Remistus (died September 17, 456) was a general of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

, commander-in-chief of the army under Emperor

Avitus Eparchius Avitus (c. 390 – 457) was Roman emperor of the West from July 455 to October 456. He was a senator of Gallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza. He o ...

Life

Remistus was a

Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

, as shown by his Germanic name. In 456 Remistus reached a high military rank under Emperor

, who probably appointed him ''

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, ...

'', and received the rank of '' patricius'': he was the first ''magister militum'' since the death of Aetius in 454 and the first barbarian ''magister militum''. The newly appointed general took up residence in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

, the capital, with a group of Goths. That same year Avitus, who was opposed by the Roman Senate, decided to leave Italy and go to his native Gaul to gather reinforcements; Remistus remained back to control Italy. He clashed with the Senate army, led by the Italian ''magister militum''

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 ...

and was forced to return to Ravenna; besieged, he was captured and put to death in the Palace ''in Classis'', just outside the city, on September 17. The following month, Avitus was deposed and later died.

Bibliography

* ''

Fasti vindobonenses The ''Fasti vindobonenses'' are two sets of late antique consular annals ("fasti"), found in the '' Vindobonensis'' manuscript MS. 3416, together with the Chronography of 354. They were previously known as ''Anonymus Cuspiniani'', since they were ...

priores'', 579; ''

Auctarium Prosperi Havniense The ''Auctarium Prosperi Havniense'', or ''Continuatio Prosperi Havniensis'', is a continuation of the ''Chronicle'' of Prosper of Aquitaine, embodied in a manuscript at Copenhagen ( la, Havnia, hence ''Havniense''); it was given this appellation b ...

'', 1. *

Theophanes the Confessor Theophanes the Confessor ( el, Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before taking u ...

, AM 5948 * Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Remistus", ''

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', volume 2, Cambridge University Press, p. 939. * Mathisen, Ralph W.
"Avitus (9/10 July 455 - 17/18 October 456)"
''De Imperatoribus Romanis'' 456 deaths 5th-century Visigothic people 5th-century Romans Gothic warriors Magistri militum Patricii Year of birth unknown Romans from unknown gentes {{AncientRome-bio-stub