Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the fall of the western empire 25
The policy of attacking the Vandals makes very considerable sense.
There were only two possible ways of breaking the vicious circle affecting
the western empire after the collapse of Hunnic power, whereby too many
political participants were bankrupting the entity to which they were
looking for rewards. Either the number of political participants had to be
reduced, or central financial resources increased. This clarifies the logic, it
seems to me, behind attacking the Vandals, the policy pursued by both
Majorian and Anthemius. Victory over the Vandals would have renewed
imperial prestige, but, more important, it would have removed from the
political game one of its major players. Perhaps above all, it would have
restored to the rump western empire the richest of its original territories.
Both Vandal expeditions failed (and as a result both regimes fell apart), 63
but what if either had succeeded? Particularly in 468, the expedition was a
very serious effort, 64 and the later success of Belisarius shows that reconquering
North Africa was not inherently impossible.
Buoyed up by victory and the promise of African revenues, a victorious
western emperor could certainly have re-established his political hold on
the landowners of southern Gaul and Spain. Many of them would have
instinctively supported an imperial revival. Sidonius, and the other Gallic
aristocrats who would later organize resistance to Euric the Goth, for
instance (see below), would have been only too happy to reassert their ties
to the centre. 65 Burgundians, Goths and Sueves would have had to be faced
in due course, but victory would have considerably extended the active life
of the western empire.
3. The end of empire, 468–76
As events turned out, the expeditions failed, and with them disappeared any
possibility of escaping the cycle of decline. As the Franks in particular grew
in importance, the number of players increased rather than diminished.
Since the empire’s financial base was simultaneously decreasing, the idea of
empire quickly became meaningless. The centre no longer controlled anything
anyone wanted. In consequence, the late 460s and 470s saw one group
after another coming to the realization that the western empire was no longer
a prize worth fighting for. It must have been an extraordinary moment as the
realization dawned on the leaders of individual interest groups, and upon
members of local Roman landowning élites, that, after hundreds of years of
existence, the Roman state in western Europe was now an anachronism.
63 Majorian was deposed by Ricimer after his defeat (p. 23 above); Anthemius’ defeat allowed
Ricimer to assassinate his main supporter, Marcellinus: O’Flynn (1983) 117.
64 Refs. as PLRE ii.213; cf. Courtois (1955) 199ff.
65 Sidonius: pp. 29,30 below. So, too, men in Spain such as Hydatius who had previously looked to
the centre for help: see pp. 9, 13 above.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008