Ægidius

Ægidius or Égidius, Roman general defending the north of the Gaulle until his death in 464.

He was useful first of all under Avitus, then was named Magister militum of Gaules. The emperor of Occident Majorien charges it in 457 with restoring the order as a Gaulle where the Gallo-Roman aristocracy which had supported Avitus refuses to recognize Majorien, perhaps offering to the Burgondes to seize Lugdunum (Lyon). With its frank auxiliaries (whose perhaps Childéric I {{er}} was , King of the Francs saliens), Ægidius recovers Lugdunum, is opposed to the Visigoths close to Arles and obliges Théodoric II, occupied in Spain, to join again the alliance of the Visigoths with the Empire.

In 461, in Italy, the Patrice Ricimer makes carry out Majorien and proclaims Libius Severus in its place. Ægidius refuses to recognize Libius Severus and makes independent as a Gaulle North. Burgondes take again the control of Lugdunum and the valley of the Saone, Ægidius insulator of the South of Gaulle.

Ægidius continues the fight for its own account against the Visigoths whom it beats close to Orleans in 463, perhaps already against Saxons towards Angers, and a Gallo-Roman enclave between the the Loire and the Somme maintains. It is possible that it lost its authority on the Francs, which had taken it for chief several years before.

He dies in 464 or at the beginning of 465 leaving the command with his son Syagrius, with perhaps the support of the count Paul on the Loire, and which only kept under control this enclave until his defeat vis-a-vis Clovis towards 486.

See too

Internal bonds

• late Antiquity