Majorian's Fleet near Cartagena

[Majorianus Invictus]

Two questions for you guys. One, is there any substantial evidence that Ricimer aided the Vandal's in the destruction of Majorian's Fleet? Two, assuming the Fleet would have stayed intact, how big of an impact would retaking Africa have on the floundering Western Empire? Could it have survived? Ok, so thats three questions. lol.

 

sincerely

 

H. Majorianus Invictus

[barca]

Two questions for you guys. One, is there any substantial evidence that Ricimer aided the Vandal's in the destruction of Majorian's Fleet? Two, assuming the Fleet would have stayed intact, how big of an impact would retaking Africa have on the floundering Western Empire? Could it have survived? Ok, so thats three questions. lol.

 

sincerely

 

H. Majorianus Invictus

 

According to Ward-Perkins the loss of North africa was devastating economically, and it made it much harder for the emperor to finance the military. I found some interesting information online about Majorian:

 

http://www.roman-emperors.org/major.htm

 

It appears that he had considerable success against various enemies including the Vandals, and it is certainly possible that he could have defeated them in their own turf if his fleet had remained intact.

 

Leo was Majorian's contemporary in the East, and he was more successful in freeing himself from his barbarian master. Majorian was Ricimers puppet and Leo was Aspar's puppet. Aspar was a Sarmatian General who was essentially in charge in the east. Asapar underestimated Leo who managed to undermine him through political intrigue and began the process of debarbarizing the leadership of the East. Unfortunatelly Majorian was not underestimated by Ricimer, and we all know what happened there. Sometime after Majorian's execution Leo launched a combined East-West assault on the Vandals which failed because of bad leadership on the part of the commander named Basilicus.

 

http://i-cias.com/e.o/basilicus.htm

 

And I wasn't able to find anything on Ricimer and his potentially aiding the vandals.

[Majorianus Invictus]

After a bit of research, and reading the relevant chapters in Generalissimos of the western Roman Empire By John M. O'Flynn, I found this reference. The author states that Majorian was obliged to use Nepotian to where he did the minimum of harm. The claim is made that Nepotian was a creature of Ricimer, set up to be a counter balance to Aegidius, and by Ricimer's direction, Nepotian was somehow involved in the Fleet disaster.

 

As for him being a puppet, I think that Ricimer cultivated his longtime friend, guiding him to the throne, but Majorian was in no way a puppet like Avitus or Severus, and as the new Emperor gained victory and success,and his fame grew, the barbarian General who could never wear the purple knew he that he could not control Majorian. Thus he had him murdered, and settled on the course of action that had made him the puppet master.

 

Any thoughts? And Barca thank you for all your replies in my multitude of threads at UNRV. Your words are extremely helpful and though provoking.

 

H. Majorianus Invictus