FOOTNOTES
[69] [“The charges made by Gibbon … rest on no solid basis of evidence; … except for a vague and feebly supported charge of ‘luxury,’ the moral character of Avitus is without a stain.” Hodgkin.[g]]
[70] [The manner in which Majorian met his death is in dispute. While Gibbon[c] gives credence to the report that he died from dysentery, Samuel Dill,
i who speaks of Majorian as “that great soldier and far-sighted statesman,” says: “Majorian, the ‘young Marcellus’ of the last years of the Western Empire, with all his old Roman spirit and statesmanlike insight, failed in his mission and was treacherously slain by Ricimer.” J. B. Bury,
j expressing the same view, says “that Majorian returned from Spain to Gaul, and after a sojourn in Arles passed into Italy, without an army. At Tortona the officers of Count Ricimer, who had judged him unworthy of empire, seized him, stripped him of the imperial purple, and beheaded him (7th August, 461).” Niebuhr,
k on the other hand, tells us that “when Majorian returned, a conspiracy was formed against him at the instigation of Ricimer; he was compelled to abdicate, and died a few days afterwards.”]
[71] [There is great uncertainty as to these prehistoric migrations.]
Roman Bracelet
(In the British Museum)
