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

* Emperor Majorian builds a Roman fleet at Miseno and Ravenna.

This story is probably only a legend of the Italian folklore, but it is a clue of the carefulness of the preparation of the expedition: Majorian collected informations on the enemy and gathered a fleet of three hundred ships to support the army in the reconquest of Hispania and in the invasion of Africa.

In the twilight of the Empire in the late 4th Century, examples include that of Emperor Majorian, who, with the help of Constantinople, mustered a large fleet in a failed effort to expel the Germanic invaders from their recently conquered African territories, and a defeat of an Ostrogothic fleet at Sena Gallica in the Adriatic Sea.

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.

) Majorian prepared a fleet at Carthago Nova for the essential reconquest of the Diocese of Africa, and Marcellinus recovered Sicily from the Vandals.

The fleet was burned by traitors, and Majorian made peace with the Vandals and returned to Italia.

The Western Emperor Majorian planned a naval campaign against the Vandals to reconquer northern Africa in 461, but word of the preparations got out to the Vandals, who took the Roman fleet by surprise and destroyed it.

It is generally accepted that Julius Nepos was son of the comes Nepotianus, a general ( magister utriusque militiae ) who served the Western Roman Empire between 458 and 461 during the reign of Majorian.

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 ).

Majorian was one of the last emperors to make a concerted effort to restore the Western Roman Empire.

Majorian was probably born after 420, as in 458 he is defined a iuvenis, a " young man ".

Placidia was the younger daughter of Emperor Valentinian III, who planned to marry her to Majorian ( 450 ca .).

It was under the same Aetius that Majorian started his military career.

According to the poet Sidonius Apollinaris, the cause of the fall of Majorian was the jealousy of Aetius ' wife, who feared that Majorian could overshadow Aetius ' prestige.

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.

On the other hand, Leo rewarded both Majorian and Ricimer: the former was appointed magister militum, the latter patricius and magister militum ( February 28, 457 ).

Modern historians think that it was Leo I who initially refused to recognise Majorian as his colleague.

Leo I and Majorian jointly assumed the consulate for the year 458 ; it was customary that a new Emperor took this magistracy on the first year started as Emperor.

The recovery of the lost provinces of Hispania and Africa was a project that Majorian had to leave for later.

After this event, Majorian understood that he was to take the initiative, if he wanted to defend the hearth of his Empire, the only territory he actually controlled, and so he decided to strengthen its defences.

This inscription, instead, records only the name of Eastern Emperor, showing that Majorian was not recognised as lawful Emperor.

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.

Majorian planned to reconquer Hispania and use it as the basis for the conquest of Africa: the richest province of the Western Empire, which provided for the very important grain supply to the city of Rome, was in fact under Vandal control.

It was probably during the preparation of this operation that Majorian sent the comes and patricius Occidentis Marcellinus to Sicily with an army of Huns, to take back the island from the Vandals.

Marcellinus was the comes rei militaris ( governor ) of Illyricum, but he had become practically independent since the death of Aetius, non recognising the imperial authority ; Majorian had convinced him to accept him as Emperor and even to collaborate with his troops with the military recovery of the Empire.

In the meantime, Majorian was conquering Hispania: while Nepotianus and Sunieric defeated the Suebi at Lucus Augusti ( modern Lugo ) and conquered Scallabis in Lusitania ( modern Santarém, Portugal ), the Emperor passed through Caesaraugusta ( Saragossa ), where he performed a formal imperial adventus.

Even if their style was close to the Roman originals, Visigothic coins contained less precious metal ; it was probably for this reason that Majorian issued a law obliging the tax collectors to accept golden coins at their nominal value, with the exception of the " Gallic " coin, of lesser value.

On these coins the Emperor is depicted, with few exceptions, with an combat helmet, a spear, a shield and a chi-rho, looking towards right ; this typology was derived by a rare type minted in Ravenna for Honorius and used in great quantities only by Majorian, while it was dropped by his successors.

* August 7 – Majorian is beaten and tortured for five days, and later beheaded near the Iria River ( Lombardy ).

Possessing little more than Italy, Dalmatia, and some territory in northern Gaul, Majorian campaigned rigorously for three years against the Empire's enemies.

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 '.

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.

No series of semisses are attested for these two mints, probably because the semisses were typically minted by the mint of Rome and this mint was not active under Majorian, who never visited the ancient capital of his Empire during his four years of rule.

The minting of solidi is attested for the mint of Arelate in 458, a fact compatible with the presence of Majorian in Gaul in that year.

In first year ( 458 ) Majorian reserved the honour for himself, as the Emperors usually did in the first year they started as augusti, while in the second year he appointed his former colleague and powerful magister militum, Ricimer.

After five days, Majorian was beheaded near the river Iria ( August 7, 461 ): He was about forty years old and had reigned for four.

After the death of Majorian, Ricimer waited for three months before putting someone on the imperial throne he believed he could manipulate.

Carmen 5 is a panegyric to Majorian, which offers evidence that Sidonius was able to overcome the natural suspicion and hostility towards the man who was responsible for the death of his father-in-law.

" In late 458 Western Roman Emperor Majorian entered Septimania to attack Theodoric and reclaim the province for the empire.

After some months, allowing for negotiation with the new emperor of Constantinople and the defeat of 900 Alamannic invaders of Italia by one of his subordinates, Majorian was acclaimed as Augustus.

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.

Originally Emperor Valentinian had intended for Placidia to marry a young man named Majorian ( the future emperor ), whom Oost describes as having " distinguished himself in a subaltern capacity fighting in Gaul against the Franks under Aëtius ' own command.