Page 91 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The provincial view of Hydatius

Three years later, when Rechila died, the Gothic king Theoderic I en-
tered into an alliance with the Sueves, marrying one of his daughters to
Rechila’s son and successor, Rechiarius. 113 Rechiarius was already ex-
panding the territory taken by his father, undertaking expeditions into
the Pyrenees and Terraconensis. 114 Theoderic appears to have reneged
on his obligations to the empire in favour of this alliance. 115
The imperial elevation of Avitus in July 455 altered this relationship.
The Goths, now ruled by Theoderic I’s son, Theoderic II, nominated
and supported Avitus as emperor. For a brief time, imperial and Gothic
interests were joined as never before. In 456, when Avitus sent envoys
to Rechiarius to protest the Suevic reoccupation of Carthaginiensis,
Theoderic senthis own envoys in support. The imperial envoy told the
Sueves to withdraw from Carthaginiensis, but the real threat came from
the Goths, who stated that the Sueves ‘should observe the promises of
the sworn alliance, both with themselves and with the Roman empire,
since they were joined in one alliance of peace’. 116 Theoderic’s ties with
Avitus altered relations between the Goths and the Sueves. The Goths’
marriage alliance with the Sueves was now subordinate to their foedus with
the empire; and the Goths treated with Spain in a quasi-imperial capacity.
When Rechiarius rejected Theoderic’s envoys and instead extended his
activities into Terraconensis, a second embassy was sent later the same
year, not from the imperial authorities but from Theoderic II alone.
Rechiarius imprudently rejected this embassy also. Theoderic promptly
(mox) led an army into Gallaecia, overthrew the Suevic army, and cap-
tured and executed his brother-in-law. The attack was not only condoned
but publically ordered by Avitus. Its aim was the destruction of the Suevic

436–9 war in southern Gaul; Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 53, 272 n. 66; Wolfram, History
of the Goths, 176–7. Theoderic I may also have been disturbed by the growing power of the
Sueves, who had now ruled all the Iberian peninsula except Terraconensis for five years.
113 Hyd., cc. 140, 142 [132, 134]. The ceremony appears to have taken place in Toulouse, a sign
that the Goths were the superior party in the alliance; cf. Valentinian III’s offer to relocate the
site of his wedding to Theodosius II’s daughter, Licinia Eudoxia, in 437 from Thessalonica to
Constantinople, out of respect for Theodosius; Socrates, Ecclesiastica historia, ed. RobertHussey
(Oxford, 1853), vii, 44.
114
Hyd., cc. 137 (obtento tamen regno sine mora ulteriores regiones invadit [sc. Rechiarius] ad praedam), 140
(attacks Gascones), 142 (joins with Bagaudae in attacking Zaragossa and L´ erida in Terraconensis)
[129, 132, 134].
115
Cf. the reluctance of Theoderic I to assist the empire against Attila two years later; Wolfram,
History of the Goths, 178. The Goths resumed their service to the empire as federates after
the accession of Theoderic II in 453. His brother Frederic led an army against Bagaudae in
Terraconensis that year, on behalf of the empire, but apparently not under a Roman commander;
Hyd., c. 158 [150].
116
Table 1 no. 11 (Hyd., c. 170 [163]): ut tam secum quam cum Romano imperio,quia uno essent pacis
foedere copulati,iurati foederis promissa servarent.
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