Editing Syagrius

{{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}}

==End of Roman Gaul==
[[File:Reame di Siagrio (486).png|300px|thumb|Possible extent of Syagrius's "kingdom", most likely exaggerated]]
[[File:Syagrius brought before Clovis.jpg|thumb|The captured Syagrius is brought before Alaric II who orders him sent to Clovis I]]
Despite being isolated from the surviving portions of the Roman Empire, Syagrius managed to maintain a degree of Roman authority in northern Gaul for twenty years, and his state outlived the end of the Western Empire itself, the last Emperors being overthrown or killed in 476 and 480. Syagrius managed to hold off the neighboring [[Salian Franks]], who were internally divided under kings including [[Childeric I|Childeric]]. However, it is known that Childeric had previously come to the aid of the Gallo-Romans, joining a certain officer named [[Paul (Gallo-Roman)|Paul]] in operations against [[Saxons]] who at one point seized [[Angers]].{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II.18}}{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II,19}}

Upon Childeric's death in 481 his son Clovis succeeded him. While Childeric had seen no need to overthrow the last Roman foothold in the west, Clovis assembled an army, issued a challenge, and met Syagrius's forces. Few details are known of the subsequent clash, the [[Battle of Soissons (486)|Battle of Soissons]], but Syagrius was decisively defeated and fled. His domain passed to the Franks.{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II.27}}

As [[Edward Gibbon]] later wrote, "It would be ungenerous, without some more accurate knowledge of his strength and resources, to condemn the rapid flight of Syagrius, who escaped after the loss of a battle to the distant court of [[Toulouse]]."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gibbon |first=Edward |title=Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |chapter=Chapter 38}}</ref> Toulouse was the capital of [[Alaric II]], king of the [[Visigoths]]. Intimidated by the victorious Franks, the Visigoths imprisoned Syagrius, then surrendered him to Clovis. He died not long after, stabbed in secret according to [[Gregory of Tours]].{{sfn|Gregory of Tours|1916|loc=II.37}}

==Descendants==
Despite the assassination of Syagrius, the family evidently prospered under Frankish rule. King [[Guntram]] sent a Count Syagrius on a diplomatic mission to the [[Byzantine Empire]] in 585. A member of the family, Syagria, made a large donation of land to the monks of [[Novalesa Abbey]] in 739. "The last known member of the [[Syagrii]] was an abbot of [[Nantua]] who was mentioned in 757."{{sfn|Musset|1965|p=127}}

==See also==
*[[Last of the Romans]]
*[[Neustria]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last=Fanning |first=Steven |chapter=Emperors and empires in fifth-century Gaul |editor1-last=Drinkwater |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Elton |editor2-first=Hugh |name-list-style=amp |title=Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? |location=Cambridge |publisher=University Press |year=1992 |pages=288–297 |isbn=0-521-41485-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Fleuriot |first=Léon |title=Les origines de la Bretagne |location=Paris |publisher=Éditions Payot |year=1980 |language=fr |isbn=978-2-22812-710-3}}
*{{cite book |author=Gregory of Tours |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/gregory-hist.asp#book2 |title=History of the Franks |volume=book II |access-date=2021-04-03 |date=1916 |translator=Earnest Brehaut}} 
*{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Ian |title=Patricians and Emperors: The Last Rulers of the Western Roman Empire |year=2015 |location=Barnsley |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |isbn=978-1-84884-412-4}}
*{{cite book |last=Musset |first=Lucien |title=The Germanic Invasions: The Making of Europe 400–600 AD |location=New York |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |year=1965 |isbn=978-1-56619-326-9}}
{{refend}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{Succession box
| before =  [[Aegidius]]
| title  = Ruler of the [[Domain of Soissons]]
| years  = 464–486
| after  = [[Clovis I]]|after-as=King of the Salian Franks
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:430s births]]
[[Category:5th-century deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century Gallo-Roman people]]
[[Category:5th-century monarchs in Europe]]
[[Category:Last of the Romans]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Soissons]]
[[Category:5th-century Western Romans]]