Goar was a leader of the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

 in 5th-century Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

. He led his followers over the Rhine during the multi-tribe invasion of Gaul in 406, but quickly joined the Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, and subsequently played a role in the internal politics of Gaul.

Invasion of Gaul

Goar is first mentioned in Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...

's description of the barbarian invasion across the Rhine

Crossing of the Rhine

31 December 406, is the often-repeated date of the crossing of the Rhine by a mixed group of barbarians that included Vandals, Alans and Suebi...

 on December 31, 406. A number of tribes took part in this invasion, including Goar's Alans, another party of Alans led by Respendial

Respendial

Respendial or Respindal was king of a group of Alans in western Europe in the early 5th century CE.Respendial was king of one two groups of Alans which crossed the Rhine into the Roman Empire in 407 CE...

, the Asding

Hasdingi

The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...

 Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 led by Godigisel

Godigisel

Godigisel was King of the Hasdingi Vandals until his death in 406. He was killed in battle late in 406, shortly before his people forced a crossing of the Rhine River into the territory of the Roman Empire....

, the Siling

Silingi

The Silings or Silingi supposedly were an East Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. According to most scholars, examples Jerzy Strzelczyk, Norman Davies, Jerzy Krasuski, Andrzej Kokowski, Henryk Łowmiański, the Silingi may have lived in Silesia...

 Vandals, and several groups of Suevi. It is not stated where these groups originated from, though most historians identify these Alans with those settled by Gratian

Gratian

Gratian was Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.The eldest son of Valentinian I, during his youth Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian's brother Valentinian II was declared emperor by his father's soldiers...

 in Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....

 c. 380.

According to Gregory, the Roman-allied Franks

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 attacked the Asding Vandals by Mainz

Battle of Mainz (406)

The Battle of Mainz was fought between the Franks and an alliance of Vandals, Suevi and Alans and took place on 31 December 406. The battle was won by the Vandals and Alans, and cleared the way for their invasion of Gaul....

 while they were in the midst of crossing, killed Godigisel, and were on the verge of exterminating the tribe. But at that point the other Alan king, Respendial, came to the Vandals' rescue and defeated the Franks, "although Goar had gone over to the Romans." It's unclear from Gregory's account whether Goar actually joined the Franks in fighting his co-invaders; but in any case, he remained in Gaul while the Vandals, Sueves, and Respendial's Alans continued into Spain

Hispania

Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....

.

Usurpation of Jovinus

Goar next appears in 411, when he and Gundahar, king of the Burgundians

Burgundians

The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...

, joined in setting up the Gallo-Roman senator Jovinus

Jovinus

Jovinus was a Gallo-Roman senator and claimed to be Roman Emperor .Following the defeat of the usurper known with the name of Constantine III, Jovinus was proclaimed emperor at Mainz in 411, a puppet supported by Gundahar, king of the Burgundians, and Goar, king of the Alans...

 as Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 at Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 (as described by Olympiodorus of Thebes

Olympiodorus of Thebes

Olympiodorus was an historical writer of classical education, a "poet by profession" as he says of himself, who was born at Thebes in Egypt, and was sent on a mission to the Huns on the Black Sea by Emperor Honorius about 412, and later lived at the court of Theodosius II, to whom his History was...

). At the time, another usurping emperor, Constantine III

Constantine III (usurper)

Flavius Claudius Constantinus, known in English as Constantine III was a Roman general who declared himself Western Roman Emperor in Britannia in 407 and established himself in Gaul. Recognised by the Emperor Honorius in 409, collapsing support and military setbacks saw him abdicate in 411...

, was being besieged at Arles

Arles

Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

 by Honorius

Honorius (emperor)

Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

' general, the future emperor Constantius III

Constantius III

Flavius Constantius , commonly known as Constantius III, was Western Roman Emperor for seven months in 421. A prominent general and politician, he was the power behind the throne for much of the 410s, and in 421 briefly became co-emperor of the Western Empire with Honorius.- Early life and rise to...

. Constantine's supporters in northern Gaul defected to Jovinus, contributing to Constantine's defeat. Jovinus then threatened Constantius with "Burgundians, Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

, Franks, Alans, and all his army" (presumably including Goar). Jovinus' usurpation was put down two years later, however, when the Visigoths entered Gaul after their sack of Rome the previous year. The Visigothic king Athaulf, after a period of indecision, sided with the government of Honorius in Ravenna

Ravenna

Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...

 and defeated Jovinus at Valentia

Valence, Drôme

Valence is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Drôme department, situated on the left bank of the Rhône, south of Lyon on the railway to Marseilles.Its inhabitants are called Valentinois...

. The Alan and Burgundian response to this defeat is not recorded.

Siege of Bazas

After defeating Jovinus, the Visigoths came into renewed conflict with Honorius; this conflict culminated with the siege of Bazas

Bazas

Bazas is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.-Geography:Bazas stands on a narrow promontory above the Beuve valley 60 km/37 mi southeast of Bordeaux and 40 km/25 mi southwest of Marmande.-History:...

 in 414. According to Paulinus of Pella

Paulinus of Pella

Paulinus of Pella was a Christian poet of the fifth century. He wrote the autobiographical poem Eucharisticos . His poem is frequently used as an example of life in Gaul in the fifth century during the waning days of the Western Roman Empire.- Life :Paulinus was the son of Thalassius, and the...

, who was among the besieged at the time, the Visigoths were supported by a group of Alans (whose king he describes, but does not name). Paulinus, who had previously established a friendship with the Alan king, persuaded him to break with the Goths and side with the Roman defenders of the city. The Alan leader did so, turning over his wife and son to the Romans as hostages. The Visigoths thereupon withdrew from Bazas and retreated to Spain, while the Alans were settled as Roman allies.

Historians are divided as to whether Paulinus' unnamed Alan king should be identified with Goar, or with some other Alan leader—otherwise unknown—who might have been accompanying the Visigoths since Italy or before. The former identification would imply that Goar had allied himself with Athaulf after the Goths' defeat of Jovinus; the latter hypothesis would imply that from this time on there was a second, distinct group of Alans in Gaul, in addition to those of Goar.

Bishop Germanus of Auxerre

In his Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre

Germanus of Auxerre

Germanus of Auxerre was a bishop of Auxerre in Gaul. He is a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, commemorated on July 31. He visited Britain in around 429 and the records of this visit provide valuable information on the state of post-Roman British society...

, Constantius of Lyon

Constantius of Lyon

Constantius of Lyon was a priest from what is Auvergne in modern-day France, who wrote a hagiography of Saint Germanus of Auxerre....

 describes a confrontation between Germanus and a king of the Alans c. 446. This king had been ordered by Aetius

Flavius Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...

 to put down a revolt of Bagaudae

Bagaudae

In the time of the later Roman Empire bagaudae were groups of peasant insurgents who emerged during the "Crisis of the Third Century", and persisted particularly in the less-Romanised areas of Gallia and Hispania, where they were "exposed to the depredations of the late Roman state, and the great...

 in Armorica

Armorica

Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast...

, but Germanus persuaded him to hold off his attack while he got confirmation of the orders from the emperor in Italy. Constantius gives the name of this king as "Eochar", but many historians see this as a scribal error for "Gochar" (since Goar's name appears in some sources in this form). Other historians object to this identification, since it would imply that Goar's career as leader of the Alans lasted over forty years.

Also, the Chronica Gallica of 452

Chronica Gallica of 452

The Chronica Gallica of 452, also called the Gallic Chronicle of 452, is a chronicle of Late Antiquity, presented in the form of annals, which continues that of Jerome...

 reports that another Alan leader, Sambida, was given land around Valentia

Valence, Drôme

Valence is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Drôme department, situated on the left bank of the Rhône, south of Lyon on the railway to Marseilles.Its inhabitants are called Valentinois...

 in 440, several years before Germanus' confrontation with the Alans. If only one kingdom of Alans is assumed to have existed in Gaul, this would imply that Goar had already been succeeded by Sambida before 440, and that Sambida was then succeeded by Eochar. If, on the other hand, two kingdoms are assumed, Eochar could be identical to Goar, a successor of Goar, or a successor of Sambida.

The Chronica Gallica describes another grant of land to Alans by Aetius

Flavius Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...

 two years later (442), in which the Romans occupying the land opposed the grant and had to be driven out by force. Neither the leader of these Alans, nor the location of the land, is mentioned in the Chronica; but many historians associate this event with Goar as well.

In any case, Goar's Alans are universally identified with the group of Alans near Orléans

Orléans

-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

 who helped repel Attila's invasion in 451, and who were led at that time by Sangiban

Sangiban

Sangiban was a fifth-century Alan king at the time of Attila's invasion of Gaul . He was the successor of Goar as king of the Alan foederati settled in the region around Aurelianum . According to Jordanes, Sangiban had promised Attila before the Battle of Châlons to open the city gates and deliver...

—putting the end of Goar's reign, if the identification with Eochar is accepted, somewhere between 446 and 450.