Butheric (; ; died 390) was a Roman general of Gothic descent. Under the reign of

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...

, Butheric was stationed in

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area) and the capital city, capital of the geographic reg ...

as 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 ...

. According to

Sozomen Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (; ; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church. Family and home Sozoman was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christia ...

, in June of the year 390 he had a famous circus charioteer arrested in Thessalonica, who openly practiced

pederasty Pederasty or paederasty () is a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan. In most countries today, ...

. This was based on the emperor's law which punished "sin against nature" with death. The population reacted violently against the arrest, both for the popularity of the charioteer and for prejudices against Goths. Butheric was lynched by the mob in the circus. In retaliation, Theodosius authorized his Gothic soldiers to punish the people of city, in what is known as the

Massacre of Thessalonica The Massacre of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica in Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, Greece, was a massacre of local civilians by Roman troops which is believed to have occurred around 390. According to Sozomen, in June of that year, Butheric, ...

References

Sources

* Alexander Demandt: Magister militum. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Supplementband XII, Stuttgart 1970, Sp. 553–790, hier 717. 390 deaths Year of birth unknown People of Gothic descent Ancient Roman murder victims Gothic warriors Magistri militum People murdered in Greece Lynching deaths {{AncientRome-mil-stub