Under Biorgor ( Biorgor rex Alanorum ), they infested Gallia round about, till the reign of Petronius Maximus and then they passed the Alps in winter, and came into Liguria, but were there beaten, and Biorgor slain, by Ricimer commander of the Emperor's forces ( year 464 ).

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 ).

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.

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

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

* 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.

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

First Majorian and Ricimer killed Remistus, the magister militum entrusted by Avitus with the defence of the capital, Ravenna.

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 ).

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 blockaded Anthemius in Rome ; five months of fighting followed.

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

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.

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

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.

There were actually two magistri militum to choose between, Majorian and Ricimer, but the barbarian origin of the latter barred him from the throne.

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

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.

In the immediate aftermath Ricimer spared his life, but forced him to become Bishop of Piacenza.

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.

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

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

They intercepted Modestus, delivering him and his message to Ricimer himself.