Nicetius, or Nicetas, was the
Count of Clermont,
Duke of Auvergne, and
Governor of Provence in the late sixth century.
He sent gifts to
Childebert II in order to secure a dukedom. He received, as constituting his duchy, the cities of
Rodez
Rodez ( or ; oc, Rodés, ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of the ...
,
Clermont, and
Uzès. According to
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 ...
, though he was young at the time, he was "a man of acute insight," who "established peace in the
Auvergne."
In 585, he participated in a war against the
Visigoths; Gregory strongly criticises his conduct in the war ("crime and deception"). Afterwards, he patrolled the border between
Septimania
Septimania (french: Septimanie ; oc, Septimània ) is a historical region in modern-day Southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septima ...
(the Gothic province of
Narbonensis) and his own
Frankish territory, the so-called "Dukedom of Auvergne."
In 587, he was made governor of
Provence (the diocesan province of
Marseille) as well. In 588
Theodore, Bishop of Marseille, complained to the king that there had been a plague in Provence. Nicetius was replaced in the countship of Clermont by one Eulalius.
Sources
*
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 ...
. ''The History of the Franks''. 2 vol. trans.
O. M. Dalton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
Governors of Provence
Counts of Clermont
Dukes of Auvergne
6th-century Frankish nobility