Thursday, October 16, 2025

 

Greetings all,
 
Today we reflect on the victory of Count Ricimer over the Emperor Avitus at Piacena on October 16th in 456 AD:
 

 
This left Ricimer the master of the Western Empire. However the Emperor Leo I later appointed Majorian as Emperor of the West.

*Some have thought Avitus was just an usurper, and Maorian was the legitimate Emperor recognized in the East by Leo I.  Though Avitus was sketchily appointed by Theodoric and crowned in the West, he was the only candidate at the time. Majorian, the Comes Domesticorum, initially supported Avitus' bid for Emperor.

That changed when Avitus lost support of the Aristocracy in Rome. Thereafter Ricimer opposed him, and Majorian made his own bid for the throne, and was legitimately recognized as Emperor only after Avitus was already dead. For these reasons Avitus doesn't appear on the usual lists of Roman Usurpers.  :)

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
 

 

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