With the rise of barbarian studies, and the current dominance of cultural history, good old-fashioned political history is hard to come by, especially regarding short-reigning late Roman emperors in the West, such as Majorian (a.d. 457–461). In contrast to older scholarship, which tended to diametrically oppose the Roman Majorian to the barbarian generals who surrounded him, Fabrizio Oppedisano paints a more nuanced picture of his short but eventful reign. For O., Majorian's régime was both a product of, and a reaction to, fifth-century power politics, which for this author were dominated by generalissimos and local aristocratic networks. Although Majorian was raised in the military as a loyal officer of Aetius, and was effectively placed on the throne by Ricimer, O. argues that he attempted to govern like emperors of the previous century, by unilaterally implementing radical measures to achieve deeply conservative goals: the reconstitution of the Gallic praetorian prefecture; the re-establishment of imperial control over Vandal North Africa; and the reformation of the traditional senatorial household. Despite Majorian's rather spectacular failures to achieve these goals (at least in any long-term sense), O. makes a good case for examining his rise and régime, especially his extant legislation, as a means to study the possibilities and problems of western imperial rule in the second half of the fifth century, in the decades just before the deposition of the last Roman emperor in the West.

L'Impero d'occidente negli anni di Maioriano contains a preface, nine chapters, an epilogue and an appendix. The chapters are divided between two periods of Majorian's life. Chs 1–5 chronicle the time before his accession in 457, beginning with what little is known of his birth and background as the scion of an influential military family with roots perhaps in Pannonia (ch. 1). Chs 2–5 consider developments that dominated the political landscape in the West between 455 and 457 and that would later impact on Majorian's régime: the machinations of Aetius and the assassination of Valentinian III in 455 (ch. 2); the Vandal siege of Rome and Petronius Maximus' subsequent flight and deposition (ch. 3); the short reign of the Gallic aristocrat Avitus, his defeat and forced episcopal ordination at the hands of Ricimer (ch. 4); and the so-called Marcellan conspiracy, which contributed to an environment of hostility and suspicion between Gallo-Roman aristocrats and the imperial court in Italy (ch. 5). Chs 6–9 examine Majorian's accession and reign, which ended with his assassination by Ricimer in 461. Ch. 6 presents a reconstruction of the precise chronology of Majorian's accession to the throne, which, because of the interregnum between Avitus' deposition and Majorian's installation as emperor, has generated scholarly disagreements. The longest and most substantive discussion of Majorian's governing style appears in ch. 7: an analysis of the emperor's nine extant novellae, all published between 458 and 460. The author highlights what he identifies as the legislation's three major themes: Majorian's interest in making the Senate a more robust institution so as to counterbalance the power of Italian political families; the forging of connections between the imperial administration/fisc, local cities and curial officials; and the reformation of the senatorial family, by restricting ties between households and churches, especially with regard to the practice of celibacy and property donations. O. also includes new Italian translations of the laws in the appendix. In ch. 8, O. follows Majorian's movements to Arles, where he moved after a brief sojourn in Italy. The author draws on prosopographical resources and methods to demonstrate how Majorian attempted to gain a stronger foothold for imperial power in the region by repopulating the anemic Gallic praetorian prefecture with appointees from amongst the leading Gallo-Roman families. According to O., these appointments were part of the emperor's ‘far-sighted political vision’ (247) to reconnect Gaul and Italy — a lesson learned in part from his adviser Ricimer, but also revealing of the emperor's broader interests in reviving Roman administrative structures. Ch. 9 narrates Majorian's disastrous attempt to retake parts of North Africa from the Vandals — a campaign that ended with the capture of Majorian's massive fleet off the coast of Carthage.

As the expansive title of the book suggests (‘The Western Empire in the Years of Majorian’), O. seeks to contextualize Majorian's rise and fall within a broader framework of political history, albeit one with a short chronological purview given the author's dogged focus on the years 457–461. To a certain extent, O. succeeds, although his failure to examine the emperor's relationships with religious authorities and the Church strikes this reader as a lost opportunity. If not already clear, this is a specialist's monograph, which cuts between historical narrative and analysis in a manner that may confuse readers not already familiar with the period and the historical actors. Nevertheless, this is an important book, which sheds further light on how many of the major transformations of the sixth century (for example, the western Empire's political fragmentation) were born out of conditions in the fifth century, which the last ‘truly Roman’ emperor helped to create.