Claudius was a Hispano-Roman Catholic ''
dux'' (duke) of
Lusitania
Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province encompassing most of modern-day Portugal (south of the Douro River) and a large portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and Province of Salamanca). Romans named the region after th ...
(or ''dux Emeretensis civitatis'') in the late sixth century. He was one of the most successful generals of
Reccared I.
In 587, after a count named
Witteric had exposed the plot of
Sunna, the
Arian bishop of
Mérida, to place the
Visigoth
The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...
Segga on the throne and probably to also kill the Catholic Méridan bishop
Masona, Claudius was sent to put down the revolt. Segga was captured, his hands cut off (the penalty for usurpers), and banished to
Galicia. The less important conspirators were deprived of their property and offices and sent into exile, but one of the chief rebels, Vagrila, took refuge in the basilica of
Saint Eulalia. Claudius was told, upon request, to give Vagrila, his family, and his possessions over to the church of Mérida, which he did. Masona, however, released Vagrila and his family and returned his property to him.
In 589, when the
Frankish king
Guntram sent an army under the general Boso into
Septimania in support of a rebellion by the Arian archbishop
Athaloc, Claudius was sent by King Reccared to defeat it. Near
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department.
...
on the river
Aude
Aude ( ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Southern France, located in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region and named after the river Aude (river), Aude. The departmental council also calls it " ...
, Claudius surprised the Franks and routed them, killing 5,000 and capturing 2,000, as well as their camp. According to
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...
, : "No victory of the Goths in Spain was ever greater or even equal to it." The chronicler
John of Biclarum, with even more excitement, exaggerated his figures to make Claudius, the next
Gideon, defeat 60,000 Franks (the evil
Midianites in the biblical metaphor) with merely 300 men.
[Collins, ''Visigothic Spain'', 68.]
Sources
*Thompson, E. A. ''The Goths in Spain''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
*Collins, Roger. ''Visigothic Spain, 409–711''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
*Collins, Roger. "King Leovigild and the Conversion of the Visigoths." ''Law, Regionalism and Culture in Early Medieval Spain''. Variorum, 1992.
*Fontaine, Jacques. "King Sisebut's ''Vita Desiderii'' and the Political Function of Visigothic Hagiography." ''Visigothic Spain''. ed.
Edward James. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claudius, Duke of Lusitania
Ancient Roman generals
6th-century people from the Visigothic Kingdom