Editing Syagrius (section)

{{Short description|Roman general (430–486); last King of Soissons (r. 464-486)}}
{{Other uses|Syagrius (disambiguation)}}{{Infobox military person
| name          = Syagrius
| birth_date    = c. 430
| death_date    = 486–494 (aged 56–64)
| birth_place   = [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]], [[Western Roman Empire]]
| death_place   = [[Toulouse]], [[Visigothic Kingdom]]
| death_cause   = Assassination
| known_for     = Final ruler of the Domain of Soissons, Roman Emperor
| battles       = [[Battle of Soissons (486)|Battle of Soissons]]
| children      = at least 1
}}
'''Syagrius''' (c. 430 – 486<ref name="webcite">{{cite web |website=Our Royal, Titled, Noble, and Commoner Ancestors & Cousins |url=http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p3442.htm#i103387 |access-date=9 September 2017 |title=Syagrius of Burgundy, King of Soissons }}</ref> or 487 or 493–4{{sfn|Hughes|2015|pp=207, 234}}) was a Roman general and the last ruler of a Western Roman [[rump state]] in northern [[Gaul]], now called the [[Kingdom of Soissons]]. [[Gregory of Tours]] referred to him as [[King of the Romans]]. Syagrius's defeat by [[List of Frankish kings|King of the Franks]] [[Clovis I]] is considered the end of [[Western Roman]] rule outside of Italy. He inherited his position from his father, [[Aegidius]],{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II.18}}{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II.27}} the last Roman ''[[magister militum]] per [[Gaul|Gallias]]''.  Syagrius preserved his father's territory between the [[Somme (river)|Somme]] and the [[Loire]] around [[Soissons]] after the [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|collapse of central rule in the Western Empire]], a domain [[Gregory of Tours]] called the [[Kingdom of Soissons | "Kingdom" of Soissons]]. Syagrius governed this [[Gallo-Roman]] enclave from the death of his father in 464 until 486, when he was defeated in battle by [[Clovis I]].

Historians have mistrusted the title "Rex Romanorum" that Gregory of Tours gave him, at least as early as [[Godefroid Kurth]], who dismissed it as a gross error in 1893. The common consensus has been to follow Kurth, based on the historical [[truism]] that Romans hated kingship from the days of the expulsion of [[Tarquin the Proud]]; for example, Syagrius's article in the ''[[Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire]]'' omits this title, preferring to refer to him as a "Roman ruler (in North Gaul)". However, Steven Fanning has assembled a number of examples of ''rex'' being used in a neutral, if not favorable, context, and argues that "the phrase ''Romanorum rex'' is not peculiar to Gregory of Tours or to Frankish sources", and that Gregory's usage may indeed show "that they were, or were seen to be, claiming to be Roman emperors."{{sfn|Fanning|1992}}