t and asked the Brittones for aid. Their King
Riotimus came with twelve thousand men into the state
of the Bituriges by the way of Ocean, and was received
as he disembarked from his ships. Eurich, king of the 238
Visigoths, came against them with an innumerable army,
and after a long fight he routed Riotimus, king of the
Brittones, before the Romans could join him. So when
he had lost a great part of his army, he fled with all the
men he could gather together, and came to the Burgundians,
a neighboring tribe then allied to the Romans. But
Eurich, king of the Visigoths, seized the Gallic city of
Arverna; for the Emperor Anthemius was now dead.
Engaged in fierce war with his son-in-law Ricimer, he 239
had worn out Rome and was himself finally slain by his
son-in-law and yielded the rule to Olybrius.

[Sidenote: Glycerius 473]

[Sidenote: Nepos 474]

At that time Aspar, first of the Patricians and a famous
man of the Gothic race was wounded by the swords of
the eunuchs in his palace at Constantinople and died.
With him were slain his sons Ardabures and Patriciolus,
the one long a Patrician, and the other styled a Caesar
and son-in-law of the Emperor Leo. Now Olybrius died
barely eight months after he had entered upon his reign,
and Glycerius was made Caesar at Ravenna, rather by
usurpation than by election. Hardly had a year been
ended when Nepos, the son of the sister of Marcellinus,
once a Patrician, deposed him from his office and ordained
him bishop at the Port of Rome.

[Sidenote: Romulus Augustulus 476]

When Eurich, as we have already said, beheld these 240
great and various changes, he seized the city of Arverna,
where the Roman general Ecdicius was at that time in
command. He was a senator of most renowned family
and the son of Avitus, a recent emperor who had usurped
the reign for a few days--for Avitus held the rule for a
few days before Olybrius, and then withdrew of his own
accord to Placentia, where he was ordained bishop. His
son Ecdicius strove for a long time with the Visigoths,
but had not the power to prevail. So he left the country
and (what was more important) the city of Arverna to
the enemy and betook himself to safer regions. When 241
the Emperor Nepos heard of this, he ordered Ecdicius
to leave Gaul and come to him, appointing Orestes in his
stead as Master of the Soldiery. This Orestes thereupon
received the army, set out from Rome against the
enemy and came to Ravenna