Flavius Iulius Valerius Maiorianus Augustus:
Early Domestic Policy (458-460):
When talking about the first two years of Majorian's reign, the period of time between his ascension to the throne of the Western Roman Empire in late 457 AD to the departure of his fleet from Hispania for the shores of North Africa two years later, we must focus just as much on Majorian's domestic policy as his foreign policy. Majorian intended to save the Western Roman Empire and he, maybe more than most, understood that the Western Roman Empire needed more than just expansion and conquest, it needed a strong domestic policy as well. Majorian ascended to an empire in chaos, when he first took the throne he was not recognised in Gaul and, as a result, only really held Italy and was in desperate need of consolidating his position. An inscription from Lyons from 458 talks about the consulship of Leo I in 458 AD but quite pointedly ignores the consulship of Majorian while Apollinarus in 'Letters' makes a reference to one Marcellus in Gaul who apparently conspired against Majorian that very year although it seems to have come to nought. Neither did Majorian control Hispania nor Africa, one of the richest provinces in the Western Empire and currently under the rule of the Vandals who had already sacked Rome and now sat in control of one of the main breadbaskets of the Roman Empire. Majorian held a tenuous position when he started his reign and if he wished to restore the empire to its former glory, then he needed to be successful both in war and in politics. On January 11th 458 AD, Majorian met with and addressed the Roman Senate in Ravenna and there made his very first speech before the senate and, in doing so, passed his first legislation.
This legislation was known as 'Novella Maioriani 1: De ortu imperii domini Maioriani Augusti' or 'On the Inception of the Rule of the Lord Emperor Majorian' and effectively set the tone for his reign, both some of his policies and some of the problems that he would face later down the line:
'Know, O Conscript Fathers, that I have been made emperor by the decision of your election and by the ordination of our very gallant army... Also, on the Kalends consecrated to Janus we raised aloft the fasces of consulship... Grant now your favour to the emperor whom you have made, and share with us the responsibility for matters that must be considered. No person shall fear the practices of informers... No one shall fear calamities except those that he himself originated. The watchful care of military affairs will be Our concern, as well as the concern of Our father, the Patrician Ricimer...' -Novella Maioriani 1
From the very beginning we can see a lot about Majorian's rule, the speech starts with him explaining that he's emperor and then calling upon the Senate to give its formal support for his position so we know from the very beginning that he needed to shore up his position and receive more political support than he already has. This is an interesting point in comparison with how the extract ends when he places Ricimer in a very powerful position within the state. From Majorian's later experiences with Ricimer, this very much sets the tone for how Ricimer exists within the state initially and gives us an early hint as to where the relationship between the two is going to end up. Ricimer, by most accounts, wanted a puppet emperor through whom he could rule but Majorian had no intention of being a puppet for Ricimer, his speech makes quite clear some of his policies as emperor, policies that the empire desperately needed in 458 AD.
This speech was followed up two months later when, on March 11th, he passed the Novella Maioriani 2: De indulgentiis reliquorem or 'On the remission of past-due accounts' by which he cancelled the unpaid debts of any Roman landowners and made it illegal for anyone other than the governors to collect taxes. Majorian had been particularly annoyed at the tendency of the landowners to avoid paying taxes as they should but, at the same time, their debts had mounted up so that it was impossible for them to actually ever pay. By remitting the debts prior to 458 itself, Majorian was effectively wiping the slate clean and making it far less unfeasible for the landowners to pay what they owed the state. At the same time, he was also freeing the landowner from the illegal collection of taxes by officials who were not legally allowed to do so which, according to the Novella Maioriani 2:
'ruin the landholder and decurion, they extort all things in accordance with their desire for their own looting to such an extent that when some definite or very small portion of the tax is delivered to the public accounts, such greedy and very powerful enforcement officers receive double the amount, or more, as fees'-Novella Maioriani 2
Yet again this served to help free the burden upon the landowners and make it a lot easier for them to pay the taxes that were due to the government, in doing so he helped not only ensure more money was being paid in taxes but also that less money was being skimmed off the top by corrupt officials. These weren't the only problems with late-Roman Taxation, at the time the decurions were being ruined by the abuses of the upper class which wasn't exactly helping the situation that Majorian hoped to improve. The decurions were members of the town councils responsible for making sure unpaid debts were paid but because of the abuses of the upper class, most decurions ended up either fleeing their responsibilities or, in turn, putting more pressure on the plebians below them. Majorian's response came when he passed 'Novella Maioriani 3: De defensoribus civitatum' or 'The Defenders of the Municipalities' in which he restored the position of defensor civitatus (City Defender) whose role was to protect each specific town from oppression, although the people usually appointed were the very same people who were oppressing them in the first place. These laws were followed up in September with the Novella Maioriani 5 by which Majorian made it so any judges who stole from the imperial treasury were to be punished severely while the Novella Maioriani 7, passed on November 6th, forgave the past abuses of decurions and forbid them from abandoning their jobs in a continued attempt to try and bolster them. The Novella Maioriani 10, which had been passed in October 458, set up the protection of the inheritances of women and children. At the same time, he changed the minting of coins, adopting a type of minting in Ravenna that had been used for Emperor Honorius (329-423) and minted significant quantities of gold, silver and bronze coinage throughout his empire with the silver coinage really coming later from Gallic mints.
Majorian was working heavily to try and build a strong administration within the empire as well as increase the financial resources available to him. However even as he worked to reduce the abuses of the upper class, he was well aware that he needed the support of the aristocracy if he were to remain emperor and rebuild Rome to her former glory. His relationship with the aristocracy was to be important, he understood that he needed the support of the Italian aristocracy to remain emperor but also the support of other groups to recover the empire. This is very much shown in the kinds of people he established as consuls, such as Ricimer (459), Flavius Magnus (460); of Gallic aristocratic stock, and Flavius Severinus (461); an Italian aristocrat. However, despite showing a lot of respect and deference towards the Senate, his policies still angered some of the aristocracy which, as we know, would play a very major role once Ricimer grew tired of Majorian.
Another interesting point we might want to look at was Majorian's natalist policies at the time. With Novella Maioriani 6, he set a minimum age of 40 at which one could take religious vows and gave the same inheritance rights to any women who had been forced to take religious vows and were disinherited as a result. By doing this he hoped to balance out the numbers of Romans and barbarians within the empire and especially encourage widows to remarry instead of simply taking religious vows. He also hoped to correct the policies of aristocratic families making their daughters take religious vows and never marry so that they wouldn't have to pay a dowry and could keep their wealth within their family thus meaning that wealth didn't spread as much. Finally, he set it so any marriage that did not have a dowry and exchange of gifts prior to the wedding was not a valid marriage.
Roma to Hispania (458-460):
Majorian, of course, knew from the outset that he needed more than to just reform the Roman system of finance and government but he needed to bring the empire back under his control. Gaul refused to accept him as emperor while Spain and Africa were both ruled by barbarian kingdoms while even Italy came under attack. Furthermore, the sack of Rome in 455 by the Vandals needed to be avenged and King Geiseric destroyed. In summer of 458, Italy was faced with an invasion by the Vandals which inspired the Novella Maioriani 8 which concerned the right of Roman citizens to bear weapons, the Vandals landed in Campania and started devastating the region. Majorian's response was quick, personally leading the Roman army to crush the Vandals at Sinuessa and then inflicting heavy casualties upon the Vandals as they tried to flee to their ships to escape the onslaught of the Romans. This victory would, in turn, inspire further domestic developments in the empire, including the Novella Maioriani 8 and the Novella Maioriani 12 which concerned quelling disorder over chariot races. Both of these came from Majorian's awareness that he couldn't really push forward the boundaries of the empire while Italy was under threat and, in particular, the Novella Maioriani 8 gave the people of Italy a means by which they themselves could defend against invaders such as the Vandals. According to Apollinarus, he also then majorly strengthened his army, recruiting a number of barbarian tribes to his cause such as:
'Bastarna, Suebus, Pannonius, Neurus, Geta, Dacus, Halanus, Bellonotus, Rugus, Burgundio, Vesus, Alites, Bisalta, Ostrogothus, Procrustes, Sarmata, Moschus...' -Sidonius Apollinarus
Similarly, he soon rebuilt the fleets of Ravenna and Miseno in the construction of up to around 300 ships for his eventual invasion of Africa so that he could both fight the Vandal navy and successfully transport his forces across the sea towards Africa.
Majorian didn't actually leave Italy until winter of 458 with Nepotianus and choosing Aegidius to be his magister militum per Gallias and quite quickly swept through Gaul, defeating King Theodoric II of the Visigoths decisively at the Battle of Arelate. While we don't have significant information about the battle itself, the result was decisive as, in one fell swoop, Majorian pushed the Visigoths back through Aquitania and forced them to give up their conquests in Hispania and return to the status of foederati. The Visigoths were now limited to a small area of land bordering the Atlantic Ocean along the Garonne (Garumna) River and, using his new allies, he swept North-East to reconquer the Rhone Valley in a campaign that culminated in the defeat of the Burgundians and the Siege of Lugdunum. Yet again, however, in the wake of this campaign, we must turn to look a bit at the domestic policy of Majorian which rears its head once more. In the wake of the siege, Majorian chose to fine the city heavily and subdued the Bagaudae [1] whom he forced to accept to join the empire. But Majorian, as we have seen, understood that he needed the Gallic aristocracy on side if he were to bring Gaul back into the empire properly and, as a result, chose to incorporate the very same aristocrats who had sided against Majorian and refused to accept his rule as the new administration of Gaul. One of these aristocrats was none other than the very same Sidonius Apollinarus who is one of our main sources on the period. Like with the Italian aristocracy, Majorian was making a definite effort to try and win the powerful members of society over to his side to help in the administration and restoration while effectively giving Aegidius command over the region as magister militum. At the same time, he granted the citizens of Lugdunum a tax remission which proved to be effective in helping win them over.
In the wake of his victory in Gaul, Majorian rapidly turned his attention towards Hispania and Sicily, the latter of which was held by the Vandals at the time and was in desperate need of reconquest if Majorian were to invade Africa and secure the Mediterranean. At this point it is the time to introduce another major player onto the stage of Majorian's drama, the comes rei militaris of Illyricum, a man by the name of Marcellinus. The philosopher Damascius (458-538) tells us in Epitome Photiana comments that Marcellinus had a particularly well-equipped army, hence why he was so powerful in Illyricum at the time and the resources of Dalmatia were what kept him a major player in the political games of the 5th Century in a similar way to how the Gallic army made Aegidius a major player. Indeed it has been argued that the main forces in the politics of the Western Empire were Aegidius, Marcellinus, Ricimer, Majorian and the Eastern Empire. Marcellinus had been effectively independent in Illyricum since the death of Aetius in 454 and yet agreed to Majorian's request for an invasion of Sicily by Marcellinus and his forces. Why Marcellinus did so is quite fiercely debated amongst historians, some believing that he simply supported Majorian whereas others taking the view that he was acting in his own interests or had even been told to do so by Leo. Whatever the case, Marcellinus was to lead a force to Sicily and, from there, join Majorian in a two-pronged attack against the Vandals once the time came with Majorian invading from Hispania and Marcellinus from Sicily.
Majorian's conquest of Hispania began in May 459 when Nepotianus and the Visigoth Sunieric were sent to lead a campaign against the Suebi in the North-West of the region as Majorian gathered his forces in Liguria for an invasion into Hispania itself even as Genseric looked on nervously studying the situation. Fearing a Roman invasion, he quickly tried to open diplomacy with Majorian only to be refused any peace negotiations, to which the Vandal responded by ravaging Mauretania, the likely area in which Majorian would land, and preparing his navy to make incursions into the waters in the area. Nepotianus and Sunieric continued their campaign against the Suebi, defeating them at the Battle of Lucus Augusti and conquering their way through Lusitania in Western Iberia. Majorian himself didn't actually pass into Hispania until May 460 but rapidly passed through, holding a ceremony at Caesaraugusta and heading down towards Portus Illicitanus in the South-East of Hispania where his navy was stationed.
Here, the desperation of Genseric was starting to become very apparent as he realised the immediacy and threat of Majorian's invasion of North Africa. In the wake of his failure to stop the invasion through diplomacy, the king turned to another tactic, a gamble that might be able to save him. This, famously, was an act of treachery in which Genseric hoped that he may be able to destroy the Roman fleet and prevent the invasion by doing so. The sabotage failed spectacularly, the traitors being quite quickly found and captured by Majorian's soldiers and the flames being extinguished before any major damage could be done. This ended any hope of the invasion being strangled in its cradle and only a couple of months later, in Autumn 460, Majorian's fleet set sail from Portus Illicitanus for Africa and prepared to descend upon the Vandals once and for all.
[1] The bagaudae were groups of insurgents, primarily peasants, who began cropping up in areas of Gaul and Hispania starting in the 3rd Century and who had persisted ever since. Majorian subdued a group in the Rhone Valley who were forced to become Roman Citizens in 459.
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Notes from the Author:
Some sources I have been unable to always access myself, for example, while I could find a copy of Apollinarus 'Letters' online I could not find a translated version so I have had to take the word of the site that references his source to base my own work on.
Sources:
http://www.roman-emperors.org/major.htm - Majorian's laws are all translated by Clyde Pharr in 'The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondinian Constitutions (Princeton, 1952)'