176- The Quote Unquote Emperor

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Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome,

episode 176:

The quote-unquote emperor.

When Rickemer arrested and executed the Emperor Majorian in August 461, it is entirely likely that he didn't think it would be that big of a deal.

Sure, it might be a little scandalous, but as PR problems go, it would almost certainly blow over.

After all, Rickimer was the real power behind the throne.

Everyone knew it, so it wasn't like this was a coup or something.

More like a CEO firing his COO.

But Rickimer underestimated the popularity of Majorian.

Living in Italy and surrounded by a bunch of Italian aristocrats who had soured on the emperor, it might have seemed to Rickemer like the whole empire hated Majorian and was ready for him to go.

But this was not so.

Majorian's policies may have been ticking off Rickimer and the Italian nobility, but that did not mean that they were ticking off anyone else.

So when Majorian was killed, these anyone else's were shocked and angry, and as we're about to see, they were not going to take it lying down.

Two of these anyone else's are of particular interest.

The first was the general I mentioned last week, the guy whose name I told you to remember.

Do you remember his name?

That's right, it's Aegidius.

Aegidius had risen up through the ranks with Majorian, and as you'll recall, one of Majorian's first acts as emperor was to make Aegidius Magister Militum, the commander in chief of Gaul.

Aegidius had then spent four years repacifying the region and getting it back under the thumb of the central imperial government.

That mission was about to take an ironic twist.

Aegidius was up in northern Gaul in 461 when word reached him that his old friend Majorian had been killed.

Now I don't know if Aegidius' reaction to Rickimer's coup took the form of a dramatic declaration, or if it was just passive-aggressive, cold-shouldering, but the minute Majorian's head hit the ground, Aegidius stopped taking orders from Italy.

The general who had just spent four years reminding everyone he came across that the imperial government was still the legal sovereign, and as such, fealty was not a suggestion, but a duty, yeah, that guy is declaring his independence from Ravenna.

And this would not turn out to be a short-lived thing.

Historians will wind up calling the territory Aegidius controlled in northern Gaul the Domain of Soisson, named after the modern French city of Soissons that stands roughly at the center of Aegidius's little kingdom.

The domain would continue on as a quasi-Roman rump state even after the fall of the Western Empire, until this last little outpost of Roman order was finally overrun by the Franks in 486.

Well, okay, said Rickermer.

We've got a rogue general up in Gaul refusing to take orders.

That's not such a big deal.

I can handle that.

But that was not all Rickimer was up against.

Another of Majorian's generals, a man named Marcellinus, had exactly the same reaction to Rickermer's coup as Aegidius.

Marcellinus was in control of Dalmatia, which at this point in history had drifted back into the western orbit,

though when Majorian died, Marcellinus was in Sicily.

He had been in place there to help run one arm of Majorian's planned invasion of North Africa, the invasion that had stalled when Majorian's Spanish fleet had been sunk by the Vandals.

But when Marcellinus found out that the Emperor was dead, he booked it back to his home territory double time.

And when he got there, he found out that Rickermer had already tried to bribe the Dalmatian garrisons, mostly Hun mercenaries, out from under Marcellinus, which, as you can imagine, did not go over too well with Marcellinus.

So like his colleague Aegidius up in Gaul, Marcellinus simply stopped taking orders from Italy.

But unlike Aegidius, who was wedged between a failing empire, some barbarian kingdoms, and the English Channel, Marcellinus was wedged in between the the two halves of the empire.

So rather than declaring de facto independence, Marcellinus simply turned east, wrote to Leo in Constantinople, and said, Hey, this guy Rickimer just overthrew the guy you yourself recognize to be the lawful emperor.

I'm not going to follow him anymore, but I'd be happy to follow you.

So consider this my declaration of defection.

But this was not all Rickemer was now up against.

Although most of his problems were caused by people ticked off about his little coup, yet another problem was caused by a guy who was not so much ticked off as excited about the opportunity the coup presented.

And here we are talking about our old friend King Genseric of the Vandals.

Now before I go on, I would like to say that it sort of feels like Genseric has been around forever.

He first showed up back in 428 AD, which was was eight episodes back when we were talking about the rise of Aetius.

And now here he is, 33 years later, still going strong.

So he's got to be getting old, right?

Like, pretty soon we're going to be dealing with a new king of the Vandals, right?

Wrong.

The dude is going to outlive the Western Empire.

He isn't going to die until January 477, at the age of 88, and after having ruled for almost 50 years.

which is just, you know, way to go, Genseric.

So anyway, King Genseric, who was by a healthy margin now the senior statesman of the Western Empire and father-in-law of the imperial princess Eudoxia the Younger, took the death of Majorian as an opportunity to influence who would be chosen as his successor.

The man Genseric backed was a senator by the name of Aenesius Olibrius.

Why Aenesius Olibrius?

Well, because he was married to Placidia, the other imperial princess currently enjoying the hospitality of the Vandals.

Once nearly engaged to Majorian, and then formally engaged to Aetius' son, Placidia had finally wound up married to Senator Olibrius shortly after the murder of her father Valentinian III.

Though I don't believe there is any firm proof to this one way or the other, it is supposed that Olibrius was related to Valentinian's executioner slash successor, Petronius Maximus.

You'll recall that when Maximus seized power, he tried to give his new and ultimately short-lived regime the veneer of legitimacy by marrying the imperial widow Licinia Eudoxia and then marrying the younger Eudoxia to his son.

It is supposed that Olibrius was a cousin or something of Maximus's, and his marriage to Placidia was a part of this larger legitimacy project.

But so far the marriage had not really amounted to anything.

Olibrius had been in Constantinople when Genseric sacked Rome, and then spirited away his new bride, so it's not like the two could have spent much time around one another.

But because he was in Constantinople when Maximus fell, Olibrius managed to survive the regime change, and then, because he remained in the East in a state of semi-exile, he managed to live through the next regime change as well.

So when Rickomer initiated the third regime change in six years, Olibrius was still alive, still married to Placidia, and since he had been living in Constantinople for half a decade, on fairly good terms with Leo and the Court of the East.

When word came that Majorian was dead, Genseric stepped forward and boldly proclaimed that Senator Olibrius was the only man in the Empire with any kind of legitimate claim to the Imperial throne.

A husband of the unjustly deposed Theodotian family, he would return honor and dignity and blah blah blah.

The bottom line is that Olibrius was now as much a part of Genseric's family as he was of Theodotian family, so Genseric wanting him on the throne of the West was a no-brainer.

But Rickermer wasn't having this for a second.

If the problem with Majorian had been that Rickimer couldn't sufficiently control him, then there was no way the general was going to accept Olibrius, who would be part creature of the Vandals and part creature of Constantinople.

Plus, Olibrius' legitimacy was going to flow from his marriage to Placidia rather than from the patronage of Rickimer.

So in Rickimer's mind, I doubt there was a worse candidate for the throne than Olibrius.

Gensteric stepped up the pressure by intensifying vandal raids on the Italian coast, promising to shut them down only if Olibrius was elevated.

But Rickimer refused to budge.

After a three-month interregnum, Rickimer finally found a candidate more to his liking.

Someone dull, weak-willed, and entirely dependent on Rickemer.

Enter Libius Severus.

Dull, weak willed, entirely dependent on Rickimer, Libius Severus.

We know almost nothing about the new would-be emperor until he suddenly appears in Ravenna accepting the diadem in November of 461.

Not that it really matters.

Libius Severus is not exactly the lynchpin of Roman history.

During the reign of Majorian, Rickimer may have fancied himself the power behind the throne, but it's pretty clear that Majorian himself, and a good number of other people, considered it to be more of a partnership.

With the elevation of Severus, though, this ambiguity was gone.

Rickimer was the power behind the throne.

These are the years where you have references to King Rickimer.

Not references mocking his hubris, mind you, but just straight-up references to King Rickimer, because that's basically what he now was.

As I mentioned a few episodes back, the famous historian J.B.

Berry once said that Rickimer was the link between Stilico and Odoacer, and was the first German to be virtual king of Italy.

And 15 years down the road, we're going to have a real German king of Italy, and the pro-Forman nature of Odoacer's seizure of power finds its roots here in the days of Rickimer, who, during these years, went so far as to possibly coin money in his own name.

We're not 100% sure that he coined money in his own name, but there are good reasons to believe that he did.

And I think it's telling that if it turns out to be true, no one is going to be surprised in the slightest.

The elevation of Severus was, of course, only really recognized in Italy, and so King Rickemer's power did not really extend that far.

Up in Gaul, Aegidius was essentially in revolt, as was Marcellinus in Dalmatia.

The Eastern Augustus Leo, for his part, never recognized Severus, though for the moment, he was not looking to make or break relations with the West over the issue of Majorian's murder and Severus's elevation.

Now, Marcellinus was apparently prepared to storm Italy as soon as the spring of 462 arrived and asked for Leo's support, but the Eastern Emperor refused to give it, instead counseling patience.

Not wanting to make any bold moves without Constantinople's backing, Marcellinus took the counsel and sat on his hands.

But he was done taking orders from Rickomer.

The de facto king's first concern, though, was the situation in Gaul.

If he tried to attack Marcellinus first, he might incur the wrath of Leo, so better to settle the north before worrying about the east.

But if he wanted to maintain his iron grip on Italy, Rickimer knew he couldn't go marching off to retake Gaul himself.

He needed to find a capable subordinate to do the job for him.

Now he couldn't send the quote-unquote emperor Severus.

Not only was he likely thoroughly inexperienced in military affairs, but sending an emperor off to win back Gaul had almost certainly been one of the keys to the breakdown in the relationship between Majorian and Rickimer.

Majorian had been starting to forge an independent power base for himself, and we can't have that.

Better to find some suitably motivated underling and send him off to get the job done.

Rickimer had the perfect candidate in an old soldier named Agrippinus.

What recommended Agrippinus for the job?

Well, for starters, he had been Avitas' magister militum for Gaul, which meant that he was the one who had been replaced by Aegidius when Majorian came to power.

But the fun did not stop there.

A native of Gaul himself, Agrippinus had not gone quietly into that good night, nor had Aegidius given him any reason to.

Eventually, the feud between the two men led Aegidius to accuse Agrippinus of treason.

Sent down to Rome to stand for his crime, Agrippinus was found guilty and sentenced to death.

He managed to escape his captivity, however, and then seek asylum in the old St.

Peter's, where he remained until he was officially pardoned.

The details of all this are, of course, really vague, but the assumption is that the official pardon came after the death of Majorian, round about the time Rickimer was looking for someone to lead the effort to repacify Gaul and defeat the rebel Aegidius.

And what better man man to lead that effort than Agrippinus, who had lost his job and then very nearly lost his life to Aegidius?

When Agrippinus reached Gaul sometime in 462, he did exactly the same thing Majorian had done when he entered Gaul back in 458.

He made a beeline for the Goths.

But unlike Majorian, who was looking to defeat and repacify the Goths, Agrippinus was looking to befriend and re-empower them.

And when he arrived in Aquitaine, he found the Goths very receptive to the imperial proposals, because said proposals promised the Goths something they had been hankering for since they first put down roots in Gaul, a Mediterranean port to call their very own.

In exchange for Goth support in a campaign against Aegidius, the

emperor Severus was willing to cede them the city of Narbonne.

The Goth king Theodoric II jumped at this offer.

All those battles between his father, Theodoric the Elder, and Aetius back in the day had been all about trying to win a Mediterranean port for the Goths.

And now the Romans were just going to hand one over in exchange for what?

Beating down a few rebels?

Well, sign us up.

We'll be there.

But Aegidius was not leading some ramshackle band of ne'erdo-wells.

You'll recall that, as I just mentioned, the little rump state Aegidius founded was going to outlast the Western Empire.

Well, if it's going to outlast the Western Empire, there isn't really room in the story for a crushing defeat at the hands of Agrippinus and the Goths.

I mean, maybe there is, but that would become a pretty complicated story.

Lucky for us, they decided to keep things nice and simple.

Agrippinus and a Goth army marched north, Aegidius heard they were coming and drew his line at Orleans, the two sides met in battle at some point in late 462, and Aegidius emerged victorious.

Agrippinus and the Goths then fled, and though I have no idea what ultimately happened to him, that's the last we're going to hear from Agrippinus.

Whether he died in the battle or simply faded into obscurity, no idea.

He just drops off the face of the earth.

This nice and simple story is only complicated by one small matter.

Aegidius had not been idle since the death of Majorian, nor was he blind to the fact that pretty soon Rickomer would be coming for him.

So he made a sort of mutual defense pact with the Franks.

This pact obviously came into force when the Goths started marching north, and though Frankish support was likely the difference between victory and defeat for Aegidius, it was also likely the difference between victory and total victory.

It seems that once they had the Goths on the run, the various Frank nobles fell into squabbling amongst themselves about who knows what,

shutting down any chance Aegidius had of really crushing the Goths once and for all.

Had the Franks held it together, it is possible that Aegidius could have made what was left of the Goths into his personal vassals.

Then, between his alliance with the Franks, his mastery over the Goths, and his control over the rest of Gaul, well, he might well have marched into Italy and overthrown Rickomer.

Get Marcellinus on board with that plan, you know, you invade Italy from the east while I invade from the north, and Rickomer and his quote-unquote emperor don't stand a chance.

But instead, Aegidius's army got vapor-locked at Orleans, and though Aegidius would never lose his domain in northern Gaul, neither would he ever expand it.

While this drama was unfolding in the north, Rickomer was kept busy by Genseric and the Vandals, who were not taking his failure to elevate Olibrius lightly.

Throughout 462 and then into 463 and 464 and 465,

the Vandals continued to harass the Italian coastline, hitting and running and staying and fighting and then sailing off again before popping up here and then there and then here again.

The new fleet built by Majorian was maybe somewhat effective, but it clearly wasn't the silver bullet the Romans were looking for to shut down the Vandals.

Plus, Genseric was now moving forward with an ever more ambitious political program.

Above and beyond his stated goal that a Librius ought to be Emperor of the West, Genseric now began to make very Attila the Hun-esque claims on Roman property.

After all, his son Huneric had married Eudoxia the Younger, so wasn't he entitled to some kind of dowry?

Now Genseric was not so bold as to demand half the Western Empire as Attila had, but he did claim a good chunk of the personal fortune controlled by the emperors, which, he further claimed, had been stolen by Rickomer and his ilk.

That fortune belonged to the imperial women under his charge, or at the very least, their husbands not a bunch of thugs who murdered Valentinian III.

That Rickimer didn't have anything to do with Valentinian's death was immaterial.

The Theodosian family fortune belonged to the Theodosian family.

It was just that simple.

Now these sorts of legalistic arguments fell on deaf ears in the West.

It's not like Rickomer was going to just hand over the imperial fortune to Genseric and the exiled princesses.

So it seems reasonable to assume that these arguments were mostly directed at Constantinople.

Genseric was well aware of the fact that Leo was not recognizing the legitimacy of Severus, which meant that there would probably, eventually, be some sort of effort to remove him.

When that day came, Genseric wanted to make sure that his own demands were on record.

Plus, he wanted to make it super obvious to everyone what the price for his help in any push to dislodge Rickimer and Severus was going to be.

But Leo was in no hurry to go to war with Rickimer, even if Italy was increasingly politically, economically, and militarily isolated.

So the simmering tensions of the early 460s hit a nice equilibrium.

Skirmishing, jockeying, and maneuvering amongst the fractured power centers of the West ruled the day, with no one really taking anyone else down or suddenly grabbing up more territory.

Even the death of Aegidius in 464 did not disrupt things too much.

Whether he died naturally or was poisoned by enemies within the Frankish kingdom is unknown, both stories are reported, but everyone reports reports that he was simply succeeded by his son, who continued the independent rule of his father, and who would continue this independent rule until he and what was left of his little Roman kingdom were overrun by the Franks in 486.

This new equilibrium further survived an even more potentially transformative death in 465.

During that summer, the quote-unquote emperor Severus apparently died of natural causes.

There is some dark hinting that Rickimer did him in, but there is little reason to believe this story.

We have no idea how old Severus was when he died, but he was allowed to call himself emperor for four years.

His death would do little to impact the wider political and military dynamics of the Mediterranean world, a testament to just how insignificant he was.

He was so insignificant, in fact, that following his death, the West was going to get a sneak preview of what the political order of the future was going to be.

Rickomer had stalled for months before picking a new emperor after the deposition of Avitas, and then stalled for months again after the execution of Majorian,

testing the waters to perhaps see what would happen if he just left the office vacant.

Next week, Rickemer will wade out even further into the post-imperial waters.

After the death of Severus, the German general will refuse to elevate a successor, and then keep on refusing to elevate a successor for two full years, until finally, Leo had to step in and put an end to this unprecedented interregnum.

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