Editing Avitus (section)

==Consolidation of power==

The effective power of Avitus depended on the support of all the major players in the Western Roman Empire in the mid-5th century. 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]].

On 1 January 456, Avitus took the consulate,<ref>On this occasion, [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] declamed his panegyric.</ref> as traditionally the Emperors held the consulate in the first year upon assuming the purple. However, his consulate ''sine collega'' (without a second Consul) was not recognised by the Eastern court, which nominated two consuls, [[Iohannes (consul 456)|Iohannes]] and [[Varanes (consul 456)|Varanes]]. The fact that the two courts did not agree on a couple of consuls but each nominated its own means that despite the efforts of Avitus to receive the recognition of the Eastern Emperor,<ref>[[Hydatius]] writes (''Chronicle'', 166) that Avitus sent some ambassadors to Marcian to discuss the separation of their spheres of influences, and later (''Chronicle'', 169) adds that the two emperors ruled in agreement.</ref> the relationship between the two halves of the Empire was not optimal.