Heremigarius Explained

Heremigarius (also Hermigarius or Hermegarius) (fl. 427–428) was a Suevic military leader operating in Lusitania in the early fifth century. He may have been a joint monarch with Hermeric or his successor, but no primary source directly attests it.^[1] Writing in the mid-seventh century, Fredegar^[2] calls Heremigarius rex Suaevorum, king of the Suevi.^[3]

According to Hydatius, a contemporary source, Heremigarius had attacked the Vandal-controlled cities of Seville and Mérida and committed an unspecified offence (iniuria) against the Basilica of Saint Eulalia. He was thus "cast down in the river Ana by the arm of God," where he drowned.^[4] He was in fact defeated in battle by the Vandal king Geiseric near Mérida and drowned during the retreat.^[5]

Recently, Casimiro Torres, in Galicia Sueva, argued that Heremigarius was the father of the magister militum Ricimer. He has also been connected with Ermengon who is interred in an Arian tomb in the basilica of Hippo Regius, the Vandal capital. She was apparently a wealthy Suevic member of the Vandal aristocracy, perhaps a relative of Heremigarius.^[6]

Sources

• Gillett, Andrew. "The Birth of Ricimer." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 44, 3 (1995): 380–84.
• Hughes, Ian. Gaiseric: The Vandal Who Destroyed Rome. Pen & Sword, 2017.
• Muhlberger, Steve. Overview of Late Antiquity. ORB Online Encyclopedia. 1996.
• Shwarz, Andreas. "The Settlement of the Vandals in North Africa." Andrew H. Merrills, ed., Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa (pp. 49 - 58). Ashgate Publishing, 2004. .
• Thompson, E. A. Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. .

Notes and References

1. Thompson, 166. German historian Felix Dahn, in his monumental Die Könige der Germanen, entertained the possibility that he was a relative of and successor to Hermeric.
2. Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV. cum Continuationibus, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS. rer. Merov. 2 (Hanover, 1888), book II, chapter 51.
3. Gillet (1995).
4. Muhlberger (1996), ch. 3, §5, quotes Hydatius, ch. 90 (Gaisericus rex, de Baeticae prouinciae litore, cum Vandalis omnibus eorumque familiis, mense Maio ad Mauretaniam et Africam relictis transit Hispaniis. Qui, priusquam pertransiret admonitus Heremigarium Sueuum uicinas in transitu suo prouincias depraedari, recursu cum aliquantis suis facto praedantem in Lusitania consequitur. Qui haud procul de Emerita, quam cum sanctae martyris Eulaliae iniuria spreuerat, maledictis per Gaisericum caesis ex his quos secum habebat, arrepto, ut putauit, euro uelocius fugae subsidio, in flumine Ana diuino brachio praecipitatus interiit. Quo ita extincto mox quo coeperat Gaisericus enauigauit.). Hughes (2017), p. 68, gives a translation (In the month of May, King Gaiseric abandoned [Hispania] and with all the Vandals and their families crossed over from the shores of the province of Baetica to Mauretania and Africa. Before crossing, he was warned that the Sueve Heremigarius was passing through the neighbouring provinces and pillaging them as he went. Gaiseric therefore doubled back with some of his men and followed the Sueve as he plundered in Lusitania. Not far from Emerita, which Heremigarius had scorned, thereby causing an affront to the holy martyr Eulalia, Gaiseric slaughtered the accursed soldiers who were with the Sueve, but Heremigarius, who thought that he had saved himself buy turning to flight more swiftly than the wind, was soon cast headlong into the river Ana by the hand of God and died.).
5. Schwarz (2004), 50.
6. J. Pampliega (1998), Los germanos en España (Pamplona).