Avitus and the Goths

Abstract Eparchius Avitus seized power over the Western Empire in 455, exploiting the chaos caused by the Vandalic sack of Rome and the lynching of the previous emperor, Petronius Maximus, after a mere eleven weeks of rule. Avitus had the support of a number of Gallo-Roman senators, who had assembled at Beaucaire (Viernum),1 but his coup would not have been possible had it not been backed by the military support of the Goths of Aquitaine under their king, Theoderic II. His reign was effectively over by late 4562 but, brief though it was, it marked an important stage in the involvement of Germanic peoples in internal Roman affairs. For the first time, a Germanic king with an inde pendent power-base set up a Roman emperor and dictated the destiny of the imperial purple; although Avitus was an influential figure in Gaul in his own right and therefore not entirely a puppet emperor, the Goths were indispensable to his survival.