Wikipedia
Avitus (; c. 380/395 – after 17 October 456 or in 457) was Western Roman Emperor from 8 or 9 July 455 to 17 October 456. He was a senator and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza.
A Gallo-Roman aristocrat, he opposed the reduction of the Western Roman Empire to Italy alone, both politically and from an administrative point of view. For this reason, as Emperor he introduced several Gallic senators in the Imperial administration; this policy, however, was opposed by the Senatorial aristocracy and by the people of Rome, who had suffered from the sack of the city by the Vandals in 455.
Avitus had a good relationship with the Visigoths, in particular with their king Theodoric II, who was a friend of his and who acclaimed Avitus Emperor. The possibility of a strong and useful alliance between the Visigoths and Romans ended, however, when Theodoric invaded Roman Hispania and then refused to help Avitus against the rebel Roman generals who deposed him.
Avitus is a genus of jumping spiders.
Avitus may refer to:
- Avitus of Braga was an early fifth-century literary priest of Braga (Portugal)
- Avitus, Western Roman Emperor (455-456)
- Alphius Avitus (flourished 1st century BC & 1st century), Latin poet
- Gaius Julius Avitus Alexianus, Syrian aristocrat (flourished 2nd century & 3rd century)
- Avitus Marinianus, Roman consul in 423
- Avitus of Vienne, Latin poet and bishop (494-517)
- A. Gratius Avitus (born 1968), Latin philologist
- Avitus (gens), a Roman family
- Avitus (genus), a genus of jumping spiders
- A major character in the real-time strategy game Dawn of War II, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.