Riothamus

Riothamus was a late antique army commander in the 5th century and is regarded as the king of Britt Onen in the period around 470. Since the name "top leaders " means ( a Latinized Celtic form), it is often assumed that it is a title, not a personal name.

About the person

About his person, however, little is known, especially since he is only mentioned in a few sources. It is often assumed that the Britt Onen or Brittani Bretons or the people referred to by the British " colony " in Armorica (Brittany ); but the mention in Jordanes in his De origine actibusque Getarum ( The Origins and Deeds of the Goths ), where it is determined that they came across the "ocean", suggests that Riothamus a leader in the former Roman Britain or the leader of the romano- British population was on both sides of the Channel. On the other hand Jordanes is often unreliable and he also wrote decades later, so the issue is not a final decision. Overall, it is unlikely many researchers believe that a Romano- British leader would then leave the island to be active on the mainland.

Anyway, seems ( the ) Riothamus to have felt a bond to the Western Roman State, because he took part in the campaign of 470 Western Roman Emperor Anthemius against Eurich, the rex of the Visigoths. Eurich fought off the attack but, whereupon Riothamus beaten withdrew into the kingdom of Burgundy and probably held some time with his troops in the Loire region; However, from the sources he disappears then. Riothamus to have died in the Burgundian town of Avallon, on the basis of the injuries he had suffered in the battle against the Visigoths. A letter to Riothamus of Sidonius Apollinaris, one that calls for support against rebellious Bretons, has been preserved ( Epistulae, 3, 9).

Riothamus was considered by some researchers as a historical precedent of King Arthur ( as Geoffrey Ashe and Léon Fleuriot ); like all such identification tests is also this hypothesis problematic. Provided Riothamus there was actually in Britain, so could its activities in Gaul but quite a basis for the later tradition to be ( which is first reported by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae ), according to which King Arthur crossed the channel to attack Rome. Avallon could have been the model for the island of Avalon in this case, to which the seriously wounded Arthur the legend is said to have retired to.