ATL: Majorian the great

The emperor Majorian (457-461) is viewed by many historians as the last "heroic" above average emperor to hold the Western Roman imperial throne. In his mere 4 years he stabilized the borders and reconquered a large portion of the west. In OTL Ricimer killed Majorian because he had become too independent. In OTL Majorian was only 41 when he died.

In this alternate timeline:


461: Majorian is alerted to Ricimers betrayal and instead of disbanding his barbarian regiments in hispania brings them with him back to Rome. After a brief skirmish Ricimer is killed and the Emperor Majorian a mere 41 years old stands unchallenged in Rome. The idea of a healthy 40 year old man evan back then living 20-30 more years is not unheard of.

470s - Ostrogothic tribe settle as allies (Federoti) of Majorian. (In OTL they settled in byzantine area). Majorian successfully uses Ostrogothic soldiers to reconquer Vandal held territories in Africa.
 
The emperor Majorian (457-461) is viewed by many historians as the last "heroic" above average emperor to hold the Western Roman imperial throne. In his mere 4 years he stabilized the borders and reconquered a large portion of the west. In OTL Ricimer killed Majorian because he had become too independent. In OTL Majorian was only 41 when he died.

In this alternate timeline:


461: Majorian is alerted to Ricimers betrayal and instead of disbanding his barbarian regiments in hispania brings them with him back to Rome. After a brief skirmish Ricimer is killed and the Emperor Majorian a mere 41 years old stands unchallenged in Rome. The idea of a healthy 40 year old man evan back then living 20-30 more years is not unheard of.

470s - Ostrogothic tribe settle as allies (Federoti) of Majorian. (In OTL they settled in byzantine area). Majorian successfully uses Ostrogothic soldiers to reconquer Vandal held territories in Africa.

Good to see you here.

It seems that in OTL, Majorian had to walk a tightrope with the senatorial class, which was becoming semi-feudal. On the one hand, he needed to have them on his side, so he tried to cultivate them with honors and government posts. On the other hand, many of them were angry at him for trying to centralize the administration and curb feudal abuses, so they supported Ricimer. Even if he foils Ricimer's plot in this timeline, he'll still have to either subdue or placate the senators - probably the former, because he won't be able to strengthen the empire without continuing his administrative reforms. How does he get this done, and how far do you think he would carry his reform program?
 
I've had a discussion thread over at another place and there has been a thread on this before here that showed a limited interest.

My idea was that the sabotage of his ships in Spain that prevented him from going after the Vandals is discovered. He goes on, whips the Vandals anyway and discovers the Ricimer plot. Not only does he go after Ricimer, but he purges a number of senators who were in on the plot or hated him. But instead of replacing them, he furthers the feudalism process taking the land for the emperor but leasing it under some arrangement to his cavalry forces (and it this point it would be mixed but maybe include Berber cavalry?) and buying the rest of the senators off with some extra land.

I think it's entirely possible to retrain the better parts of Spain and N. Africa along with Italy and there's a map I made in a previous thread outlining one possibility. TBH, I've always wanted to write this one myself but never got around to it.
 
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