In the last post, “Arthur’s Siege of Nantes“, we discussed the details of Arthur’s attack on that city. If you’ve read my historical fiction novel, The Retreat to Avalon, you’ll know how that turned out. As described in other posts, such as “Why did Anthemius ally with the Britons?“, the politics of the crumbling Western Roman Empire led to an eventual battle between Arthur and Euric, King of the Visigoths. Today we’re talking about Arvandus and the historical event that changed Arthur’s plans for Gaul, and potentially the outcome of the entire war.
As discussed before, the Roman emperor, Anthemius, made an alliance with someone they called “Riothamus”, King of the Britons. If you’ve read The Discovery of King Arthur by Geoffrey Ashe, you’ll understand why Riothamus, which means “High King”, is probably how the Romans knew King Arthur. Anthemius made the alliance with Arthur to deal with Euric, who was steadily stripping territory away from Rome.
Anthemius and Arthur devised a strategy, as I discuss in the article, King Arthur’s Strategy For Gaul, for Arthur to gain a foothold in Gaul. Once established, Arthur would be joined by forces sent by Anthemius from the south, and from Syagrius from the north. Together, they should be able to finally stop Euric’s expansion, perhaps even bring Visigoth territories back under Roman control. Yet, before Arthur can even begin his campaign in Gaul, the existence of the secret alliance is leaked.
According to Roman records, Arthur and Anthemius were betrayed by Arvandus, the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul. This prefecture was a sort of governorship, originally spanning from Britain, through Roman Germania, Gaul, Spain and northwest Africa. By this time, however, it was mostly a prefecture in name only. North Africa was in Vandal control, Spain and southern Gaul in Visigoth control, eastern Gaul in Burgundian control, and Britain was independent. A certain amount of lip-service still allowed Rome to claim sovereignty over these lands, but everyone knew it wasn’t really true, so the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul had more symbolic than real power.
Arvandus had held this position once before with general praise, and was re-appointed by Anthemius. However, things had changed and in his second term he was widely hated. Paranoid of any political opposition, he scorned and maligned other Gallic-Romans of influence. Deep in debt, he was accused of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, giving his opponents the opportunity to arrest him and send him to Rome for impeachment, around 468-469. He might have gotten away with this, if not for an accusation of high treason.
Almost as soon as Arvandus arrived in Rome to face his corruption charges, another group of representatives from Gaul arrived with a letter that had been intercepted on its way to Euric. Arvandus’ secretary, also under arrest, verified that he had dictated the letter at Arvandus’ direction. What’s more, at trial, Arvandus arrogantly admitted to authoring the letter.
The letter was described by Sidonius Apollinaris, an influential Gallic politician and friend of Arvandus.
It was evidently addressed to the King of the Goths, whom it dissuaded from concluding peace with ‘the Greek Emperor’ (Anthemius), urging that instead he should attack the Britons north of the Loire, and asserting that the law of nations called for a division of Gaul between Visigoth and Burgundian.
Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters to his friend Vincentius, Book 1.VII
Why would Arvandus try to convince Euric to go to war with his own boss? Cassiodorus, a Roman statesman, said that Arvandus hoped to usurp the rule of what remained of the western Roman empire. Leaving Gaul to the Visigoths and Burgundians was his bribe. Personally, I suspect Ricimer, the subversive Magister Militum, was behind Arvandus’ delusion. Ricimer would have knowledge of the military plans, and was probably already working against Anthemius behind the scenes. He had a history of this sort of thing. The implied support of the commander of the Western Roman armies could also account for why Arvandus thought he was untouchable in court. Turns out he wasn’t. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. The influence of Sidonius and a few other highly placed friends gained Arvandus a reprieve, and he was sent into exile, instead.
Relations were already tenuous between Rome and the Visigoths, and Euric clearly had his eyes on northern Gaul. He and his brother had attempted to take Orleans less than 10 years earlier. Everyone saw the conflict coming between Euric and Anthemius.
Yet, why would Arvandus encourage Euric to attack Arthur and the Britons north of the Loire? Brittany (or Letavia, as it was then known) was thinly populated and of little commercial or strategic value. Clearly, Arvandus knew of the alliance between Anthemius and Arthur, and of Arthur’s military build up there. By warning Euric, he curried favor with the one ruler who posed a threat to Anthemius. Removing the Britons from Anthemius’ plans would cripple any hopes for the emperor to regain control of Gaul and subdue the Visigoths.
The result is that Arthur and Anthemius lost the element of surprise and the ability to maintain the initiative in the coming war. On the next post we’ll talk about how the Treason of Arvandus likely changed Arthur’s plans.
But before we sign off, there’s an interesting clue that further ties the history behind Riothamus, Anthemius, Arvandus and the war with Euric to Arthur. And that clue is Morvandus. If it sounds like a blend of Mordred and Arvandus, it may be exactly that. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain is the oldest surviving complete story of King Arthur, and mentions Mordred as Arthur’s betrayer. Arthurian skeptics say Geoffrey invented the story on a thin thread of older material. Yet, like the Modena Arch, this Arthurian reference existed in the Chronicles of the Counts of Anjou (note that the capital of Anjou is Angers, on the borders of Brittany), years before before Geoffrey’s work. Some versions of the Chronicles give the name Morvandus in place of Tortulfus and the context is said to equate this Morvandus with Arthur’s betrayer. It suggests the link between Arthur and Riothamus has much older precedents, perhaps even the muddled memory of the real people and events that I recreate within The Arthurian Age.
One more thing, if you would like a free, short, historical-fiction story based on the spy who caught Arvandus, just use the contact me form and I’ll email it to you. Cheers!
