Flavius Odoacer is most famous as the man who deposed the ‘last’ western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476, becoming the first non-Roman ruler of Italy for centuries. He did technically act as a viceroy for the eastern emperor Zeno, but in reality, Odoacer ruled Italy and some adjoining lands north to the Danube and across the Adriatic Sea in his own right as 'king of Italy'.
It was in this role as rex Italiae that Odoacer was able to reward his loyal underlings with land grants. One such land grant came on 18 March 489 to a comes domesticorum called Pierius. The grant in itself was not particularly special or significant in terms of value, amounting to 40 solidi per annum worth of land top up to a much larger previous grant.
However, its importance comes in the fact that the original text of Odoacer's land grant to Pierius survives. This makes Odoacer, despite the previous 500 years of Roman imperial history and extensive administration and bureaucracy, the first ruler of Italy for whom an original text of a legal act has survived. Pierius' grant is also the only surviving document from the civic scriptorium of Syracuse prior to the Roman reconquest in late 535 (Tjäder (1955) I.35).
It is worth noting that while the name of the rex Italiae is listed as 'Odovacar' throughout the document and I have chosen to go with 'Odoacer' for this blog, his name appears with various other spellings in the historical sources: we would also see Odoacar, Odovacris, Odovacrius, Adovacris and the Greek versions of Οδοαχος and Οδοακρος. It is unsurprising then that there is no firm conclusion on where his name originates from…
The recipient of the donation, Pierius, is much less well known. Indeed, in similar documents from Roman history - donations, certificates, discharge papers, epitaphs, various inscriptions - it is usual that the subject of the document is otherwise unknown. However, while Pierius is hardly famous, he is known from other historical sources beyond the 'Donation of Odoacer.' His appearances in the pages of Eugippius' Life of St Severinus, the Auctarium Prosperi Hauniensis and the pars posterior of the Anonymus Valesianus, while short on each occasion, show that he was prominent within the regime of Odoacer. Unfortunately, the only actions recorded for Pierius come from the period 488-490 (which, as will be seen, encompasses the last two years of his life), meaning that there is very little information about his career as a whole.
Even in these limited sources, there is a slight discrepancy in the position that he held during this period. During his service in Noricum in 488, he is recorded as a comes (Eugippius, V. Sev. 44.5). He is similarly listed as comes at the Battle of Adda in 490 (Auct. Prosp. Haun. s.a. 491), which would seem to confirm his holding of that position. However, Anonymus Valesianus XI.53 records him as the commander of Odoacer’s household bodyguard - comes domesticorum. Such a high-ranking office would explain not only why Pierius was put in command of important actions such as the evacuation of Noricum in 488 and of Odoacer's forces at Adda River against Theoderic in 490, but also why the rex Italiae would promise to reward him with 690 solidi worth of land.
For him to rise to comes domesticorum, Pierius must have had a career of some substance. Unfortunately, as there is no hint of his age, we can only infer where and who Pierius might have served pre-488. For Odoacer to appoint Pierius as the commander of his bodyguard suggests that he trusted this man to protect him, a trust that could have been cultivated over the course of many years of loyal service to Odoacer and perhaps some of the later western Roman emperors.
While names do not necessarily demonstrate ethnicity, 'Pierius' seems much more of a Roman than barbarian name (While not a particularly popular name, the volumes of the PLRE list 7 other men called Pierius - PLRE I.701, II.884-885, IIIb.1041; see below for more on the 'Pierii'). This, combined with the trust shown in him by Odoacer, could suggest that Pierius was an early supporter of Odoacer, perhaps joining the rex Italiae as he established control of Italy.
Odoacer's takeover of Italy and surrounding territories would have provided Pierius with opportunities to win sufficient acclaim for the rex Italiae to promote him to high office and reward him with lands and income. The question could be asked if the lands granted to Pierius in Sicily and Dalmatia were a reflection of his military service. While there was no major conflict in Sicily with the Vandals until 491 after Pierius' death, the rex Italiae had confronted the Vandal king Geiseric over control of the island early in his reign. Perhaps Pierius had been involved in securing the Vandal cession of Sicily to Odoacer in the early autumn of 476 (Clover (1999), 237). Pierius could also have played a role in Odoacer's conquest of Dalmatia in 481, leading to his reward of the island of Melita (Cassiodorus, Chron. sa.481; Fast. Vind. Prior sa.482; Auct. Haun. ordo prior sa.482).
Pierius' overseeing of the evacuation of Roman provincials from Noricum could suggest that along with Odoacer's brother, Onoulphus, he was involved in Odoacer's war of 486/487 with the Rugians of Feletheus (Eugippus, V. Sev. 44.4; Crawford (2019), 212-213).
While much of the conflict with Theoderic came after the land grants, Pierius' potential service against Theoderic would also demonstrate his ability and loyalty to Odoacer. The first direct engagement between the forces of Odoacer and the Amal Goths came on 28 August 489 at the Isontius River (the modern Soča in Slovenia and Isonzo in Italy). Very little is recorded about the battle besides Theoderic's victory (Fast. Vind. Prior sa. 490); however, while there is no record of Pierius being present, the fact that Odoacer commanded his own forces at Isontius could suggest that his chief bodyguard was also present. If so, then Pierius likely had a role in the orderly withdrawal and the subsequent Battle of Verona on 30 September 489, where Theoderic inflicted a second, much more emphatic defeat on Odoacer (Anon. Val. XI.50; Cassiodorus, Chron. sa.489; Ennodius, Pan. 39ff).
Even if we are to posit Pierius' presence at Isontius and then Verona (Odoacer could just as easily have charged him with command of Ravenna), the aftermath of Verona introduces many more variables. The panicked and fractured retreat of Odoacer's defeated forces may have seen the comes domesticorum escape to Ravenna with Odoacer; however, Pierius could instead have been forced to join the majority of the retreating army in reaching Milan, where it surrendered to the advancing Theoderic (Anon. Val. XI.50-51). Plenty of those who surrendered found their way back into the ranks of Odoacer's army in the succeeding weeks and months. The most high-profile individual recorded doing so was Tufa, Odoacer's magister militum (Anon. Val. XI.51-52; Ennodius, V. Epiph. 111; Wolfram (1990), 281). A captured Pierius could have done so too, although his surrender would surely have been recorded alongside Tufa.
The ability of many of those who surrendered at Milan to return to their Odoacer allegiance stemmed from the rex Italiae undoing much of the damage caused by his defeats of Isontius and Verona even before 489 was out through the defences of Ravenna and the financial support of the Italian aristocracy. This continuation of war with Theoderic provided plenty of opportunity for Pierius to extend his military adventures throughout 489/490 - Odoacer's recovery of Cremona, the blockading of Theoderic at Ticinum (modern Pavia), the Burgundian raid on Liguria and a Gothic invasion by Alaric II. Ultimately though, the sources only record one other military action of Pierius beyond his involvement in the aftermath of the Rugian war of 488 - his command of Odoacer's forces at the Battle of Adda River on 11 August 490.
The intervention of Alaric II's forces allowed Theoderic to escape the blockade of Ticinum and gather most of his forces together. With the Goths a little more desperate for a final conclusion and Odoacer more confident in a positive result, Theoderic quickly marched to face the forces under Pierius' command at the Adda River, "possibly near Acerrae-Pizzighettone, where the road from Lodi to Cremona crossed the river" (Wolfram (1990), 282). Again, there is little detail about the Battle of the Adda River on 11 August 490, other than the result: a decisive Gothic victory (Anon. Val. XI.53; Auct. Prosp. haun. sa.491; Cassiodorus, Chron. sa.490; Jordanes, Get. 292ff; Ennodius, V. Epiph. 109-111, 127; Pan. 36-47). And one that proved fatal not just for Pierius, but in the long run to the regime of Odoacer too.
While it was ultimately fatal, Pierius had plenty of opportunity to render significant enough service to Odoacer in order to be rewarded with land, which will be seen in Part II.
The Pierii of the PLRE
PLRE I.701 - husband of Coelia Nerviana, brother-in-law of Coelia Claudiana, a late third century Chief Vestal; an old friend of Libanius, accused of peculation during a stint as an officialis in the east before 359 (Libanius, Ep. 105)
PLRE II.884-885 - a late 4th/early 5th century correspondent of Symmachus, possibly an African senator (Symmachus, Ep. VIII.45); the early/mid-5th century monk, Nilus, seemingly corresponded with two separate men called Pierius (Nilus, Ep. I.316, II.167), while a certain Pierius was serving as city prefect of Ravenna on 9 June 440 (NVal 8.1)
PLRE IIIb.1041 - Pierius, primicerius singulariorum of Cassiodorus during his time as praetorian prefect of Italy in 534-535 (Cassiodorus, Var. XI.32)
Bibliography
Clover, F.M. 'A Game of Bluff: The Fate of Sicily after A.D. 476', Historia 48 (1999), 235-244
Crawford, P.T. The Emperor Zeno: The Perils of Fifth Century Power Politics in Constantinople. Barnsley (2019)
Tjäder, J.-O. Die Nichtliterarischen Lateinischen Papyri Italiens aus der Zeit. Lund (1955), vol. 1 pp. 279–293
Wolfram, H. History of the Goths. Berkeley (1990)
Originally posted on the CANI website and reposted here with permission
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