caption father death_date predecessor successor birth_place burial_place title birth_date coronation issue image article_title name reign
tremissis of emperor avitus . flavius julius agricola 457 petronius maximus majorian clermont brioude emperor of the western roman empire c. 380/395 toulouse , 9 july 455 agricola ecdicius papianilla tremissis avitus-ric 2402.jpg avitus
 avitus 9 july 455 -- 17 october 456
avitus

`` this article is about the roman emperor .
for the other meanings of `` avitus '' , see avitus -lrb- disambiguation -rrb- '' avitus -lrb- ; c. 380/395 -- after 17 october 456 or in 457 -rrb- was western roman emperor from 8 or 9 july 455 to 17 october 456 .
he was a senator and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration , as well as bishop of piacenza .
a gallo-roman aristocrat , he opposed the reduction of the western roman empire to italy alone , both politically and from an administrative point of view .
for this reason , as emperor he introduced several gallic senators in the imperial administration ; this policy , however , was opposed by the senatorial aristocracy and by the people of rome , who had suffered from the sack of the city by the vandals in 455 .
avitus had a good relationship with the visigoths , in particular with their king theodoric ii , who was a friend of his and who acclaimed avitus emperor .
the possibility of a strong and useful alliance between the visigoths and romans ended , however , when theodoric invaded roman hispania and then refused to help avitus against the rebel roman generals who deposed him .
