Libius Severus

Libius Severus
Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
Solidus of Emperor Libius Severus
Reign	November 19, 461 – August 15, 465
Predecessor	Majorian
Successor	Anthemius
Born	Lucania
Died	August 15, 465 (Aged 45)
Full name Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius

Libius Severus (Latin: Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius Augustus) (Lucania, c. 420 – 15 August 465) was Western Roman Emperor from November 19, 461 to his death.

A Roman senator from Lucania Severus was one of the last Western Emperors, emptied of any effective power (the real power was in the hands of the powerful magister militum Ricimer), and unable to solve the many problems affecting the Empire; the sources describe him as a pious and religious man.

On August 7, 461, the magister militum (Commander in Chief) of the Western Roman army, Ricimer, had Emperor Majorian killed, thus leaving the western throne empty. A struggle for the succession thus ensured, with Eastern Emperor Leo I, King of the Vandals Gaiseric, and Ricimer himself involved. The Eastern Emperor traditionally had the right to accept his "colleague," for the Empire was nominally still united.

Ricimer needed a weak Emperor on the throne, in order to control him: his barbaric descent barred him from taking the throne for himself. Gaiseric had captured the wife and the two daughters of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III – Licinia Eudoxia, Placidia and Eudocia – during the sack of Rome (455), and, through the marriage of one of them, Eudocia, with his son Huneric, he had entered the imperial family. Gaiseric's candidate to the Western throne was Olybrius, who had married Placidia and was thus a member of his family.

In order to push for Olybrius' election, Gaiseric decided to put pressure on the Empire with several raids on the coasts of Italy and Sicily, maintaining that the peace treaty he had signed with Majorian was no longer valid; Ricimer reacted by sending an embassy to Gaiseric and asking him to respect the treaty, while a second embassy was sent by Leo I asking for the end of the raids and the release of the wife and daughters of Valentinian.