84 LEO-I the Thracian (73; r.02.457-01.474) (E)
85 MAJORIAN (c.41; r.04.457-09.461) (W)
| Battle: Lake Maggiore | Italy | Burko/Alamanni | 457 |
| Battle: Sinuessa | Campania | Majorian/Vandals | 458 |
In the East the emperor Marcian died and was succeeded by 68Flavius Valerius Leo, the last of the emperors to be placed on the throne by Aspar. Leo did not select a colleague for the West, possibly because he intended to rule alone, but instead appointed Majorian and Ricimer as magister magistri.
After the death of Aetius, the Alamanni had settled in Alsace and part of the Swiss Plateau. In 457 a group of about nine hundred Alamanni crossed the Alps from Raetia to plunder northern Italy. They penetrated down to Lake Maggiore, where they were intercepted and defeated by the troops of the comes Burco, sent by Majorian to stop them. Majorian celebrated this victory as his own and on 1 April, six miles outside Ravenna, the army acclaimed him emperor.
In summer 458, a group of Vandals landed in Campania at the mouth of the Garigliano River and started to devastate the region. Majorian personally led the Roman army to a victory over the invaders near Sinuessa and followed the defeated Vandals loaded with their booty to their ships, killing many of them including their commander.
In 458 the Ostrogoths in Pannonia under their ruler Valamir (c.45; r.447-465) did not receive their subsidy. Valamir and his brothers therefore attacked Illyricum from 459 to 462, at which time the emperor Leo-I agreed to pay the Goths three hundred pounds of gold per annum.
Theodoric II (c.40; r.453-466), King of the Visigoths
| Battle: Tarraconensis | Spain | Frederic/Bacaudae | 453 |
| Battle: Campus Paramus | Spain | Theodoric II/Rechiar | 05.10.456 |
| Battle: Arelate | France | Majorian/Theodoric II | late 459 |
| Battle: Lucentum | Spain | Gaiseric/Romans | 461 |
In Gallaecia the Suebi king Rechila was succeeded by his son Rechiar (fl.448-456). In the first action of his reign Rechiar marched to Toulouse and married a daughter of the Visigothic king Theodoric-I in 448. Returning to Spain in 449, he attacked the Vascones southwest of the Pyrenees and joined the bacaudae in pillaging the territory of Zaragoza, seventy kilometres west of the provincial capital at Tarragona.
When Theodoric died he was succeeded by his son Thorismund (c.33; r.451-453). Thorismund was murdered in 453 and succeeded in turn by his brother Theodoric II (c.40; r.453-466). In 453 another brother, Frederic, who had helped assassinate Thorismund, led a Visigoth force that attacked and defeated the bacaudae in Tarraconensis.
In 456 Theodoric II, with the approval of Avitus, invaded Spain and defeated Rechiar at the Battle at Campus Paramus, twenty kilometres from Astorga on the Urbicus (=Orbigo) River in the northwest. Braga was sacked, Rechiar was captured and put to death, the Suebic Kingdom was reduced to warring factions within Gallaecia, and the Visigoths established their control over most of southern and eastern Spain.
In 458 Majorian entered Gaul with his generals Nepotianus (fl.448-465) and Aegidius (fl.450-464/5), whom he had appointed magister militum per Gallias. In 459 Gallia Lugdunensis (northwest-southeast France), supported by the Burgundians, refused to recognise Majorian who proceeded to punish the Burgundians by capturing their city Lugdunum (=Lyon).
Late in the year the Visigoths managed to trap Aegidius in Arles (=Arelate), but they were defeated by a relief force under Majorian. A peace treaty was quickly arranged returning the control of Gaul and Spain to Rome and renewing the Visigoths’ federal status (459).
Majorian then marched to Spain where his fleet was being prepared in the bay of Lucentum (=Alicante) on the southeast coast for an attack on Vandals, but Gaiseric pounced on the unready fleet and destroyed it with fire (461). Majorian returned via Gaul to Italy where, having failed to deliver a victory over Gaiseric, Ricimer had him murdered and proclaimed 70Flavius Libius Severus (c.45; fl.461-465), a nonentity from Lucania, emperor.
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