RIOTHAMUS

According to Asche, the eastern Roman Emperor Leo I appointed a western colleague named Anthemius, who initiated a short-lived attempt to retrive the crumbling situation in Gaul, most of it occupied by groups of barbarians. The powerful Visigoths, alread y in control of Spain, were threatening to push north and take possession.

Anthemus negotiated a British alliance, and ... the `King of the Britons' crossed to Gaul with 12,000 troops." However, the prefect of Gaul had proposed to the Visigoths that "they should crush the Britons and share out Gaul with teh Burgundians."

The Visigoths smashed the British army, leaving only a remnant who retreated to Burgandy with their king.

The similarities to Athurian legend are astonishing: "The `King of the Britons' is in Gaul with his sea-borne army at exactly the right time... He is betrayed by a deputy-ruler who conspires with barbarians... He vanishes after a fatal battle, without any recorded death. His apparent line of retreat shows him moving in the direction of the real town of Avallon in Burgandy."

"Original texts refer to this king not as Arthur, but as Riothamus," a latinized version of Rigotamos, which meant "king-most."

Return to Arthurian Origins.