Chapter VI
Following the battle of Dertona, Nepos ordered the return of the Illyrian army back home, with the exception of few thousand men. These men were now the core of the new army of Italy under the command of Ecdicius Avitus who was confirmed as Magister Militum Praesentalis (a reference to the eastern title), tasked with the defense of Italy and the replenishment of his new army, something that surely would take time before being accomplished. Meanwhile the original army was now under the command of Gaudentius, Aetius’ son, who after the death of Genseric in 477 joined the emperor in his exile at Salona as one of his commanders. Instead of receiving the title of Comes Illyrici, he was rewarded with the restored title of Magister Militum per Illyricum, despite controlling only a small portion of the original Praefecture. The political reasons for this change were simple: to increase the autonomy and authority of the Illyrian commander while decreasing the power of the Magister Militum in Italy, who previously was superior to the Illyrian commander. This change were meant to reflect the military situation in the east, where his colleague successfully avoided the presence of a single strong man in the army. At the same time Nepos proceeded with further reorganization:
· Restoration of the 7 Cohortes of Vigiles (recruited among the population of the capital), tasked with police duties under the command of a Praefectus Vigilum, an office that in the previous decades had slowly decayed thanks to the marginalization of the city as a political capital;
· Restoration of the 3 Cohortes Urbanae (1000 men for each Cohors), a semi professional militia tasked with the defense of the city from small but sudden threat, under the command of the Praefectus Urbis;
· Reorganization of the Scholae Palatinae, an elite cavalry unit formed by barbarian under the supervision of the Magister Officiorum (further explanations in the next Chapter), 5 regiments of 500 men, each under the command of a tribune. Most of the ostrogoths that followed Nepos in Italy formed the bulk of this elite unit;
· Finally the reorganization of an elite unit formed only by romans, the Domestici, 2 regiment of infantry under the command of a Comes Domesticorum Peditum and 2 regiments of cavalry under the command of a Comes Domesticorum Equitum, tasked with the defense of the person of the emperor. Procopius Anthemius Iunior (Alypia’s brother) was promoted to the former position while Constantianus was promoted to the latter.
These were only some of the changes implement by the Nepos during his first years as emperor and obviously, given the circumstances, would take some time before being totally implement, especially the replenishment of the main army in Italy. To help this process Nepos allowed some of the prisoners of the battle of Dertona to join again the army in units of mixed ethnicities and under the command of roman officers. The majority of the prisoners, however, were executed while their properties were confiscated by the roman state (land assigned to them by Odoacer after his rise as king, further explanations in the next Chapter). A lesson had to be taught to anyone willing to incur in the wrath of Rome.
On the diplomatic side, some weeks after his arrival to Rome, Nepos received the official congratulations from the eastern court while a delegations of senators led by the patricius and former Praefectus Praetorio of Oriens ( his term expired at the beginning of May) Dioscorus delivered the imperial insignia to his rightful owner: Flavius Iulius Nepos Augustus, ruler of the west and now officially recognized as such by Zeno in front of the entire world. A second delegation also carried the official congratulations of another ruler: King Huneric of the Vandals. The delegation, led by the half roman prince Hilderic, however reached Rome in order to discuss more pressing matters: Sicily. Constantianus was able to secure the Island before the Vandals could prepare any response and now a solution had to be found if war was to be avoided. The obvious solution was the renovation of the treaty that was reached few years ago by Odoacer and Genseric: roman control over the island (barring Lilybaeum) in exchange of an annual tribute. The island, again under control roman rule after the death of his uncle, was assigned to the government of a new Consularis, Flavius Aemilianus. The two sides were also able to reach a deal about the piracy in the Meditteranean: Huneric, who was not a warlike king like his father, agreed to officially end piracy activity along the coast of Italy for the sake of the treaty reached over Sicily while allowing the emperor to ransom roman citizens held prisoner by the Vandals. An important success for Nepos who was now able to claim to have brought back peace in Italy. Surely this agreement could not stop the act of piracy led by independent vandal warlord eager for loot and for this reason he ordered to repair the infrastructures of the main harbours in the Tyrrhenian Sea, including the Harbour of Misenum where the Dalmatian fleet was expect to move in order to face potential threat from the south.