chap, xxxvi] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 15 and their authority, which had been originally derived from the old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed senate, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps inflamed, by Count Ricimer, one of the principal commanders of the Barbarian troops, who formed the military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer ; but he was descended, on the father's side, from the nation of the Suevi ; 33 his pride, or patriotism, might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen ; and he obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor in whose elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important services against the common enemy rendered [ A . D . 456] him still more formidable ; 34 and, after destroying, on the coast of Corsica, a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the appellation of the De- liverer of Italy. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus that his reign was at an end ; and the feeble emperor, at a dis- tance from his Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and [Sept.. unavailing struggle, to abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, 35 he was permitted to descend from the throne to the more desirable station of bishop of Placentia ; but the resentment of the senate was still un- satisfied, and their inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death. He fled towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. 30 Disease, or the hand of the exe- 33 Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 362, &c.) praises the royal birth of Rioimer, the lawful heir, as he chooses to insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms. 34 See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. 44, p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et pene tunc in Italia ad exercitum singularem. 35 Paroens innocentiss Aviti, is the compassionate but contemptuous language of Victor Tunnunensis (in Chron. apud Scaliger. Euseb.). In another place, he calls him, vir totius simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius. [Some further details as to the fall of Avitus are derived from John of Antioch (Miiller, F. H. G. 4, fr. 202, — a " Con- stantinian " fragment ; see Appendix 1). The Roman populace blamed him for a famine which broke out in the city ; he was compelled to disband his Visigothic bodyguard ; to pay whom, having no money, he stripped public edifices of their copper. The date of the capture of Avitus by Ricimer was Oct. 17 : Fa6ti Vind. priores (Chron. Min. i. p. 304).] 36 He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution of Diocletian (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. v. p. 279, 696). Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has
