a campaign by embarking from Spain against the Vandals of King Gaiseric. However, before the invasion was launched, the bulk of Majorian's fleet was sunk in the harbor at Cartagena, resulting in a blow to Roman prestige and to Majorian's reputation, which Ricimer exploited. During his absence, Ricimer convinced the senate to turn against the emperor, who soon disbanded his army and returned to Italy. Learning that the emperor was in Tortona, Ricimer led a detachment there and arrested him. With the Western throne vacant, the new Eastern Emperor, Leo I, appointed Majorian to replace Ricimer in his Italian command. Without a Western Emperor, Leo hoped to use Ricimer as his effective vice-regent in the West. Deposing Majorian on August 3, 461, Ricimer had the emperor tortured and finally beheaded. Libius Severus (461–465) Ricimer's murder of Majorian did not sit well with some portions of the military establishment, especially the commanding general in Gaul, Aegidius, and the commanding general in Dalmatia, Marcellinus, who ruled their respective domains independent from imperial authority. These two generals entered into open hostilities with Ricimer and refused to recognize Ricimer's position. Ricimer ruled the West without an emperor for three months. Facing pressure from the Senate and Italian aristocracy, Ricimer named the undistinguished Senator Libius Severus as Emperor on November 19, 461; Severus was recognized by the Senate in Rome, but the Eastern Emperor Leo I refused to recognize him as his Western counterpart. Although he faced open military opposition from Western generals, with the docile Severus as emperor, Ricimer was master of Rome and Italy. The principal problems facing Ricimer during Severus' reign were military opposition from the Vandals—who controlled Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, the Balearics, and Sicily, while also making incursions into mainland Greece and Italy—and political opposition from the Eastern Empire. In 461, Ricimer suborned the Huns under Marcellinus, who was compelled to abandon Sicily. Sometime in 463, Ricimer defeated a contingent of Visigoths at Orleans, formerly an Alan stronghold. Then in 464, Ricimer commanded an army that met an invading Alan host at the Battle of Bergamo, where he defeated the invaders and killed their king, Beorgor. Due to diminished tax revenues and with the key armies of the West under opposition control, Ricimer needed assistance from the East in order to maintain order in the West. As such, Severus, despite his docile nature, represented an obstacle to Ricimer's power and a