Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Kolba]

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Eccidius wasn't british however, he was a roman aristocrat from the Arverni in Gaul, and friend to Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont. And the context is quite different from the Anglo-saxon Chronicle. Sidonius wrote him a letter in which he praised his defense of the city, so that's nearly just after it happened. It is quite possible Eccidius did what he did only with a few horsemen. He didn't beat out the wisigothic army, he just had them leaving the siege for some relief. It is possible he caught them by surprise. In the end, the city will fall to the power of Euric.

Anyway, I haven't read the exact text describing Eccidus victory. I have been basing on Daniel Mersey's book "The Legendary Tales and Historical Truths of the Most Notorious Warriors" (yes, the English title is very long, homever the Polish version is just "S?ynni wojownicy", which can be translated into English as "Famous warriors"), which shows ten semi-historical persons in "legend", "in history" and "in the battle" - Arthur, Dracula, Achilles, Beowulf, Macbet, Cúchulainn, William Wallace and other. He is frequently quoting after Leslie Alcock and Stephen Evans, speaking about the size of armies in Arthurian age. Daniel Mersey states that Eccidius was a Briton, homever it's not true - as you wrote. Being a son of emperor Avitus, he was one of the richest persons in the Western Empire. Author of this book probably confused Eccidius with Riothamus, as the latter was really a Briton fighting in the Gaul. According to Jordanes, in 470 Anthemius recruited the Bretons living in Armorica to fight Euric. They were led by king Riothamus, later also identified as candidate for king Arthur:

"Their King Riotimus came with twelve thousand men into the state of the Bituriges by the way of Ocean, and was received as he disembarked from his ships. Euric, king of the Visigoths, came against them with an innumerable army, and after a long fight he routed Riotimus, King of the Britons, before the Romans could join him. So when he had lost a great part of his army, he fled with all the men he could gather together, and came to the Burgundians, a neighboring tribe then allied to the Romans. But Euric, king of the Visigoths, seized the Gallic city of Arverna; for the Emperor Anthemius was now dead."