Flavius Merobaudes Richomeres

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merobaudes_(general)

Flavius Merobaudes (died 383 or 388) was a Roman general of Frankish origin.

Biography[edit] Merobaudes was an official of Roman Emperor Julian (361-363). He was entrusted with the transportation of the corpse of the Emperor when Julian died during his military campaign against the Sasanids.

Around 375, Emperor Valentinian I appointed Merobaudes magister peditum.[1] After Valentinian I's death in that same year, Merobaudes stated that he could control the army only if Valentinian's son, Valentinian II, was to be appointed Emperor. Valentinian II ruled together with his brother Gratian, and Merobaudes influenced both of them.

Merobaudes was twice consul, in 377 with Gratian and in 383 with Saturninus. This is a sign of great honour, as multiple consulates have been reserved to members of the imperial family since Constantine I's time. Merobaudes probably supported the corrupt governor Romanus, and Romanus was found not guilty.

In 378 Merobaudes disobeyed Gratian, as he did not send his troops to help Eastern Emperor Valens when he was defending the frontier from the Alemanni attack; Valens then died in the Battle of Adrianople.

According to ancient sources, in 383 Merobaudes supported the usurper Magnus Maximus and was put to death by the Emperor. Modern historians, however, downplay Merobaudes' role in Maximus' usurpation. Even his death in 383 is in doubt, as an inscription mentions a third consulate of his in 388, even if a panegyric by Pacatus records his death, probably suicide. He was probably buried in Treveri

Flavius Merobaudes was a 5th-century Latin rhetorician and poet, probably a native of Baetica in Spain.

He was the official laureate of Valentinian III and Aetius. Till the beginning of the 19th century he was known only from the notice of him in the Chronicle (year 443) of his contemporary Hydatius, where he is praised as a poet and orator, and mention is made of statues set up in his honour.

In 1813 the base of a statue was discovered at Rome, with a long inscription belonging to the year 435 (CIL vi. 1724) upon Flavius Merobaudes, celebrating his merits as warrior and poet. Ten years later, B. G. Niebuhr discovered some Latin verses on a palimpsest in the monastery of St Gall, the authorship of which was traced to Merobaudes, owing to the great similarity of the language in the prose preface to that of the inscription.

Formerly the only piece known under the name of Merobaudes was a short poem (30 hexameters) De Christo, attributed to him by one manuscript, to Claudian by another; but Ebert is inclined to dispute the claim of Merobaudes to be considered either the author of the De Christo or a Christian.

The Panegyric and minor poems have been edited by Niebuhr (1824); by Immanuel Bekker in the Bonn Corpus scriptorum hist. (1836); the De Christo in T. Birt's Claudian (1892), where the authorship of Merobaudes is upheld; most recently F. Biicheler and A. Riese, Anthologia latina sive poesis latinae supplementum (2nd ed. of vol. 1, Leipzig, 1894-1926) 1, 2: pp. 327-328, no. 878. See also A. Ebert, Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande (1889). English translation by F.M. Clover, "Flavius Merobaudes: A Translation and Historical Commentary", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 61, No. 1 (January, 1971), pp. 1-78

References Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "article name needed ". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. External links (Latin) Merobaudus Flavius: Carminum Panegirique Relequiae in Documenta Catholica Omnia