Arnegisclus was a ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the e ...

'' of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

in 447 AD. Possibly of Gothic descent, Arnegisclus is mentioned in 441 as an officer in

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

, where he murdered the magister militum Johannes (father of Iordanes), with whom he had feuded in the imperial palace. In 443 Arnegisclus was a ''

comes ''Comes'' (plural ''comites''), translated as count, was a Roman title, generally linked to a comitatus or comital office. The word ''comes'' originally meant "companion" or "follower", deriving from "''com-''" ("with") and "''ire''" ("go"). Th ...

'' in Thrace battling the Hunnic ruler

Attila Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...

. In 447, Arnegisclus was appointed magister militum of Thrace. In the same year, he led from Marcianopolis an attack against Attila but was defeated at the

Battle of the Utus The Battle of the Utus was fought in 447 between the army of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, and the Huns led by Attila at Utus, a river that is today the Vit (river), Vit in Bulgaria. It was the last of the bloody pitched battles be ...

and killed. Arnegisclus was the father of Anagast, who was a magister militum in Thrace in 468/469 AD.

Sources

* Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Volume II: A.D. 395–527. Cambridge 1980, , S. 151. * Year of birth unknown 447 deaths 5th-century Byzantine military personnel Attila the Hun Byzantines killed in battle Magistri militum {{Byzantine-bio-stub