Mallobaudes or Mellobaudes was a 4th-century

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

king who also held the Roman title of ''

comes domesticorum The origins of the word ''domesticus'' can be traced to the late 3rd century of the Late Roman army. They often held high ranks in various fields, whether it was the servants of a noble house on the civilian side, or a high-ranking military pos ...

''. In 354 he was a ''tribunus armaturarum'' in the

Roman army The Roman army () served ancient Rome and the Roman people, enduring through the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC–AD 1453), including the Western Roman Empire (collapsed Fall of the W ...

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, where he served under Silvanus, who usurped power in 355. Mallobaudes tried unsuccessfully to intervene on his behalf. Appointed ''comes domesticorum'' by

Gratian Gratian (; ; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian was raised to the rank of ''Augustus'' as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in ...

, he was second-in-command of the army in Gaul in 378 when he defeated the Alemannic tribes under King Priarius at Battle of Argentovaria (near modern Colmar) according to Ammianus Marcellinus. In 380 he killed Macrian, king of the Bucinobantes and Roman ally, who had invaded Frankish territory. During the usurpation of

Maximus Maximus (Hellenised as Maximos) is the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest". In this connection it may refer to: * Circus Maximus (disambiguation) * Pontifex maximus, the highest priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome People Roman hi ...

, Mallobaudes was killed shortly after the assassination of the emperor Gratian.Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. ch. 27.

Notes

Sources

* Ammianus Marcellinus, 'The Later Roman Empire (A.D.354-378), Book 31.10.2', trans. Walter Hamilton, Penguin Books, 1986.

References

* Herwig Wolfram, ''The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples'', University of California Press 1997, , pp. 65ff. * Thomas F. X. Noble, ''From Roman Provinces To Medieval Kingdoms'', Routledge 2006, , pp. 115ff. {{Authority control Frankish kings Frankish warriors 4th-century Frankish people 4th-century Gallo-Roman people 4th-century monarchs in Europe Generals of Gratian Comites domesticorum