Riothamus
Riothamus (also spelled
Riotimus,
Rigothamus,
Rigotamos), was a military leader, active circa
470, called "King of the Brittones" by
Jordanes, who states in
The Origin and Deeds of the Goths:
If the name is a
Latinization of "highest leader", some scholars have suggested, it may be a title, and not a personal name. It has been argued whether Jordanes' "Brittones" refers to the Bretons of
Brittany, a
Briton colony in
Armorica in northwestern
Gaul, or of the Britons of
Great Britain itself. Jordanes states that they "came… by way of the Ocean", which has been taken to mean that he was a leader in
Great Britain or even the leader of the British people on both sides of the
English Channel. He took part in the Roman campaign against Euric, king of the Visigoths. Euric defeated his attack, and Riothamus vanishes from history among the Burgundians. A letter has survived that was written to Riothamus from
Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, who requested his judgment for "an obscure and humble person" who has had his slaves enticed away by a group of armed Bretons.
[ Letter to Riothamus from Sidonius Apollinaris, introduction and text from Britannia.com ]Riothamus has been identified as a
candidate for the historical King Arthur by some recent scholars (notably
Geoffrey Ashe[The Discovery of King Arthur, Guild Publishing, London, 1985] and
Leon Fleuriot). They further note that Riothamus' last known position was near the Burgundian town of
Avallon, which might have been the basis for the Arthurian connection to
Avalon. In any case, Riothamus' activities in Gaul may be the seed from whence grew the tradition (first recorded by
Geoffrey of Monmouth in his
Historia Regum Britanniae) that Arthur crossed the English Channel from Britain and attacked
Rome.
His downfall is theorized to come from the betrayal of his
prefect, Arvandus. After Riothamus' departure to Gaul with his Briton army, Arvandus gathers his own army in Riothamus' absence and rebels, in alliance with the Goths.
[Ashe, Geoffrey. A Certain Very Ancient Book: Traces of an Arthurian Source in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History. Speculum. 1981]
*
Letter to Riothamus from Sidonius Apollinaris, introduction and text from Britannia.com
