In regards to the great emperors of the ancient Roman Empire, historians and those who are interested in Roman history typically point to leaders such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, and the ‘Five Good Emperors’ (that being Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius and Marcus Aurelius) as prime examples of emperors who had led the Roman Empire to new glories. Julius Caesar laid the foundations of the autocratic rule that would lead to the Empire; Augustus was the one responsible for forging it; and the Five Good Emperors presided over one of the, if not the strongest empire in the world — and one which was prosperous and rich. Fans of Roman history, however, tend to forget Majorian.
Living in the fifth century amidst the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Majorian spent his reign, a four-year-long period between 457 and 461, attempting to reforge the state that he had inherited from emperors who presided over greater ages. The empire that he had inherited was vastly different than that of Augustus or Trajan; it was Christian, instead of pagan, and it was split into two, with a Western Roman Empire being based in Rome (then Mediolanum, then Ravenna) and an Eastern Roman Empire being based in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), which would survive into the Middle Ages as the Byzantine Empire. Rome’s enemies by the time of Majorian were also vastly better-prepared and well-equipped thanks to centuries of warfare and adaption to Roman tactics, and the Western Roman Empire was far less economically developed and militarily weaker than the rich and powerful East. In a sentence: things were not looking good for them.
But how did he become emperor? Interestingly, Majorian was intended to be a puppet emperor; someone who would run the Roman empire in public whilst someone pulls his strings from behind the scenes. This had happened before; for example, fifty or so years earlier, in the first few years of the fifth century, the Western Roman Empire was formally ruled by Emperor Honorius, a Roman, but it was Flavius Stilicho, a military commander of barbarian origin, who was truly responsible for controlling the country. This time was no different. Majorian was to be the puppet emperor for Ricimer, another Germanic military commander. But it was not to be. An early Roman victory over the Vandals in 457, with the Roman army being personally led by Majorian, cemented his strength and influence, allowing him to resist Ricimer’s manipulations.
This victory gave Majorian a temporary respite. He amassed a large army as he planned to take back the Western Empire from the invaders that had now occupied much of it (the Western Empire upon Majorian’s accession consisted only of Italy and northern Gaul, modern day France). Using his new army, the Emperor invaded Gaul in 458 and defeated the Burgundii, who had occupied the area which comprises modern-day Switzerland and southeast France, and the Visigoths, who had at this point conquered much of Iberia. In humilating peace deals, these tribes were forced to abandon much of their lands, as well as their effective independence, becoming Roman vassal states. The rest of the Visigothic empire in Iberia was taken in 459. By that point, the empire’s size had increased markedly, with much of Gaul and Iberia now falling under Roman hands.
But the recapturing of Gaul and Iberia was only the beginning of his dreams of restoring the Western Roman Empire to its former strength. Majorian had truly desired North Africa, an enormously rich region which was once the agricultural capital of the Roman Empire. Retaking it from its new owners, the Germanic-speaking Vandals, would be the primary objective in the last year of his reign. After subjugating the Suevi in north-western Iberia, Majorian commissioned an enormous fleet to be built for his future invasion of Africa. Panicked, and knowing about the victories that Majorian had attained already, the Vandals sent emissaries and even destroyed their own lands to deny their resources to the Roman invaders. However, Majorian’s conquest of Africa was not to be. Traitors burnt his fleet, forcing Majorian to sign a peace deal with the Vandals. His campaigns of reconquest were over. Majorian marched back to Italy.
In the meantime, however, discontent had grown in the Senate, spurred on by Ricimer, who feared that Majorian was too strong to control. Majorian’s reforms, which included monetary and legal reforms, as well as a natalist policy to increase Roman birthrates, had proven unpopular with the senatorial aristocracy, which had felt that these reforms had interfered with their powers and private interests. When Majorian travelled back to Rome without his army, he was captured by Ricimer, tortured, and beheaded. From that point onward, Ricimer had essentially controlled the Western Roman Empire directly, and the conquests that Majorian had spent four years fighting for quickly slipped away.
In comparison to other Roman emperors, Majorian’s reign was incredibly short; he had reigned for only four years. However, whilst his time on the throne was short, he was energetic and capable, dedicated his time and the increasingly-limited resources available to him to retake the Roman Empire that his far-off predecessors had held so easily, with his efforts coming incredibly close to fruition. Who knows what could have happened had his fleet not burnt? Who knows how far he could’ve taken the Western Roman Empire to glory had he defeated the Vandals and recaptured north Africa? What would the future be like if he was never betrayed by Ricimer? We will never know.
Regardless, his rule did leave some semblance of a legacy. One of his most trusted subordinates, a Roman named Aegidius, deserted the Western Roman Empire after Majorian’s murder and had declared the secession of Roman lands in northern Gaul, forming the Kingdom of Soissons with himself as king. Despite being surrounded by hostile Germanic kingdoms, under the rule of Aegidius, and later his son Syagrius, the Kingdom of Soissons outlasted the Western Roman Empire’s destruction in 476, only falling to an enormous offensive by the Franks ten years later. Majorian’s efforts were immortalised in historian Edward Gibbon’s series of books The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in which Gibbon quotes that Majorian was a ‘great and heroic character’ who ‘arise[d], in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honour of the human species’. And indeed he was.
