The Dark Ages Collection. David Hume
and to him Theoderic sent ambassadors calling upon him to desist from his raids into Roman territory. Rechiar defied him and invaded Tarraconensis, whereupon Theoderic led a host of Goths, reinforced by Burgundians, into Gallaecia, and defeated the Suevians in a battle on the river Urbicus, near Astorga (October 5, A.D. 456). The victor pushed on to Bracara, which he captured three weeks later, and his barbarous army committed all the acts of violence and rapine usual in sacks, short of massacre and rape. Sometime later Rechiar, who had fled, was captured at Portuscale (Oporto) and paid with his life for defying his brother-in-law.64 The battle of the Urbicus was an important event, for it shattered the power of the Suevians. Their kingdom indeed survived for 120 years, but it never recovered its old strength.
The crushing victory won by his German allies in Spain did not avail Avitus. Before the great battle was fought he had left Rome, virtually as a fugitive, on his way to Gaul, and was probably already a prisoner. The circumstances which led to his fall are thus related:65 —
When Avitus reigned at Rome there was famine in the city, and the people blaming Avitus compelled him to remove from the city of the Romans the allies from Gaul who had entered it along with him (that so there might be fewer mouths to feed). He also dismissed the Goths whom he had brought for the protection of Rome, having distributed among them money which he obtained by selling to merchants bronze stripped from public works, for there was no gold in the imperial treasury. This excited the Romans to revolt when they saw their city stripped of its adornments. But Majorian and Ricimer, no longer held in fear of the Goths, openly rebelled, so that Avitus was constrained — terrified on the one hand by the prospect of internal troubles, on the other hand by the hostilities of the Vandals — to withdraw from Rome and set out for Gaul.66 He was captured at Placentia by Ricimer and Majorian. He was deposed from the throne and elected bishop of the city which witnessed his discomfiture (October 17 or 18, A.D. 456), but died soon afterwards.67
A new Emperor was not immediately elected. A temporary cessation of a separate Imperial rule in the West occurred on several occasions during the twenty years which followed the death of Valentinian. One of these intervals occurred now. They are often called interregnums; it is natural to say that from October A.D. 456 to April A.D. 457 there was an interregnum in the West, and the expression represents the actual situation. But we must not forget that in theory the phrase is incorrect. Legally, Marcian was the sole head of the Empire from the fall of Avitus to his own death at the end of January, and Leo was the sole head of the Empire for three months after the death of Marcian.68
The Master of Soldiers, Ricimer, whose prestige had been established by his naval victory, now held the destinies of Italy in his hands. He had succeeded to the post and the responsibilities of Stilicho, Constantius, and Aetius, but his task was vastly more difficult. For while those defenders of the Empire against the German enemies were supported by the secure existence of an established dynasty, Ricimer had to set up Emperors in whose name he could act. At the beginning of A.D. 457 the situations in Italy and at Constantinople were similar. In both cases the solution of the difficulty depended on the action of a military leader of barbarian birth; Aspar’s position was as that of Ricimer. Both were the makers of Emperors, neither could aspire to be an Emperor himself. They were Arians as well as barbarians.69
The legitimacy of any Emperor set up in Italy depended on his being recognised as a colleague by the Emperor reigning at Constantinople. Avitus had been recognised by Marcian, and if the seat of his successor was to be firmly established it was indispensable that he should obtain similar recognition. The political importance of conforming to this constitutional necessity was realised by Ricimer, and we may confidently assume that after the fall of Avitus, he, acting probably through the Roman Senate, communicated with the Emperor of the East. Marcian’s death postponed a settlement, but one of the early acts of Leo I was to nominate a colleague. That the suggestion of Majorian’s name came from Rome we can hardly doubt. Julius Valerianus Majorianus was a thorough Roman and on that account most acceptable to the Senators. He had been, we saw, the candidate of Eudoxia after her husband’s death. He was elevated to the throne on April 1, A.D. 457.70 At the same time Leo conferred upon Ricimer the title of Patrician.
There were two tasks for the new Augustus to accomplish if he was to make his seat on the throne secure and exercise effective rule in the west. He had, in the first place, to quell the opposition in Gaul. The fall of Avitus had aroused the wrath both of his barbarian friends, Visigoths and Burgundians, and of the provincials. Gallic Avitus had failed to conciliate Italian goodwill; it was now to be seen whether Italian Majorian would succeed in solving the reverse problem. There was little love lost between the Romans and the trans-Alpine provincials, and there was now a serious danger, such as had often occurred before, that Gaul would attempt to dissociate itself politically from Italy, and have an Emperor to itself.
There are indeed signs of a gradually widening rift between Gaul and the rest of the Empire ever since the time of the tyrants in the reign of Honorius. It has been observed71 that of the twenty-eight Praetorian Prefects of Gaul in the fifth century whose names are recorded, we know that eighteen were Gauls, and of the other ten none is known to be of Italian birth. This points to the conclusion that the feeling in Gaul was such that the central government considered it impolitic to appoint any one to that post outside the circle of Gallic senators. The loss of Africa probably accentuated the sectional feeling in both Italy and Gaul, and from this point of view the elevation of Avitus was a momentarily successful attempt of the Gallic nobility to wrest from the Italians the political predominance which had hitherto been theirs. It was the business of Majorian to preserve for Italy her leading position and at the same time to conciliate the Gallic nobility.
Majorian entered Gaul with an army composed mainly of German mercenaries, and found the Burgundians in league with the inhabitants of Lugdunensis Prima against himself.72 Lyons, which had received a Burgundian garrison, was compelled to surrender and was punished for its rebellion by the imposition of heavier taxation. This burden, however, was soon remitted, through the efforts of Sidonius Apollinaris, who delivered an enthusiastic Panegyric at Lyons on the man who had helped to dethrone his father-in-law.73 The Visigoths were besieging Arelate, but Majorian’s general, Aegidius, drove back Theoderic from its walls and firm compacts were made between the two potentates.74 The Burgundians were allowed peacefully to possess the province of Lugdunensis Prima.75 Honours were freely distributed to the Gallic nobility.
Majorian had accomplished one task; the other was more difficult. It was indispensable for an Emperor, who had not the prestige of belonging to a dynasty, to win general confidence by proving himself equal to the great emergency of the time; he must “preserve the state of the Roman world.”76 The deliverance of Arelate was a good beginning. But the great emergency was the hostility of the Vandals who in their ships harried the Roman provinces and infested the Mediterranean waters. The defeats which Ricimer had inflicted on their fleet at Corsica did not paralyse their hostilities. The words of an historian indicate that Avitus in facing this danger had felt his inability to grapple with it: “He was afraid of the wars with the Vandals.”77
Majorian prepared an expedition against Africa on a grand scale; his fleet numbered 300 ships and was collected off the coast of Spain. The hopes of all his subjects were awakened and their eyes fixed on his preparations. But a curious fatality attended all expeditions undertaken against the Vandals, whether they proceeded from Old Rome or from New Rome, or from both together. The expedition of Castinus had collapsed in A.D. 422, that of Aspar had failed in A.D. 431, the armament of Ardaburius did not even reach its destination in A.D. 441, and the expedition of Majorian came to naught in A.D. 460. Gaiseric ravaged the coasts of Spain and many of the Roman warships were surprised and captured in the bay of Alicante.78 Yet another expedition, and one on a grand scale, was soon to be fitted out and also to meet with discomfiture; and more than seventy years were to elapse until the numerous failures were to be retrieved by the victories of Justinian and Belisarius.
This misfortune led to the fall of Majorian. He returned from Spain to Gaul, and after a sojourn at Arles79 passed into Italy without an army. In Italy, and at Rome, he was probably popular;80 but now that