Syagrius
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The captured Syagrius is brought before Alaric II who orders him sent to Clovis I |
Afranius Syagrius (born 430, died 486 or 487) was the son of
Aegidius, the last Roman
magister militum per Gallias, who had preserved a
rump state around
Soissons after the collapse of central rule in the western empire. Syagrius governed this
Gallo-Roman enclave as
Dux from the death of his father in
464 until
486, when his kingdom was destroyed by the territorial expansion of the
Frankish kingdom of
Clovis I.
Having been defeated at his capital in the
Battle of Soissons, Syagrius sought refuge with
Alaric II, king of the
Visigoths, based at
Toulouse, but was instead imprisoned and repatriated to Clovis, and was murdered in
487, stabbed in secret according to
Gregory of Tours.
His regime represented the last recorded instance of native Gallo-Roman authority in
Gaul: in fact he was known to the Germanic
barbarians as the "
King of the Romans".
*
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: Syagrius
