Rule
As emperor, Nepos sought to consolidate the Western Empire's remaining holdings, which consisted of Italy, Illyria and the remaining parts of Roman Gaul. He was able to re-negotiate a recently concluded peace settlement with the Visigoths and their king Euric, under which he restored the Provence region of Gaul to imperial control in exchange for other, minor territories where the empire was unable to maintain firm control and their strategic position was less sustainable. But he was less successful in negotiating with Geiseric, the king of the Vandals, who was once again launching pirate attacks on the Italian coast. Having recently made peace with the Eastern Empire, Geiseric saw no need to make new concessions to the recently-appointed Augustus of the weakened and unstable West.
Nepos was, by all accounts, one of the more capable of the late Western Emperors, but he was unpopular with the Roman Senate, whose members disliked him for his close ties to the East. When Nepos made the mistake of appointing the untrustworthy but well-established Orestes as his magister militum, Nepos' lack of a solid core of support in Italy would work against him.
Read more about this topic: Julius Nepos
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