Glycerius(430 — 480)

Glycerius was not chosen by the Eastern Roman emperor nor by the Senate, but imposed by Gundobad, a Burgundian chieftain who had become master of the soldiers. This shows just how much, in the 5th century, real power in the West had passed into the hands of the barbarian generals who made and unmade emperors.

When Julius Nepos landed in Italy in 474 to overthrow him, Glycerius put up almost no resistance: he was captured near Rome, at Portus, and deposed without a fight. Rather than executing him, they forced him to become bishop of Salona, in Dalmatia.

Becoming a bishop was a clever way to neutralize a rival: a man of the Church could no longer reign nor raise an army. Glycerius thus passed from the imperial throne to the episcopal mitre, trading the purple for a religious office.

According to some later sources, Glycerius may have taken his revenge: in 480, it was perhaps with his complicity that Julius Nepos, the very man who had deposed him, was assassinated. Glycerius is even said to have been rewarded with the archbishopric of Milan.

Glycerius's reign lasted barely more than a year (473-474). He belongs to that long line of short-lived emperors at the end of the Western Empire, most of whom reigned only a few months before the final fall of Rome in 476.