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the fall of the western empire 21
under Ricimer and Majorian, remained implacably hostile. The eastern
empire also withheld its recognition, although it did not go so far as to
condemn Avitus as a usurper. 50 And in practice, when Avitus advanced into
Italy in 456, Ricimer’s forces were powerful enough to defeat him, at the
battle of Placentia on 17 October. In the aftermath, Avitus resigned to
become bishop of Placentia, and died soon after. The manner of his defeat
is indicative. Most subsequent western imperial regimes took the form of
Ricimer plus a variety of frontmen; Ricimer himself never sought the
throne. This would suggest that the Italian army he commanded was too
powerful for any western regime to function without it as a central player.
Nevertheless, Ricimer’s army was not by itself sufficient to control areas
outside Italy, and every imperial regime after Valentinian III also attempted
to include other Roman army groups, senators (Gallo-Roman and Italian)
and, from among the barbarians, at least the Goths and Burgundians.
Regimes largely independent of the immigrant groups, of the kind
which had prevailed earlier in the century, thus gave way, after 450, to
regimes which included them. This fundamental change in the nature of
political activity had important consequences. No group of supporters was
ready (nor previously had any of the more traditional power blocs ever
been ready) to back a regime without some kind of pay-off. One effect of
including immigrants in governing coalitions, therefore, was to increase the
numbers of those expecting rewards.
The most obvious reward sought by, and given to, the leaders of immigrant
groups was involvement in the running of the empire. Burgundian
kings took Roman titles, for instance, while the Visigoth Theoderic II
attempted to order affairs in Spain. 51 The Vandals’ intervention in Italy in 455
should also be read as an attempt to stake a claim in the new political order.
That they sacked the city of Rome has naturally received most attention, but
Geiseric, the Vandal leader, also took back to North Africa with him Eudoxia
and Eudocia – respectively, the widow and daughter of Valentinian III.
Geiseric subsequently married the daughter to his son and heir, Huneric. The
two had been betrothed, but not married, under the treaty of 442 (see p. 11
above), but, on assuming the throne in 455, Petronius Maximus married
Eudocia to his son, the Caesar Palladius, instead. Thus Geiseric intervened
in Italy at least partly because a match which should have cemented the
Vandals’ place in the new political order of the west appeared to have been
thwarted. Subsequently, Geiseric would also attempt to forward the imperial
claims of Olybrius who married Placidia, the younger daughter of
Valentinian, and was thus his relative by marriage. 52
50 Refs. as PLRE ii.198; cf. Mathisen (1981) 233–4.
51 The Burgundian kings Gundioc and Gundobad were both magister militum per Gallias: PLRE
ii.523–4. Goths in Spain: p. 22 below, n. 54.
52 Clover (1978) 193ff.; cf. generally Clover (1989a), (1989b).
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