Relations between Ricimer, de facto ruler, and emperor Anthemius deteriorates completely.

In 472, the Western Roman Empire was plagued by a civil war between Emperor Anthemius and his Magister militum ( commander in chief of the army ), Ricimer.

Under Anthemius he was raised to the rank of patrician, becoming a possible threat to Ricimer, the powerful kingmaker behind the western throne.

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 ).

Then Ricimer besieged the part of Rome where Anthemius was for several months until the lawful Emperor was abandoned by his partisans, captured in a church and put to death by Gundobad, Ricimer's nephew.

A few days after the death of Anthemius, Ricimer also died, on August 9 or 19 ; his nephew Gundobad Magister militum was elevated in his place.

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.

On 25 March 467, Leo I, with the consent of Ricimer, designated Anthemius Western Emperor as Caesar and sent him to Italy with an army led by the Magister militum per Illyricum Marcellinus.

Anthemius ' matrimonial policy also included the marriage of his only daughter, Alypia, and the powerful Magister militum Ricimer.

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.

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.

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.

* 472 – Ricimer kills Anthemius and makes Olybrius new western emperor.

Ricimer then quarreled with Anthemius, and besieged him in Rome ( which this time put up a vigorous defence and surrendered only after more months of starvation ).

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.

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.

* Alypia, daughter of Procopius Anthemius, wife of Ricimer.

In 472, Anthemius ( Western Roman Emperor ) was involved in a civil war with his magister militum and son-in-law Ricimer.

This message asked Anthemius to arrange the deaths of both Ricimer and Olybrius.

He allies himself with Ricimer, de facto ruler of Rome, and marries his daughter Alypia to him.

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

The story told in the opera is quite different from the real one, despite the fact that Zeno claimed to use several historical sources ( Evagrius Scholasticus l. 2. c. 7, Procopius of Caesarea, Historia Vandalorum, l. 1, Paul the Deacon, vi ): Ricimer captures Rome, frees his sister Teodolinda and enslaves Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III ; a little later, Olybrius frees Rome and Placidia, and marries her.

Bilimer arrived in Rome, but died trying to prevent Ricimer entering the centre of the city from the other side of the Tiber, through the Pons Aelius in front of the Mausoleum of Hadrian.

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.

He moved on Rome with Visigothic support which gained his acceptance by Majorian and Ricimer, commanders of the remaining army of Italia.

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

But Ricimer had placed a guard at Ostia who found the secret letter ; Ricimer showed the document to Olybrius, which convinced Olybrius to accept the purple.

* Novella Maioriani 11, De episcopali iudicio et ne quis invitus clericus ordinetur vel de ceteris negotiis, " Episcopal Courts ; No Person Shall Be Ordained A Cleric Against His Will ; Various Matters ", ( given in Arelate, on March 28, 460, to Ricimer, also in the name of Leo I );

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 ).

Constantius ' success in rising from head of the Roman army to Imperial rank obviously influenced the actions of later holders of the patrician office, a list that includes Flavius Aëtius and Ricimer ; however, only Petronius Maximus ever made the same leap, and his reign was even shorter than that of Constantius.

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.

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.

However, relations between Ricimer and Majorian soured ; when Majorian's campaign in Hispania against the Vandals proved unsuccessful Ricimer deposed him ( 461 ), murdering another Emperor, replacing him with Libius Severus.

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.

He arrived in Italia with an army, supported by Marcellinus and his fleet ; he married his daughter to Ricimer, and he was proclaimed Augustus in 467.

Here Ricimer met his former friend, arrested him, and executed him five days later.

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

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