#ricimer

The Puppet Emperors of the Western Roman Empire,

Traditional history often marks the year 476 AD as being the fall of the Western Roman Empire, however arguments can be made that the fall occurred at other dates. One alternative date is the year 456 AD, the year when the Roman Imperial Government lost its sovereignty, instead being ruled by puppet emperors under the control of the Germanic warlords, most notably Ricimer and Odoacer.  The last Roman Emperors to have any real power were Avitus and Majorian.  The reign of Avitus was short live (455-456), lasting barely a year before his magister militum (top military commander) named Ricimer overthrew him from the throne and later had him murdered.  After the murder of Avitus, Ricimer appointed his own emperor to the throne, a Roman general named Majorian.  Majorian is known to history as being the last Western Roman Emperor to make a concerted effort to reunite the Empire, conducting several successful campaigns against Germanic kingdoms and reconquering France and Spain.  Unhappy with with Majorian's acts against his fellow Germanic peoples, Ricimer had Majorian deposed and murdered in 460 AD.

After the overthrow of Majorian, Ricimer decided that he would take personal control of the empire.  However, as a German he could not be considered a legitimate emperor to the Roman people. While it was not unusual for non-Romans to become Emperor in the 1st through 3rd century, by the 5th century such as practice was forbidden. Thus, Ricimer installed a number of puppet emperors to the throne who would be under his direct control. While officially the Emperor was head of state, in reality Ricimer was in complete control, ruling from behind the shadow of the throne. To add to the legitimacy of his regime Ricimer sometimes installed men who were approved by the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, though he often installed men who were not approved by the Eastern Emperor.  At the time, there was little the Eastern Roman Empire could do about it.  Ricimer chose men who were easily pliable and held them on a very short leash to ensure they wouldn't become ambitious and independent like Majorian. His puppet emperors were also very disposable, during his 12 years as defacto ruler of Rome, Ricimer went through five emperors, only one of which died of natural causes, the others being murdered when they met Ricimer's disproval.  

Ricimer died in 472, and was replaced by his nephew Gundobad, who continued the tradition of maintaining a puppet empire.  Gundobad's rule was short and he was responsible only for the installment of the puppet Emperor Glycerius.  In 473-474 Gundobad's father died, and he thus traveled back home to Burgundy in order to take his father's place as king.  After Gundobad, a Germanic officer in the Roman Army named Odoacer took control.  Odoacer installed the puppet Emperor Julian Nepos, however Nepos was quickly overthrown by the Roman general Orestes, who placed his son, Romulus Augustus on the throne.  The reign of Romulus was short, as Odoacer quickly destroyed the forces of Orestes and booted Romulus out of Rome in 476 AD.

And now I can't help but imagine that the ring got back to the Burgundians... Resulting in them growing arrogant and opposing the Roman Emperor Majorian when he made his attempt to restore the West, and thus their crushing defeat. But then Majorian took possession of the ring... And suddenly his fleet to reconquer Africa, and thus get the revenue to raise more native Roman troops and reduce the reliance on Germanic foederati, is destroyed by a fire, and then he's betrayed and killed by the until then loyal Ricimer, ending the last chance of the Western Roman Empire for resurgence.

Thus Ricimer takes possession of the ring... And sends it to its legitimate owner, because he's heard of the cursed ring and he's not going to die like that. Resulting in Ricimer eventually dying peacefully in his bed after years as the kingmaker in the West, though the same residual influence of the ring that pushed him to betray his ally already made him greedy and power hungry.

BUT the ring didn't find its way to his owner, the messenger was intercepted by Marcellinus, a loyalist of Majorian, who kept it. It's with the ring's power that the West pays his part of the joint expedition to reconquer Africa under Anthemius, but Ricimer grows suspicious. He knows the state of the West's finances, so where did Marcellinus find all that gold? So Ricimer interferes with the expedition to try and find out, giving the Vandals time to build their fireships and fool the overall commander Basiliscus into leaving the fleet exposed. The expedition fails, and Ricimer has found out of the ring and has Marcellinus assassinated because THAT THING IS DANGEROUS. He once again tries to send it back to the owner, but Anthemius, who didn't trust Ricimer because of his murder of Majorian and then installing a puppet ruler before keeping the throne vacant until he showed up from the East to claim it, has the messenger intercepted, sees the letter claim the ring is cursed, and keeps it because he's a Christian and doesn't believe it.

The relation between Ricimer and Anthemius slowly crumbles even as the former loyally fights the Vandals to protect Italy, until Ricimer's ally Romanus, before being executed for unrelated reasons, finds out, and Ricimer IMMEDIATELY MARCHES ON ROME to get rid of the ring. He takes the city, calms the Vandals down by proclaiming their favorite Emperor, has Anthemius beheaded, and once again sends the ring back, and this time the messenger finds Andvar. When the messenger comes back, Ricimer dies of sheer relief, as he kept the cursed ring away from himself and especially his son.