Deriving his power from his position as magister militum of the Western Empire, Ricimer exercised political control through a series of puppet emperors.
[6] As entry into the Western Empire's military was a frequent option for "losers of struggles for leadership among the barbarians",[8] Ricimer's family may have entered the service of Rome.
[11][b] According to Sidonius Apollinaris, Ricimer served under the magister militum Flavius Aetius alongside the comes domesticorum Majorian, whom he befriended.
[16][d] After Rome's sack, the Visigothic King Theodoric II proclaimed Avitus as Emperor, the Roman military commander in Gaul.
[22] At this point, however, the Western Empire encompassed only the Italian Peninsula and portions of southern Gaul, a mere fraction of the territory held by imperial Rome in previous centuries.
Ricimer, nonetheless, raised an army and navy from the Germanic mercenaries available to him and commenced campaigns directed against "barbarian" tribes in conflict with the empire.
[26] Avitus fled to Gaul to gather support from his Visigothic and Gallic followers but was defeated in the Battle of Placentia on 17 October 456.
[27] Avitus was captured, deposed, and forced to assume the bishopric of Piacenza, and finally executed—allegedly starved to death by Majorian and Ricimer.
[29] Whether or not he wished to be emperor is unknown, but in many respects, Ricimer can be viewed as an "heir of Stilicho", a barbarian general who served the Roman Empire faithfully.
[35][g] Majorian proved to be quite a capable ruler, to such a degree that historian Michael Grant claims he was "the last competent emperor the west ever produced".
[36] The new emperor demonstrated his military skill via campaigns in Gaul and Hispania against the Vandals and the Visigoths—atop instituting diplomatic and economic reforms—which greatly increased Majorian's standing among the senate and army, prompting Sidonius to produce a panegyric.
[41] With the Western throne vacant, the new Eastern Emperor, Leo I, appointed Ricimer to replace Majorian in his Italian command.
[46][i] Although he faced open military opposition from Western generals, with the docile Severus as emperor, Ricimer was master of Rome and Italy.
[47][j] The principal problem facing Ricimer during Severus' reign was the lengthy war against the Vandals—who controlled Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, the Balearics, and Sicily, while also making incursions into mainland Greece and Italy—and political opposition from the Eastern Empire.
[m] Ricimer proceeded to rule the West for eighteen months without an emperor as he waited for Leo to name Severus' successor.
[55][n] For nearly two years, the throne in the West remained vacant, until 14 April 467, when Leo named the Greek aristocrat and son-in-law of Marcian, Anthemius, to the position.
[56] Meanwhile, Ricimer married Anthemius's daughter Alypia, solidifying his connection to the emperor and providing the appearance of unity between the two-halves of the Empire.
[58] On this occasion, Sidonius composed a lengthy panegyric to Anthemius and within it praises Ricimer;[59] he claims that a goddess representing Italy speaks to the river god of the Tiber thus: Furthermore, unconquerable Ricimer, to whom the destiny of the state looks anxiously, his own efforts alone hardly repulse the pirate who roves across the countryside, who avoids battle, who becomes the victor by flight.
And at the same time he [Gaiseric] remembers that in the Tartesian lands [i.e. Spain] his grandfather Vallia, cast down the Vandal armies and their allies in war the Alans ...
Certainly you Marcellus were no more glorious when you returned from the lands of Sicily ... Noricum holds back the Ostrogoth because he [Ricimer] is feared; Gaul ties down the might of the Rhine because he inspires terror; because the Vandal hosts and their relatives the Alans plundered me [Italy] bare, he himself then took vengeance by his own arms.
[62] Soon after assuming the Western throne, Anthemius granted Marcellinus the rank of patrician in an effort to counterbalance the authority of Ricimer.
Basiliscus was to land at a distance from Carthage with the main army (transported by an armada of over 1,000 ships) and then link up with Heraclius, advancing from Tripolitania.
The tipping point of their relationship was the trial of Romanus, the imperial chancellor (magister officiorum) and supporter of Ricimer, whom Anthemius accused of treason and condemned to death in 470.
[25] Four months into the assault on Rome, Ricimer named Olybrius (the brother-in-law of Geiseric) to the throne in a move of conciliation, since the Vandal king had been pressing for his elevation.
[74][v] Anthemius tried to escape by disguising himself as a beggar, but the emperor was caught attempting to flee the city at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, where he was beheaded on 11 July 472.
One is tempted, at first view, to wonder why the eastern emperors, in addition to fostering western colleagues, did not occasionally try to cultivate some well-disposed candidate for the post of generalissimo.
The line of Western Roman Emperors ended arguably in either 476 (with Odoacer's deposition of Romulus Augustus) or 480 (with Julius Nepos's death), concentrating the remaining imperial power in far-off Constantinople.