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However, like the other barbarians
before him, he cannot bring himself
to the ultimate stage: mounting the
imperial throne.
In 457, the emperor of the East,
Leo 1, makes Ricirner
patricius
or
prime minister. Marjoran is made
emperor in the West a few months
later. In 461 Marjoran dies and
Ri cimer raises Severus to the
throne. The latter dies in 465, and
Ricimer rules alone for two years. In
467, the eastern emperor sends An–
themius to Rome as emperor, along
with his daughter. She becomes the
bride of Ricimer.
By this time, the Visigothic king,
Euric, has made himself ruler of all
Gaul. The empire in the West is
clearly falling to pieces.
Ricimer marches into Rome in
July 472. Another puppet, Olybrius,
is made emperor. He lasts only a
few months. Both Ricimer and
Olybrius die in that year. For six–
teen years, Ricirner, in his own pe–
culiar way, has championed Rome,
trying to keep the ragged pieces of
the empire together.
By March 473, Ricimer's succes-
,
sor Gundobad proclaims Glycerius
emperor. He is in turn succeeded by
Julius Nepos, an appointee of Con–
stantinople.
Now the stage is set for the final
disintegration. In 475, a certain Ro–
roan named Orestes, the former sec–
retary of Attila the Hun, forces
Julius Nepos, the appointed em–
peror in the West, to ftee from l taly.
Orestes then proclaims his son
Romulus Augustulus emperor. The
barbarían mercenaries now demand
one third of the soil of ltaly itself as
their personal domain. Orestes nat–
urally refuses their demand and his
obstinacy ushers in the end of the
Roman Empire. The barbarians kili
Orestes. Odovacer, a Germanic ad–
venturer from beyond the Danube,
-.
is
elected their king.
For twenty years, the western em-
perors have merely been the pup–
pets of various Germanic generals
and chieftains striving for rnastery
in ltaly. In fact, the Roman Empire
in the West has been near death for
PLAIN TRUTH October 1973