176- The Quote Unquote Emperor

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Episode one seventy six, the quote, unquote, emperor. When Ricimer arrested and executed the Emperor Majorian in 08/04/1961, it is entirely likely that he didn't think it would be that big of a deal. Sure, it might be a little scandalous, but as PR problems go, it would almost certainly blow over. After all, Ricimer was the real power behind the throne. Everyone knew it. So it wasn't like this was a coup or something. More like a CEO firing his COO. But Ricimer underestimated the popularity of Majorian. Living in Italy and surrounded by a bunch of Italian aristocrats who had soured on the emperor, it might have seemed to Ricimer like the whole empire hated Majorian and was ready for him to go. But this was not so. Majorian's policies may have been ticking off Ricimer any Italian nobility, but that did not mean that they were ticking off anyone else. So when Majorian was killed, these anyone else's were shocked and angry, and as we're about to see, they were not going to take it lying down. Two of these anyone else's are of particular interest. The first was the general I mentioned last week, the guy whose name I told you to remember. Do you remember his name? That's right. It's Aegidius. Aegidius had risen up through the ranks with Majorian. And as you'll recall, one of Majorian's first acts as emperor was to make Aegidius Magister Militum, the commander in chief of Gaul. Aegidius had then spent four years re pacifying the region, and getting it back under the thumb of the central imperial government. That mission was about to take an ironic twist. Aegidius was up in Northern Gaul in April when word reached him that his old friend Majorian had been killed. Now I don't know if Aegidius' reaction to Rickimer's coup took the form of a dramatic declaration, or if it was just passive aggressive cold shouldering. But the minute Majorian's head hit the ground, Aegidius stopped taking orders from Italy. The general who had just spent four years reminding everyone he came across that the imperial government was still the legal sovereign, and as such, fealty was not a suggestion, but a duty. Yeah. That guy is declaring his independence from Ravenna. And this would not turn out to be a short lived thing. Historians will wind up calling the territory Aegidius controlled in Northern Gaul the domain of Soissons, named after the modern French city of Soissons that stands roughly at the center of Aegidius's little kingdom. The domain would continue on as a quasi Roman rump state even after the fall of the Western Empire, until this last little outpost of Roman order was finally overrun by the Franks in April. Well, okay, said Ricimer. We've got a rogue general up in Gaul refusing to take orders. That's not such a big deal. I can handle that. But that was not …