eulalia. He was thus "cast down in the river Ana by the arm of God," where he drowned. He was in fact defeated in battle by the Vandal king

Geiseric Gaiseric ( – 25 January 477), also known as Geiseric or Genseric ( la, Gaisericus, Geisericus; reconstructed Vandalic: ) was King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477), ruling a kingdom he established, and was one of the key players in the diff ...

near Mérida and drowned during the retreat. Recently, Casimiro Torres, in ''Galicia Sueva'', argued that Heremigarius was the father of the ''

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, ...

Ricimer Flavius Ricimer ( , ; – 18/19 August 472) was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 461 until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with An ...

. He has also been connected with Ermengon who is interred in an

Arian 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 t ...

tomb in the basilica of

Hippo Regius Hippo Regius (also known as Hippo or Hippone) is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, Algeria. It historically served as an important city for the Phoenicians, Berbers, Romans, and Vandals. Hippo was the capital city of the Vandal King ...

, the Vandal capital. She was apparently a wealthy Suevic member of the Vandal aristocracy, perhaps a relative of Heremigarius.J. Pampliega (1998), ''Los germanos en España'' (Pamplona).

Sources

* Gillett, Andrew. "The Birth of Ricimer." ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' 44, 3 (1995): 380–84. *Hughes, Ian. ''Gaiseric: The Vandal Who Destroyed Rome''. Pen & Sword, 2017. *Muhlberger, Steve
''Overview of Late Antiquity''.
ORB Online Encyclopedia. 1996. *Shwarz, Andreas. "The Settlement of the Vandals in North Africa." Andrew H. Merrills, ed., ''Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa'' (pp. 49–58). Ashgate Publishing, 2004. . *Thompson, E. A. ''Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. .

Notes

{{reflist Suebian people Germanic warriors 429 deaths Year of birth unknown 5th-century Germanic people Deaths by drowning