Remistus (died 17 September 456) was a general of the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

and commander-in-chief of the army under Emperor

Avitus Eparchius Avitus (died 456/7) was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Western Empire from July 455 to October 456. He was a Roman Senate, senator of Roman Gaul, Gallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military ...

Life

Remistus was a Goth, as shown by his Germanic name. In 456 Remistus reached a high military rank under Emperor

, who probably appointed him ''

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 ...

'', and received the rank of '' patricius'': he was the first ''magister militum'' since the death of Aetius in 454 and the first barbarian ''commander-in-chief'' of the Roman army. The newly appointed general took up residence in

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

, the capital, with a group of Goths. That same year Avitus, who was opposed by the Roman Senate, decided to leave Italy and go to his native Gaul to gather reinforcements; Remistus remained back to control Italy. He clashed with the Senate army, led by the Italian ''magister militum''

Ricimer Ricimer ( , ; – 19 August 472) was a Romanized Germanic general, who ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 after defeating Avitus, until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power wit ...

and was forced to return to Ravenna; besieged, he was captured and put to death in the Palace ''in Classis'', just outside the city, on September 17. The following month, Avitus was deposed and later died.

Bibliography

* '' Fasti vindobonenses priores'', 579; '' Auctarium Prosperi Havniense'', 1. * Theophanes the Confessor, AM 5948 * Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Remistus", ''

The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', volume 2, Cambridge University Press, p. 939. * Mathisen, Ralph W.
"Avitus (9/10 July 455 - 17/18 October 456)"
''De Imperatoribus Romanis'' 456 deaths 5th-century Visigothic people Romans of Gothic descent Gothic warriors Magistri militum Patricii Year of birth unknown Ancient Romans from unknown gentes {{AncientRome-bio-stub