Murder
Nepos was murdered by his own soldiers on one of three possible dates — April 25, May 9 or June 22 — of 480. The April 25 date is probably the correct one. He was reportedly stabbed to death in his villa, near Salona. Since Diocletian also had a residence in the area, it might have been the same building. Marcellinus Comes blames "the treachery of his comes Viator and Ovida" for the murder. Malchus also implicates the former Emperor Glycerius in the conspiracy. Glycerius was after all Bishop of Salona at the time, placing him in the vicinity of the murder.
Ovida served as the next ruler of Dalmatia for a few months, but Odoacer used Nepos' murder as a pretext to invade Dalmatia. Odoacer defeated Ovida's forces on December 9, and added the province to his own kingdom. Adding to the suspicions about Glycerius is a report that Odoacer then made him bishop of Milan.
Read more about this topic: Julius Nepos
Famous quotes containing the word murder:
“We don’t murder, we kill.... You don’t murder animals, you kill them.”
—Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter. Sergeant (Lee Marvin)
“Chinese do not repay friendship with death.”
—Joseph O’Donnell, and Clifford Sanforth. Ah Ling, Murder by Television, when he is accused of Perry’s murder (1935)
“Anybody who’s been through a divorce will tell you that at one point ... they’ve thought murder. The line between thinking murder and doing murder isn’t that major.”
—Oliver Stone (b. 1946)