Bagaudae
The name for groups of insurgents in the Later Roman Empire, particularly
Gaul. They came to the attention of the authorities in
284, and were crushed by
286 under the Caesar
Maximian and
Carausius, working for the Augustus
Diocletian. Their leaders are given as Amandus and Aelianus. There has been some speculation that theirs was a Christian revolt, but the sparsity of information in the texts gives this little substance, although there may well have been Christians among them.
The name is also applied to later rebels in the Ebro valley.
Some left-wing Basque nationalists have considered them as rebel Basque peasants, hence establishing a current of Basque revolutionaries through the centuries.