The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I — John Shaqi
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory IAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
History
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
But Anthemius lasted no longer than the noble Majorian or the ignoble
Severus. East and West had united their strength in a great expedition to
put down the incessant Vandal piracies, which made all the coasts of the
Mediterranean insecure.[14] It failed through the treachery of the eastern
commander Basiliscus, to whose evil deeds we shall have hereafter to recur.
This disaster shook the credit of Anthemius, and Ricimer also tired of his
father-in-law. He went to Milan, and Rome was terrified with the report
that he had made a compact with barbarians beyond the Alps. Ricimer marched
upon Rome, to which he laid siege in 472. Here he was joined by Anicius
Olybrius, who had married Placidia, the younger daughter of Valentinian and
Eudoxia, through whom he claimed the throne, as representative of the
Theodosian line. Ricimer, after a fierce contest with Anthemius, burst into
the Aurelian gate at the head of troops all of German blood and Arian
belief, massacring and plundering all but two of the fourteen regions. But
the city escaped burning.
Then Anicius Olybrius entered Rome, consumed at once by famine, pestilence,
and the sword. With the consent of Leo, and at the request of Genseric, he
had been already named emperor. He took possession of the imperial palace,
and made the senate acknowledge him. Anthemius had been cut in pieces, but
forty days after his death Ricimer died of the plague, and thus had not
been able to put to death more than four Roman emperors, of whom his
father-in-law, Anthemius, was the last. The Arian Condottiere, who had
inflicted on Rome a third plundering, said to be worse than that of
Genseric, was buried in the Church of St. Agatha in Suburra,[15] which had
been ceded to the Arians, and which he had adorned.
Olybrius made the Burgundian prince Gundebald commander of the forces, but
died himself in October of that same year, 472, and left the throne to be
the gift of barbarian adventurers. Three more shadows of emperors passed.
Gundebald gave that dignity at Ravenna, in March, 473, to Glycerius, a man
of unknown antecedents. In 474, Glycerius was deposed by Nepos, a
Dalmatian, whom the empress Verina, widow of Leo I., had sent with an army
from Byzantium to Ravenna. Nepos compelled his predecessor to abdicate, and
to become bishop of Salona. He himself was proclaimed emperor at Rome on
the 24th June, 474, after which he returned to Ravenna. While he was here
treating with Euric, the Visigoth king, at Toulouse, Orestes, whom he had
made Patricius and commander of the barbaric troops for Gaul, rose against
him. Nepos fled by sea from Ravenna in August, 475, and betook himself to
Salona, whither he had banished Glycerius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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