Editing Majorian (section)

==Fall and death==
[[File:As Majorian-RIC 2646v.jpg|thumb|250px|[[As (coin)|As]] coin of Majorian.]]
Just as [[Avitus]]'s fate had been decided by the betrayal by [[Ricimer]] and 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 organized by Ricimer. In fact, while the Emperor was busy away from Italy, the barbarian ''[[patrikios|patricius]] et [[magister militum]]'' had gathered around himself the aristocratic opposition to his former comrade with whom, just a few years earlier, he had cultivated dreams of power. Majorian's legislation had shown that he intended to intervene decisively on issues that plagued the empire, even if they countered the interests of influential aristocrats.<ref name="mathisen" /><ref>Hydatius, 210.</ref>

After spending the winter and the spring after the defeat in the Vandal campaign at [[Arelate]],<ref name=gallica /> Majorian left during summer with a small guard (probably ''domestici''),<ref name="Priscus, fr. 36.2"/> probably with the intention to reach Rome.<ref>Hydatius, ''Chron.'', p. 32; Priscus, fr. 36.2.</ref> He did not try to cross the Alps, as he had done in 458, but moved from Arelate along the [[via Aurelia]], in Southern Gallia and Liguria, only to change direction and move towards the north: he had probably received news that Ricimer was coming to meet him, and wanted to reach [[Dertona]] and from there take the [[via Aemilia]] towards [[Ravenna]].<ref>S. Giorcelli, "Epigrafia e coincidenze della storia: l’imperatore Maioriano, Dertona e una presunta nuova iscrizione cristiana", ''Rivista di storia, arte, archeologia per le province di Alessandria e Asti'', 107 (1998), pp. 173–188.</ref> However Ricimer intercepted him in Dertona (not far from [[Piacenza]], where Avitus had been killed) on 2 August, and had him arrested and deposed.<ref name=":0" />

The Emperor was deprived of his dress and diadem, and beaten.<ref>John of Antioch 226. Sergei Mariev, [https://dn721905.ca.archive.org/0/items/cfhb-11.1-nicetae-choniatae-historia/CFHB%2047_Ioannis%20Antiocheni%20fragmenta%20quae%20supersunt%20omnia.pdf ''Ioannis Antiocheni fragmenta quae supersunt omnia''], p. 415, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York (2008)</ref> After five days, on 7 August, Majorian was beheaded near the river [[Staffora|Iria]].<ref>John of Antioch, fragment 203; Marcellinus, ''sa'' 461; ''[[Fasti vindobonenses priores]]'', No 588. [[Victor of Tonnena]] erroneously claims that Majorian reached Rome and was killed there, and puts this event in 463 (''Chronica'', ''s.a.'' 463). Malalas (375 Dindorf) reports a strange version in which Ricimer was killed because of Majorian's betrayal in favour of Gaiseric.</ref><ref name=":0" /> The city of [[Tortona]] now hosts, in the church of St. Matthew, a building traditionally identified as the "mausoleum of Majorian";<ref>[http://www.comune.tortona.al.it/Database/urp/tortona/tortona2.nsf/pagine/DA680647AA36E2A2C1256C2C004ED0C3?OpenDocument "Mausoleo di Maiorano (Sec. I a.C.)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515151033/http://www.comune.tortona.al.it/Database/urp/tortona/tortona2.nsf/pagine/DA680647AA36E2A2C1256C2C004ED0C3?OpenDocument |date=15 May 2006 }}, ''Città di Tortona'';</ref> however, [[Magnus Felix Ennodius|Ennodius]] complains that Majorian did not receive an appropriate burial.<ref>Ennodius, ''Carmina'', 2.135 Vogel.</ref>

Ricimer spread the news that Majorian had died of natural causes,<ref>This is the version reported by both Procopius (''Bellum Vandalicum'' 1.7.14, does not mention the Emperor's return from Hispania and said that Majorian died of [[dysentery]]) and Teophanes, who, however, records also the version of the death caused by Ricimer (Fik Meijer, ''Emperors Do not Die in Bed'', Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-415-31201-9}}, p. 155; Stewart Irvin Oost, "D. N. Libius Severus P. F. Aug.", ''Classical Philology'' 65 [1970], pp. 228–240).</ref> then waited for three months before placing on the imperial throne a person he believed he could manipulate. He finally chose [[Libius Severus]], a senator of no political distinction, probably selected to please the Italian senatorial aristocracy. The new emperor was not recognized by the Eastern Emperor [[Leo I (emperor)|Leo I]], nor by any of the generals who had served under Majorian: not by [[Aegidius]] in [[Gaul]], not by [[Marcellinus (magister militum)|Marcellinus]] in [[Sicily]] and [[Illyria]], and not by [[Nepotianus (magister militiae)|Nepotianus]] in [[Hispania]].<ref name="jones241" /><ref>O'Flynn, p. 111.</ref>