Libius Severus
Encyclopedia
Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius (Lucania, c. 420 – 15 August 465) was Western Roman Emperor from November 19, 461 to his death.
A Roman senator
from Lucania
Severus was one of the last Western Emperors, emptied of any effective power (the real power was in the hands of the powerful magister militum
Ricimer
), and unable to solve the many problems affecting the Empire; the sources describe him as a pious and religious man.
(Commander in Chief) of the Western Roman army, Ricimer
, had Emperor Majorian
killed, thus leaving the western throne empty: a struggle for the succession thus ensured, with the Eastern Emperor, Leo I the Thracian, the King of the Vandals
, Gaiseric, and Ricimer himself involved. The Eastern Emperor traditionally had the right to accept his "colleague," for the Empire was nominally still united. Ricimer needed a weak Emperor on the throne, in order to control him: his barbaric descent barred him from taking the throne for himself. Gaiseric had captured the wife and the two daughters of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III
– Licinia Eudoxia
, Placidia
and Eudocia
– during the sack of Rome (455)
, and, through the marriage of one of them, Eudocia, with his son Huneric
, he had entered the imperial family. Gaiseric's candidate to the Western throne was Olybrius
, who had married Placidia and was thus a member of his family.
In order to push for Olybrius' election, Gaiseric decided to put pressure on the Empire with several raids on the coasts of Italy and Sicily, maintaining that the peace treaty he had signed with Majorian was no longer valid; Ricimer reacted by sending an embassy to Gaiseric and asking him to respect the treaty, while a second embassy was sent by Leo I asking for the end of the raids and the release of the wife and daughters of Valentinian.
Despite the pressure of the Vandal raids, Ricimer ignored Olybrius and put the senator Libius Severus on the Western throne; he was probably chosen in order to please the Italian aristocracy. Severus was elected Emperor by the Roman Senate
on November 19, 461, in Ravenna
.
and because his rule was not recognised in several provinces.
no longer ruled several imperial provinces
even nominally: Britain
had been abandoned; Africa had been conquered by the Vandals
; and Hispania
was occupied by the Visigoths (who were foederati
of the Empire). However, the area under Libius' control was even smaller, as the governors of several provinces did not recognise him as Emperor: both Aegidius
, who controlled Gaul
, and Marcellinus
, who ruled semi-autonomously over Illyricum
, had been supporters of Majorian and thus did not accept Libius' election.
Even the Eastern Emperor Leo I the Thracian did not recognise Libius Severus; the historical sources related to the Eastern part of the Empire, Marcellinus Comes
and Jordanes
, consider Libius a usurper of the Western throne.
Libius Severus feared that Marcellinus, who commanded a powerful army, could descend upon Italy, and asked for Leo's help; the Eastern Emperor sent Philarcus as envoy to Marcellinus and dissuaded him from the attack. This episode is also important because it marks the passage of Illyricum from the Western to the Eastern sphere of influence.
To oppose Aegidius, Severus appointed his own supporter Agrippinus
to the office of magister militum per Gallias, thus officially giving him power over Aegidius. During Majorian's reign Agrippinus had been accused by Aegidius of treachery; found guilty and condemned to death, he had been pardoned, probably because of Ricimer, who then supported him in opposition to Aegidius. Agrippinus asked for support from the Visigoths, and with their help moved against Aegidius and his Frankish
allies, led by King Childeric I
; in exchange for their support, in 462 the Visigoths received the city of Narbonne
from Severus, thus getting access to the Mediterranean sea
and separating Aegidius from the rest of the Empire. Among Severus' few official acts, there is the appointment (464) as Praetorian prefect of Gaul
of that Arvandus
who, in 468, was to be prosecuted for treachery and condemned to death for having tried to obtain the throne.
Therefore Severus actually ruled only over Italy, even if in 465, with the death of Aegidius, Gaul returned to his sphere of influence for a short time. It is probably to this temporary control over Gaul that the limited issue of his coins by the mint of Arelate is to be dated.
who put Libius Severus on the throne, and the actual power was his. There exist some coins issued in Severus' name that bear a monogram sometimes identified with Ricimer's; even if these coins were actually issued in the period between Severus' reign and his successor Anthemius' reign, it is nonetheless an honour unheard of for a barbarian, who was even mentioned on the inscriptions just after the emperors («salvis dd. nn. et patricio Ricimere»).
Ricimer's control was so clear that, in recording the defeat and death of Bergor, the King of the Alans
, by his hand (February 6, 464, near Bergamo
), the historian Marcellinus Comes
calls Ricimer a king: "Bergor, King of the Alans, is killed by King Ricimer" (Beorgor rex Alanorum a Ricimere rege occiditur, Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle, s.a. 464). One source, Cassiodorus, goes so far to attribute Severus' death to poisoning ordered by Ricimer, when all of the other sources claim it was a natural death.
continued their raids; on one hand Gaiseric justified them complaining that he had not received part of Valentinian's legacy; on the other hand, he still hoped to put Olybrius
on the Western throne.
Vandal raids deeply affected the economy of the Italian landowners, typically senators; some representatives of the Italian aristocracy went to the Emperor to pledge for a reconciliation with Gaiseric. Severus chose the patrician Tatian and sent him to the King of the Vandals, who, however, rejected the peace proposal.
and the embassy led by Philarcus.
Another sign of the collaboration between the two courts is the choice of Consuls; according to tradition, each court chose a consul and accepted the one chosen by the other court. After taking for himself but without Eastern recognition the consulate of 462 (the first year he started as Emperor) and choosing an influential member of the Roman senatorial aristocracy (Caecina Decius Basilius
, Praetorian prefect of Italy from 463 to 465) for the following year, Severus decided not to indicate a consul for the years 464 and 465 and to accept the two designated by the Eastern court.
There is little doubt on the year, as in a passage of his Getica, Jordanes
claims Severus ruled for only three years; it is probable that this is a mistake by the 6th century historian, however.
As regards the day of his death, it is recorded as August 15 by Fasti vindobonenses priores, but a law by Severus dated September 25 has been preserved; either he died after that day, or the law was issued after his death in his name.
Finally, only Cassiodorus
, in the 6th century, maintains that Severus was treacherously killed by Ricimer, through poisoning in his own palace, but three years after Severus' death, the poet Sidonius Apollinaris
wrote he had died a natural death. According to modern historians Ricimer had no reason to kill Severus, who was actually a puppet under his control, unless he was an obstacle to Ricimer's reconciliation with Leo.
A Roman senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
from Lucania
Lucania
Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...
Severus was one of the last Western Emperors, emptied of any effective power (the real power was in the hands of the powerful magister militum
Magister militum
Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine. Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire...
Ricimer
Ricimer
Flavius Ricimer was a Germanic general who achieved effective control of the remaining parts of the Western Roman Empire, during the middle of the 5th century...
), and unable to solve the many problems affecting the Empire; the sources describe him as a pious and religious man.
Rise to the throne
On August 7, 461, the magister militumMagister militum
Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine. Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire...
(Commander in Chief) of the Western Roman army, Ricimer
Ricimer
Flavius Ricimer was a Germanic general who achieved effective control of the remaining parts of the Western Roman Empire, during the middle of the 5th century...
, had Emperor Majorian
Majorian
Majorian , was the Western Roman Emperor from 457 to 461.A prominent general of the Late Roman army, Majorian deposed Emperor Avitus in 457 and succeeded him. Majorian was one of the last emperors to make a concerted effort to restore the Western Roman Empire...
killed, thus leaving the western throne empty: a struggle for the succession thus ensured, with the Eastern Emperor, Leo I the Thracian, the King of the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
, Gaiseric, and Ricimer himself involved. The Eastern Emperor traditionally had the right to accept his "colleague," for the Empire was nominally still united. Ricimer needed a weak Emperor on the throne, in order to control him: his barbaric descent barred him from taking the throne for himself. Gaiseric had captured the wife and the two daughters of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
– Licinia Eudoxia
Licinia Eudoxia
Licinia Eudoxia was a Roman Empress, daughter of Eastern Emperor Theodosius II and wife of the Western Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus.- Family :...
, Placidia
Placidia
Placidia was the wife of Olybrius, Western Roman Emperor. Her full name is uncertain. The Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The reign by reign record of the rulers of Imperial Rome by Chris Scarre gives her name as Galla Placidia Valentiniana or Galla Placidia the Younger, based on Roman naming...
and Eudocia
Princess Eudocia
Eudocia, or Eudoxia was the eldest daughter of Roman emperor Valentinian III and his wife, Licinia Eudoxia. She was thus the granddaughter on her mother's side of Eastern emperor Theodosius II and his wife, the poet Aelia Eudocia; and on her father's side of Western emperor Constantius III and his...
– during the sack of Rome (455)
Sack of Rome (455)
The sack of 455 was the second of three barbarian sacks of Rome; it was executed by the Vandals, who were then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus....
, and, through the marriage of one of them, Eudocia, with his son Huneric
Huneric
Huneric or Honeric was King of the Vandals and the oldest son of Genseric. He dropped the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to Eudocia, daughter of western Roman Emperor Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia. She left him, probably in 472...
, he had entered the imperial family. Gaiseric's candidate to the Western throne was Olybrius
Olybrius
Anicius Olybrius was Western Roman Emperor from April or May 472 to his death. He was in reality a puppet ruler, put on the throne by the Roman general of Germanic descent Ricimer, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.-Family and...
, who had married Placidia and was thus a member of his family.
In order to push for Olybrius' election, Gaiseric decided to put pressure on the Empire with several raids on the coasts of Italy and Sicily, maintaining that the peace treaty he had signed with Majorian was no longer valid; Ricimer reacted by sending an embassy to Gaiseric and asking him to respect the treaty, while a second embassy was sent by Leo I asking for the end of the raids and the release of the wife and daughters of Valentinian.
Despite the pressure of the Vandal raids, Ricimer ignored Olybrius and put the senator Libius Severus on the Western throne; he was probably chosen in order to please the Italian aristocracy. Severus was elected Emperor by the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
on November 19, 461, in Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
.
Reign
Severus had to face several problems during his reign, because of the presence of RicimerRicimer
Flavius Ricimer was a Germanic general who achieved effective control of the remaining parts of the Western Roman Empire, during the middle of the 5th century...
and because his rule was not recognised in several provinces.
Unrest in the provinces
At the beginning of the 460s the Western Roman EmpireWestern Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
no longer ruled several imperial provinces
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
even nominally: Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
had been abandoned; Africa had been conquered by the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
; and Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
was occupied by the Visigoths (who were foederati
Foederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
of the Empire). However, the area under Libius' control was even smaller, as the governors of several provinces did not recognise him as Emperor: both Aegidius
Aegidius
Aegidius was a Gallo-Roman warlord of northern Gaul. He had been promoted as magister militum in Gaul under Aëtius around 450. An ardent supporter of Majorian, Aegidius rebelled when Ricimer deposed Majorian, engaging in several campaigns against the Visigoths and creating a Roman rump state that...
, who controlled Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
, and Marcellinus
Marcellinus (magister militum)
Marcellinus was a Roman general and patrician who ruled over the region of Dalmatia in the Western Roman Empire and held sway with the army there from 454 until his death.-Origins:...
, who ruled semi-autonomously over Illyricum
Illyricum (Roman province)
The Roman province of Illyricum or Illyris Romana or Illyris Barbara or Illyria Barbara replaced most of the region of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern north Albania to Istria in the west and to the Sava river in the north. Salona functioned as its capital...
, had been supporters of Majorian and thus did not accept Libius' election.
Even the Eastern Emperor Leo I the Thracian did not recognise Libius Severus; the historical sources related to the Eastern part of the Empire, Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes was a Latin chronicler of the Eastern Roman Empire. An Illyrian by birth, he spent most of his life at the court of Constantinople, which is the focus of his surviving work.-Works:...
and Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
, consider Libius a usurper of the Western throne.
Libius Severus feared that Marcellinus, who commanded a powerful army, could descend upon Italy, and asked for Leo's help; the Eastern Emperor sent Philarcus as envoy to Marcellinus and dissuaded him from the attack. This episode is also important because it marks the passage of Illyricum from the Western to the Eastern sphere of influence.
To oppose Aegidius, Severus appointed his own supporter Agrippinus
Agrippinus (magister militum)
Agrippinus was a general of the Western Roman Empire, Magister militum per Gallias under emperors Valentinian III, Petronius Maximus, Avitus and Libius Severus.- Biography :...
to the office of magister militum per Gallias, thus officially giving him power over Aegidius. During Majorian's reign Agrippinus had been accused by Aegidius of treachery; found guilty and condemned to death, he had been pardoned, probably because of Ricimer, who then supported him in opposition to Aegidius. Agrippinus asked for support from the Visigoths, and with their help moved against Aegidius and his Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
allies, led by King Childeric I
Childeric I
Childeric I was a Merovingian king of the Salian Franks and the father of Clovis.He succeeded his father Merovech as king, traditionally in 457 or 458...
; in exchange for their support, in 462 the Visigoths received the city of Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
from Severus, thus getting access to the Mediterranean sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
and separating Aegidius from the rest of the Empire. Among Severus' few official acts, there is the appointment (464) as Praetorian prefect of Gaul
Praetorian prefecture of Gaul
The praetorian prefecture of the Gauls was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided.- History :...
of that Arvandus
Arvandus
Arvandus was a Gaul who rose through the hierarchy of Imperial Roman society to twice be appointed Praetorian prefect of Gaul.On the first occasion, 461, he was appointed by Emperor Libius Severus. This appointment ended when Severus died in 465...
who, in 468, was to be prosecuted for treachery and condemned to death for having tried to obtain the throne.
Therefore Severus actually ruled only over Italy, even if in 465, with the death of Aegidius, Gaul returned to his sphere of influence for a short time. It is probably to this temporary control over Gaul that the limited issue of his coins by the mint of Arelate is to be dated.
Under Ricimer's control
It was RicimerRicimer
Flavius Ricimer was a Germanic general who achieved effective control of the remaining parts of the Western Roman Empire, during the middle of the 5th century...
who put Libius Severus on the throne, and the actual power was his. There exist some coins issued in Severus' name that bear a monogram sometimes identified with Ricimer's; even if these coins were actually issued in the period between Severus' reign and his successor Anthemius' reign, it is nonetheless an honour unheard of for a barbarian, who was even mentioned on the inscriptions just after the emperors («salvis dd. nn. et patricio Ricimere»).
Ricimer's control was so clear that, in recording the defeat and death of Bergor, the King of the Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
, by his hand (February 6, 464, near Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
), the historian Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes was a Latin chronicler of the Eastern Roman Empire. An Illyrian by birth, he spent most of his life at the court of Constantinople, which is the focus of his surviving work.-Works:...
calls Ricimer a king: "Bergor, King of the Alans, is killed by King Ricimer" (Beorgor rex Alanorum a Ricimere rege occiditur, Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle, s.a. 464). One source, Cassiodorus, goes so far to attribute Severus' death to poisoning ordered by Ricimer, when all of the other sources claim it was a natural death.
Vandals
During Severus' reign, the VandalsVandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
continued their raids; on one hand Gaiseric justified them complaining that he had not received part of Valentinian's legacy; on the other hand, he still hoped to put Olybrius
Olybrius
Anicius Olybrius was Western Roman Emperor from April or May 472 to his death. He was in reality a puppet ruler, put on the throne by the Roman general of Germanic descent Ricimer, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.-Family and...
on the Western throne.
Vandal raids deeply affected the economy of the Italian landowners, typically senators; some representatives of the Italian aristocracy went to the Emperor to pledge for a reconciliation with Gaiseric. Severus chose the patrician Tatian and sent him to the King of the Vandals, who, however, rejected the peace proposal.
Relationship with the Eastern Empire
Even if Severus was not officially recognised by Eastern emperor Leo I the Thracian, nonetheless the two halves did collaborate, as shown by the episode of Leo's intercession with MarcellinusMarcellinus (magister militum)
Marcellinus was a Roman general and patrician who ruled over the region of Dalmatia in the Western Roman Empire and held sway with the army there from 454 until his death.-Origins:...
and the embassy led by Philarcus.
Another sign of the collaboration between the two courts is the choice of Consuls; according to tradition, each court chose a consul and accepted the one chosen by the other court. After taking for himself but without Eastern recognition the consulate of 462 (the first year he started as Emperor) and choosing an influential member of the Roman senatorial aristocracy (Caecina Decius Basilius
Caecina Decius Basilius
Flavius Caecina Decius Basilius was a politician of the Western Roman Empire, Consul and twice Praetorian prefect of Italy.- Biography :Basilius belonged to the Italian nobility, and was member of the influential gens Caecina....
, Praetorian prefect of Italy from 463 to 465) for the following year, Severus decided not to indicate a consul for the years 464 and 465 and to accept the two designated by the Eastern court.
Death
The details of Severus' death are obscure, but the majority of the modern scholars agree that he died of natural death in 465.There is little doubt on the year, as in a passage of his Getica, Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
claims Severus ruled for only three years; it is probable that this is a mistake by the 6th century historian, however.
As regards the day of his death, it is recorded as August 15 by Fasti vindobonenses priores, but a law by Severus dated September 25 has been preserved; either he died after that day, or the law was issued after his death in his name.
Finally, only Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank.- Life :Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in...
, in the 6th century, maintains that Severus was treacherously killed by Ricimer, through poisoning in his own palace, but three years after Severus' death, the poet Sidonius Apollinaris
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg...
wrote he had died a natural death. According to modern historians Ricimer had no reason to kill Severus, who was actually a puppet under his control, unless he was an obstacle to Ricimer's reconciliation with Leo.