Therefore Gaiseric freed Licinia Eudoxia ( thus fulfilling Daniel's prophesy ) and her daughter Placidia ( Olybrius ' wife ), but did not stop his raids on Italian's coasts, in order to press for the election of his candidate on the Western throne, but his project failed, because Ricimer, who had become the Magister militum of the West, chose Libius Severus as new Emperor ( 461 – 465 ).

In 472 Olybrius was sent to Italy by the Eastern Emperor, Leo I the Thracian, ostensibly to mediate between Ricimer and the Western Emperor, Anthemius, whom Ricimer had trapped in a siege of Rome.

Ricimer had Anthemius killed and Olybrius acclaimed Emperor ( July 11, 472 ).

The powerful general Ricimer deposed and killed Majorian, who had become unpopular with the senatorial aristocracy because of his reforms.

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 ).

Therefore both empires had no Emperor, and the power was in the hands of the Western generals, Ricimer and Majorian, and of the Eastern Magister militum, the Alan Aspar.

The most important figure at the Western court was Ricimer, the powerful magister militum, who had already decided the fate of several emperors.

The new Emperor, however, had been chosen by the Eastern court, and, despite the bond of the marriage between Ricimer and Anthemius ' daughter, Alypia, they were not on good terms.

Ricimer had gathered 6, 000 men for the war against the Vandals, and after the death of Romanus he moved with his men to the north, leaving Anthemius in Rome.

The Eastern Roman Emperor, Leo I, sent Olybrius to mediate between Ricimer and Anthemius but, according to John Malalas, had sent a secret letter to Anthemius, urging him to kill Olybrius.

Ricimer intercepted the letter, and showed it to Olybrius, and had him proclaimed Emperor.

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.

First he chose Messianus, one of his collaborators in his embassy to the Visigoths ordered by Petronius Maximus, as the new magister militum ; then he probably went to Gaul ( Hydatius says to Arelate ) to collect all the available forces, probably the Visigoth guard he had just disbanded ; finally he led his forces against the troops of Ricimer, near Piacenza.

When Avitus had been deposed -- then killed -- by Ricimer, Majorian became the new emperor.

Previous to this, he had been a Patrician of the Western Roman Empire in 472 – 473, succeeding his uncle Ricimer.

Gundobad seized the title of Patrician when his uncle Ricimer, who had been the power behind the throne for the Western Empire, died 18 August 472.

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.

But Ricimer had placed Goths loyal to him at the ports of Rome and Ostia Antica.

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.

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

* August – Marcellinus is murdered in Sicily, probably at the instigation of his political rival, Ricimer.

* July 11 – Ricimer proclaims Olybrius emperor and dies less than two months later at his palace in malignant fever, vomiting blood.

In 468, Marcellinus died in Sicily, probably at the hands of Ricimer.

* Ricimer, de facto ruler, establishes political control for 2 years at his residence in Rome.

Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert into Tripolitania, holding the position for two years until recalled ; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was reached by Basiliscus ; the general was, however, assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains ; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves would remove from the world his most formidable antagonists.

Marcellinus was murdered, possibly at the orders of Ricimer.

Leo I wife Verina bore him at least two daughters, one of whom married the son of Anthemius, whom Leo I installed as Emperor in the West in 467 ( and whose daughter married the formidable " Shadow Emperor " Ricimer ), and the other of whom was Ariadne, who married the Isaurian leader Tarasikodissa ; Tarasikodissa was appointed master of the soldiers and adopted the name Zeno.

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 ).

But you also must kill your son-in-law Ricimer, lest there be anyone who might betray you.

* Ricimer ( Richomeres ), Frankish Comes of Gratian's Domestici ( the corps of bodyguards of the emperor who were stationed in the imperial palace ) sent to assist Valens in 376.

* Bacurius ( presumably Romanised Bakur ), a native and possibly prince of Iberia, in command of the archers and / or scutarii with Cassio that accompanied Ricimer as hostage, and who attacked without orders.

Flavius Ricimer ( c. 405 – August 18, 472 ) ) was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 until his death in 472.

He followed Aetius in Gallia, where he met under Aetius ' command two officers of barbarian origin who would have played an important role in Majorian's life: the Suevic-Visigoth Ricimer and the Gaul Aegidius.

Majorian played the role of the candidate for the throne of Licinia Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, and of Ricimer, who reserved for himself a role similar to Aetius '.

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

He was killed by Ricimer, his own general of Gothic descent, who contested power with him.

As Aspar could not sit on the throne because of his barbaric origin, he opposed Anthemius whose prestige would have made him independent and chose a low-ranking military officer, Leo ; in the West, as his barbaric origin barred Ricimer from the throne, it was Majorian who received the purple.

The tipping point of their relationship was the trial of Romanus, an Italian senator, who was a patricius and was supported by Ricimer, whom Anthemius accused of treachery and condemned to death in 470.

For most of the time, the actual rulers in the West were military strongmen who took the titles of magister militum, patrician, or both, such as Stilicho, Aetius, and Ricimer.

The most pointed example of this is the Suebian general Ricimer, who became a " Shadow Emperor " by deposing Avitus, installing and subsequently deposing ( and murdering ) Majorian, installing ( and possibly subsequently murdering ) Libius Severus, ruling the Empire himself during an eighteen-month interregnum, deposing and killing Anthemius, and installing Olybrius.

Avitus was in turn overthrown ( but not killed ) by his own master of the soldiers, Ricimer, who was responsible for both the installation and removal of Majorian and of Libius Severus, the removal of Anthemius ( installed as the Eastern Emperor's candidate ), and the installation of Olybrius – husband of Valentinian III's daughter ( and Petronius Maximus's stepdaughter ) Placidia, and loosely a member of the Theodosian dynasty.

Both Ricimer and Olybrius ( who was never acknowledged and was considered a usurper by the Eastern Emperor ) died in 472, and were replaced by the Burgundian prince Gundobad and his puppet Emperor Glycerius, a former court functionary.

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.