Burdunellus (meaning "little mule", possibly a nickname) was a

Roman usurper Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third cent ...

of the late fifth century AD, recorded only briefly in the '' Consularia Caesaraugustana''. Under 496 it is recorded that "he became a tyrant in

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hisp ...

", a phrase which, in the political language of the time and considering the nature of the source, must mean he tried to claim the imperial dignity and authority.Collins, 35.Thompson, 193. He was eventually abandoned by his own supporters, who turned him over to legitimate authorities and sent him to Tolosa, where he was burned to death inside a bronze bull, an unusual fate for a usurper but designed to humiliate. The location of Burdunellus' petty government is unknown, but was probably the valley of the Ebro centred on Caesaraugusta.

Notes

Sources

* Collins, Roger. ''Visigothic Spain, 409–711''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. . * Thompson, E. A.br>"The End of Roman Spain: Part III."
''Nottingham Mediaeval Studies'', xxii (1978), pp. 3–22. Reprinted as "The Gothic Kingdom and the Dark Age of Spain" in ''Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. pp. 161–187. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Burdunellus 5th-century Roman usurpers 496 deaths 5th century in Hispania Year of birth unknown People executed by boiling