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MAJORIAN (Juuus VALERIUS MAJOR1ANUS)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 451 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAJORIAN (Juuus VALERIUS MAJOR1ANUS)  , emperor of the West from 457 to 461 . He had distinguished himself as a general by victories over the Franks and Alemanni, and six months after the deposition of Avitus he was declared emperor by the regent Ricimer . After repelling an attack by the Vandals upon
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Campania (458) he prepared a large force, composed chiefly of barbarians, to invade Africa, which he previously visited in disguise . Having during his stay in Gaul defeated and concluded an
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alliance with
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Theodoric the Visigoth, at the beginning of 460 he crossed the Pyrenees for the purpose of joining the powerful
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fleet which he had collected at Carthagena . The Vandal king Genseric, however, after all overtures of peace had been rejected, succeeded through the treachery of certain
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officers in surprising the
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Roman fleet, most of the
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ships being either taken or destroyed . Majorian thereupon made peace with Genseric . But his
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ill-success had destroyed his military reputation; his efforts to pat down abuses and improve the condition of the
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people had roused the hatred of the officials; and Ricimer, jealous of his fame and influence, stirred up the
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foreign troops against him . A mutiny broke out in
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Lombardy, and on the 2nd of August 461 Majorian was forced to resign . He died five days afterwards, either of dysentery or by violence . Majorian was the author of a number of remarkable
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laws, contained in the Theodosian Code . He remitted all arrears of taxes, the collection of which was for the future placed in the hands of the
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local officials . He revived the institution of defensores, defenders of cities, whose duty it was to protect the poor and inform the emperor of abuses committed in his name .

The practice of pulling down the

ancient monuments to be used as
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building material, which was connived at by venal officials, was strictly prohibited . He also passed laws against compulsory ordination and premature vows of celibacy . See Sidonius Apollinaris,
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Panegyric of Majorian; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch.
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xxxvi . (where an outline of the " novels " of Majorian is given); J . B . Bury, Later Roman
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Empire, bk. iii .

End of Article: MAJORIAN (Juuus VALERIUS MAJOR1ANUS)
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