Majorian

Majorian (Latin: Iulius Flavius Valerius Maiorianus, c. 420 - 7 August 461) Was a Western Roman emperor from 1 April 457 - 2 August 461. Majorian was a skilled general and was probably the last hope for the survival of the crumbling Western Roman Empire as he was able to reconquer much of southern gaul and much of Hispania back under Roman Control. In 7 August 461, Majorian was deposed by his friend the germanic roman general Ricimer and was killed.

Reign, Betrayal, and Death

Citation: 

Ascending the throne

Ricimer and Majorian were really good soldiers and they fought in battle together, and because they were really good, people in the Western Roman Empire. So they killed Avitus, the Roman Emperor. But the thing was, Ricimer was a quite better soldier than Majorian (Majorian was still a skilled soldier), Majorian and Ricimer wanted to become emperor but Ricimer was a foreigner (he was not Roman). So he was not eligible for the Roman throne. So Ricimer had a plan. So when Majorian ascended the throne, he would be the emperor behind the scenes. 

Reign

Majorian became emperor in 457 AD.

Ricimer still had his plan still intact. But it did not work because Majorian became too good as emperor. 

Here is a detailed explanation:

During his reign, Majorian was able to secure several succesful campaigns in Gaul and Hispania reconquering much of both provinces and bringing it back under Roman Control. In 460, Majorian went to Hispania and ordered to build as massive fleet for preperations for an invasion of Africa, but before he was able to put his plans into action, his redied fleet was burned most of it destroyed and only leaving a few warships in a good state. After the incident, Majorian abandons his plans for a possible reconquest of Africa and instead focused on retaking Gaul and Hispania instead. He also replaced the corrupt ruling, which was one of the reasons of the Western Roman Empire falling. 

Betrayal

Of course Ricimer was mad, he tried to be the "emperor behind the scenes", but already, Majorian conquered those territories. So after he had the war fleets broken, his plan was to betray Majorian by saying secretly to the people that Majorian was unstable to the throne. This was because he became too jealous. 

In 461, Majorian came to Ricimer without knowing his new plan to talk about new plans for the empire. So he didn’t have any armor. As soon he approached to Ricimer, Ricimer killed his soldiers instantly, and Majorian was deposed and arrested. When Majorian was in jail, he got stripped and got tortured for the next 5 days. In jail, he was questioning, "Why Ricimer?".

Death
On August 7 461 AD, he finally got decapitated by Ricimer. Ricimer spread to everybody that Majorian died of natural causes.This is the version reported by both Procopius (Bellum Vandalicum 1.7.14, does not mention the Emperor's return from Hispania and said that Majorian died of dysentery) and Teophanes, who, however, records also the version of the death caused by Ricimer (Fik Meijer, Emperors Do not Die in Bed, Routledge, 2004, , p. 155; Stewart Irvin Oost, "D. N. Libius Severus P. F. Aug.", Classical Philology 65 [1970], pp. 228–240).

Succession

Ricimer put puppet emperors but nothing worked. Which led to the actual fall of the empire.

List of puppet emperors
 Libius Severus
Libius Severus
 Ricimer installed a puppet emperor named Libius Severus (Severus III; born in Lucania;. died 14 November 465). He was unknown by the Eastern emperor Leo I and by Majorian's soldiers.

References

Notes

Category:420s births
Category:460s deaths
Category:5th-century Roman emperors