* 456 – Battle of Placentia: Ricimer, supported by Majorian ( comes domesticorum ), defeats near Piacenza ( Northern Italy ) the Roman usurper Avitus.

* October 17 – Battle of Placentia: Ricimer, supported by Majorian ( comes domesticorum ), defeats near Piacenza ( Northern Italy ) the usurper Avitus.

After Petronius, the Gallic-Roman senator Avitus was proclaimed Emperor by the Visigoth king Theodoric II and ruled for two years, then was deposed by Majorian, who ruled for four years, before being killed by his general Ricimer ( 461 ).

A prominent general of the Late Roman army, Majorian deposed Emperor Avitus in 457 and succeeded him.

It is not known if Majorian expected to succeed him ; the new Emperor was, in fact, the Gallic-Roman noble Avitus, who had the support of the Visigoths.

Both Majorian, comes domesticorum, and Ricimer, comes, initially supported Avitus, but when the Emperor lost the loyalty of the Italian aristocracy, the two generals revolted against him.

First Majorian and Ricimer killed Remistus, the magister militum entrusted by Avitus with the defence of the capital, Ravenna.

Finally, Majorian caused Avitus ' death, possibly starving him, in early 457.

The first problems Majorian were to handle were the consolidation of his rule over Italy and the recovery of Gaul, after this province had rebelled to the deposition of the Gaul-Roman emperor Avitus.

When the news of the deposition of the Gallic-Roman emperor Avitus arrived in Gaul, the province refused to recognise Majorian as his successor.

Another clue is the fact that at the death of Avitus, the citizens of Lugdunum had allowed the Burgundians of king Gondioc to occupy the city, and that they sent an envoy to Leo, and not to Majorian, to ask for a reduction of the taxation.

Despite the fact that the Gallic-Roman aristocracy had sided with Avitus, however, Majorian wanted a reconciliation, not a punishment.

With the intercession of Majorian ' magister epistolarum Petrus, Sidonius Apollinaris, the son-in-law of Avitus, was allowed to deliver a panegyric in honour of the Emperor ( early January 459 ), receiving in reward the appointment to the rank of comes spectabilis.

When Majorian took the power deposing Avitus, the province of Gaul, where Avitus ' power was based, did not recognise the new Emperor.

The fate of Avitus had been marked by the betrayal of Ricimer and of Majorian and by the dismissal of his German guard, so the fate of Majorian himself was decided by the disbandment of his army and a plot organised by Ricimer.

Ricimer went to meet Majorian with a military detachment ; the magister militum met the Emperor near Tortona ( not far from Piacenza, where Avitus had been killed ), and had him arrested and deposed ( August 3 ).

* Ralph W. Mathisen, " Resistance and Reconciliation: Majorian and the Gallic Aristocracy after the Fall of Avitus ," Francia 7 ( 1979 ) pp. 597 – 627.

* Gerald E. Max, " Political Intrigue during the Reigns of the Western Roman Emperors Avitus and Majorian ," Historia 28 ( 1979 ) pp. 225 – 237.

Majorian, comes domesticorum of Avitus, and Ricimer, a general of barbaric descent, rebelled against their Emperor, defeated him near Piacenza, and obliged him to become Bishop of the city.

It was Majorian who succeeded Avitus on the throne.

Counting on the popular discontent, on the disbandment of the imperial guard, and on the prestige gained through their victories, Ricimer and the comes domesticorum Majorian rebelled against Avitus ; the Emperor was obliged to leave Rome in early autumn and to move north.

In 457 Majorian deprived Avitus of the empire and seized the city of Lyons ; Sidonius fell into his hands.

* 456 – The Visigoths under king Theodoric II, acting on orders of the Roman emperor Avitus, invade Spain with an army of Burgundians, Franks and Goths, led by the kings Chilperic I and Gondioc.

Born Varius Avitus Bassianus on May 16, 205, known later as M. Aurelius Antonius, he was appointed at an early age to be priest of the sun God, Elagabalus, represented by a phallus, by which name he is known to historians ( his name is sometimes written " Heliogabalus ").

The last indication that the Goths whose king reigned at Toulouse considered themselves Vesi is found in a panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris dated 1 January 456.

* Maximus appoints Avitus, most trusted general, to the rank of magister militum and sends him on an embassy to Toulouse to gain support of the Visigoths.

* October 5 – The Visigoths under king Theodoric II, acting on orders of Avitus, invade Spain with an army of Burgundians, Franks and Goths, led by their kings Chilperic I and Gondioc.

Avitus was dead and the Western throne without a pretender ; the Eastern Roman Emperor was to choose the successor, but Marcian could not do anything, as he died on January 27, 457.

But the general chosen by the army was the only viable candidate to the throne: the Eastern court was not displeased with the deposition of Avitus, an Emperor chosen by the Visigoths ; on the other side, the only other candidate, Olybrius, had a politically difficult relationship with the Vandal king Genseric, and no influence on the army.

Theodoric acclaimed Avitus Emperor in Toulouse, on 9 July, the new Emperor was acclaimed by the Gallic chiefs gathered in Viernum, near Arelate ( Arles ), and later, around 5 August, before Avitus reached Rome, he received the recognition of the Roman Senate.

The effective power of Avitus depended on the support of all the major players in the Western Roman Empire in the mid-5th century.

However, his consulate sine collega ( without a second Consul ) was not recognised by the Eastern court, which nominated two consuls, Iohannes and Varanes: the fact that the two courts did not agree on a couple of consuls but each nominated its own means that, despite Avitus ' actions to receive the recognition of the Eastern Emperor the relationship between the two halves was not optimal.

Ricimer had the Roman Senate depose Avitus and ordered the murder of the magister militum Remistus in the Palatium at Classe, ancient port of Ravenna, on 17 September 456.

The Emperor and his army entered the city and attacked the huge army led by Ricimer, but after a great massacre of his men, including Messianus, Avitus fled on 17 or 18 October 456.

Sidonius Apollinaris tells of a failed coup d ' etat in Gaul organised by one Marcellus and probably aimed at bringing Avitus back on the throne.

Carmen 7 is a panegyric to his father-in-law Avitus on his inauguration as emperor.

A surviving letter from Avitus of Vienne, congratulating Clovis on his baptism, makes no mention of the supposed recent battlefield conversion.

The eastern court at Constantinople refused to recognise his accession, so to further secure his position, Maximus quickly appointed Avitus as Master of Soldiers, and sent him on a mission to Toulouse to gain the support of the Visigoths.

However, a letter written by Avitus, bishop of Vienne, consoling Gundobad on the death of an unnamed daughter, gives details that suggest there was more to the story.

The literary fame of Avitus rests on his many surviving letters ( his recent editors make them ninety-six in all ) and on a long poem, De spiritualis historiae gestis, in classical hexameters, in five books, dealing with the Biblical themes of Original Sin, Expulsion from Paradise, the Deluge, the Crossing of the Red Sea.

The imperial treasury was almost empty and, after disbanding his Visigoth guard because of popular pressure, Avitus was obliged to pay their huge wages by melting down and selling the bronze of some statues.

Although further Emperors would don the purple on the basis of military power ( e. g., Constantine I, Valentinian I, and Theodosius I ), the phenomenon of the barracks emperors died out, to be replaced in the late imperial era by shadow emperors like Stilicho, Constantius III, Flavius Aëtius, Avitus, Ricimer, Gundobad, Flavius Orestes, and Odoacer, military strongmen who effectually ruled the empire as imperial generalissimos controlling weak-willed puppet emperors rather than by donning the purple themselves.