His mother Julia Avita Mamaea was the second daughter of Julia Maesa and Syrian noble Julius Avitus and maternal aunt of Emperor Elagabalus.

As a private citizen, he was probably named Sextus Varius Avitus Bassiansus.

His grandmother Julia Maesa was the widow of the Consul Julius Avitus, the sister of Julia Domna, and the sister-in-law of emperor Septimius Severus.

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 ").

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avitus without colleague ( or, less frequently, year 1209 Ab urbe condita ).

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 ).

He married Julia Soaemias, and was the supposed father of Varius Avitus Bassianus, the later Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Elagabalus.

Meanwhile Hormisdas reported to Avitus of Vienne that an additional number of Balkan bishops had entered into relations with Rome, and Bishop John of Nicopolis, who was also the archbishop of Epirus, had broken communion with Constantinople and resumed it with Rome.

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.

Then Ricimer defeated Avitus ' troops near Placentia, taking prisoner the Emperor himself, who was obliged to abdicate.

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.

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.

Avitus, the predecessor of Majorian on the imperial throne, had alienated the Roman senatorial aristocracy support appointing members of Gallo-Roman aristocracy, which he was part of, to the most important offices of the imperial administration.

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.

Avernia was isolated from the rest of the Empire and governed by Ecdicius, son of Emperor Avitus, while the territory later included in the so-called Domain of Soissons was located further north.

Eparchius Avitus ( c. 385 – after 17 October 456 or in 457 ) was Western Roman Emperor from 8 or 9 July 455 to 17 October 456.

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, but the possibility of a strong and useful alliance between Visigoths and Romans ended when Theodoric invaded Roman Hispania and then refused to help Avitus against the rebel Roman generals who deposed him.

* 455 – Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

* 456 – Magister militum Ricimer defeats Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.

* Avitus, Western Roman Emperor ( approximate date )

* Avitus, emperor of the Western Roman Empire

In the wake of the Vandal sack of Rome ( 455 ), the Visigoths had conquered Hispania, formally in the name of the new Western Emperor Avitus, actually controlling the territory themselves.

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

This hypothesis is further strengthened by the fact that Anthemius ' prestige misled the 6th century historian John Malalas to state that Marcian had actually designated Anthemius as Western Emperor after Avitus.

In October 456, in fact, the Western Emperor Avitus had been deposed ; it is probable that Marcian considered Anthemius as successor, but the Eastern Emperor died in January 457 before choosing his colleague.

Here he lived until 451, when the Huns, led by Attila, invaded the Western Roman Empire ; Avitus persuaded Theodoric into an alliance with Rome, and the combined forces of Theodoric and Aetius defeated Attila in the Battle of Châlons ; Theodoric died in the battle.

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

* Agricola ( vir inlustris ), son of the Western Roman Emperor Avitus

* 457, Execution of Western Emperor Avitus, Eastern Emperor Marcian dies from disease.

# Sack of Rome by Genseric, King of the Vandals – His Naval Depredations – Succession of the Last Emperors of the West, Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus – Total Extinction of the Western Empire – Reign and Character of Odoacer, the first Barbarian King of Italy

Petronius Maximus, who obtained the throne at the death of Valentinian III, recalled Avitus from his private life and sent him to ask for support to the Visigoths, but, at the death of Maximus, they acclaimed Avitus Emperor

It was Majorian who succeeded Avitus on the throne.

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.

Major source for Avitus ' life until his rise to the throne is the panegyric written in occasion of his consulate by Sidonius Apollinaris ( 431 – 486 ):

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 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 ).

Avitus had two sons, Agricola ( 440 – after 507, a vir inlustris ) and Ecdicius Avitus ( later patricius and magister militum under Emperor Julius Nepos ) and a daughter Papianilla ; she married Sidonius Apollinaris, whose letters and panegyrics remain an important source for Avitus ' life and times.

In the late spring of 455, Avitus was recalled to service by emperor Petronius Maximus and was elevated to the rank of magister militum, probably praesentalis ; Maximus sent Avitus in an embassy to the court of Theodoric II, who had succeeded to his father, at Toulouse: this embassy probably confirmed to the new king and his people the condition of foederati of the Empire and asked for their support to the new Emperor.

Avitus ' own efforts secured a temporary winter truce with them ; but in March 456, Vandals destroyed Capua.

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.

The contemporary historian Hydatius, who lived in Spain, considered the year 457 the third of Avitus ' reign ; Avitus ' own intentions are not known ; nor are the manner and date of his death, of which there are several versions.

He was one of four fifth-to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters survive in quantity ; the others are Ruricius bishop of Limoges ( died 507 ), Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne ( died 518 ) and Magnus Felix Ennodius of Arles, bishop of Ticinum ( died 534 ).

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

In 456 the Visigothic army was too heavily engaged in Hispania to be an effective threat to Italia, and Ricimer had just destroyed a pirate fleet of sixty Vandal ships ; Majorian and Ricimer marched against Avitus and defeated him near Placentia.