If You Can’t Have the Throne, Become the Power Behind the Throne
After the deposition of Avitus, the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I appointed Ricimer the Western Roman Empire’s magister militum – the late Roman Empire’s highest military command position. Ricimer wanted to become Western Roman emperor, but that was not an option. Ricimer was seen as a Germanic barbarian, and a heretic: although Christian, he was an Arian Christian, and that was the wrong kind of Christian, far as the Romans were concerned. By the end of the fourth century, the Roman Empire had officially become a Christian empire. As it cemented its hold in the empire, Christianity spread to the Germanic tribes, both within and without Roman frontiers.
However, those tribes were converted by missionaries from the Arian sect, whose teachings were deemed heretical by the Roman Empire’s orthodox Christians. Ricimer’s Arianism was thus a serious strike against him, and capped his imperial prospects. In the era’s political and religious environment, even a powerful Arian such as Ricimer, who made and unmade emperors at will, lacked the necessary religious legitimacy to become an emperor. Since he could not become an emperor, Ricimer set out to become an emperor maker and the power behind the imperial throne, instead. He decided to use his friend Majorian as a puppet, and had him declared emperor in 457.
