CHAPTER VII

Summary

AVITUS EMPEROR, 455—PANEGYRIC OF APOLLINARIS SlDONIUS AND THE STATUE IN HIS HONOUR—DEPOSITION OF AVITUS BY RICIMER — MAJORIAN EMPEROR, 457—HIS EDICT WITH REGARD TO THE MONUMENTS—BEGINNING OF VANDALISM AMONGST THE ROMANS—FALL OF MAJORIAN, 461

Avitus Emperor, July 10, 455—Sept. 456

The capture of Rome by Genseric left no political consequences of any importance. It had been nothing more than an African “razzia,” a piratical expedition successfully carried out, such as in later centuries Saracens from the same coasts more than once sought to repeat.

The throne of the West, no longer claimed by any family of Imperial birth, again became the prey of ambitious generals, and soon after the death of Maximus it was seized by a noble from Gaul. This still prosperous and powerful province, aided by the interested friendship of the Visigothic King, Theodoric, raised in Toulouse the General Avitus to the highest dignity. At Aries, in the presence of an assenting army and people, he shortly afterwards (July 10, 455) assumed the purple. The Roman Senate, although still jealously guarding its right of election, was forced to sanction this already accomplished act, and to invite Avitus to the city. The Gaul, a man of good education, here received ratification of the election, and his son-in-law, the celebrated Apollinaris Sidonius, on Jan. I, 456, in presence of the assembled Fathers, read the customary panegyric on the new Emperor, which brought him the honour of a bronze statue in the Forum of Trajan.