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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ricimer revealed the contents of the message to Olybrius and the two men formed a new alliance against their former masters.

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

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 ).

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.

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 '.

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

The emperor fled for the second time to St. Peter's ( or, according to other sources, to Santa Maria in Trastevere ), where he was captured and beheaded by Gundobad or by Ricimer on 11 July 472.

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.

Ricimer did accept as a supporter Aegidius ' rival Agrippinus, whom contemporaries claimed betrayed Narbonne to the Visigoths in return for their help.

Ricimer was then the effective ruler of Italia for several years.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

An ardent supporter of Majorian, Aegidius rebelled when Ricimer deposed Majorian, engaging in several campaigns against the Visigoths and creating a Roman rump state that came to be known as the Domain of Soissons.

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.

During this time, his brother Anthemiolus died while leading an attack against the Visigoths ( in 471 ) and his sister Alypia married the powerful magister militum of barbarian origin Ricimer.

The new Emperor needed the support of both the civil institutions, the Roman senate and the Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian, as well as that of the army and its commanders ( the generals Majorian and Ricimer ) and the Vandals of Gaiseric.

Avitus sent Ricimer to defend Sicily, and the Romans defeated the Vandals twice, once in a land battle near Agrigento and another in a naval battle off Corsica.