ions! Shall I now
accept his perfidious friendship? Can I hope that he will respect the
engagements of a treaty, who has already violated the duties of a son?"
But the anger of Anthemius evaporated in these passionate exclamations:
he insensibly yielded to the proposals of Epiphanius; and the bishop
returned to his diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of
Italy, by a reconciliation, [105] of which the sincerity and continuance
might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the emperor was extorted
from his weakness; and Ricimer suspended his ambitious designs till he
had secretly prepared the engines with which he resolved to subvert the
throne of Anthemius. The mask of peace and moderation was then thrown
aside. The army of Ricimer was fortified by a numerous reenforcement of
Burgundians and Oriental Suevi: he disclaimed all allegiance to the
Greek emperor, marched from Milan to the Gates of Rome, and fixing his
camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival of
Olybrius, his Imperial candidate.

[Footnote 102: Ricimer, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated and slew
in battle Beorgor, king of the Alani, (Jornandes, c. 45, p. 678.) His
sister had married the king of the Burgundians, and he maintained an
intimate connection with the Suevic colony established in Pannonia and
Noricum.]

[Footnote 103: Galatam concitatum. Sirmond (in his notes to Ennodius)
applies this appellation to Anthemius himself. The emperor was probably
born in the province of Galatia, whose inhabitants, the Gallo-Grecians,
were supposed to unite the vices of a savage and a corrupted people.]

[Footnote 104: Epiphanius was thirty years bishop of Pavia, (A.D.
467-497;) see Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 788. His name and
actions would have been unknown to posterity, if Ennodius, one of
his successors, had not written his life; (Sirmond, Opera tom. i. p.
1647-1692;) in which he represents him as one of the greatest characters
of the age]

[Footnote 105: Ennodius (p. 1659-1664) has related this embassy of
Epiphanius; and his narrative, verbose and turgid as it must appear,
illustrates some curious passages in the fall of the Western empire.]

The senator Olybrius, of the Anician family, might esteem himself the
lawful heir of the Western empire. He had married Placidia, the younger
daughter of Valentinian, after she was restored by Genseric; who still
detained her sister Eudoxia, as the wife, or rather as the c