PETRONIO MASSIMO (Petronius Maximus), EMPEROR OF THE WEST. - Emperor for a few months, born in 396 into a noble family; he soon rose to the highest ranks of the civil hierarchy: prefect of Rome in 420 and consul in 433, in 439 he was praetorian prefect in Italy. At the death of Valentiniano III (March 455), in which he was not uninvolved, P. was acclaimed emperor by the soldiers.
In order to give an appearance of legality to his government, he compelled Eudossia, Valentiniano’s wife, still mourning her husband’s death, to marry him, and gave his own son Palladio her daughter Eudocia. Meanwhile Genserico, who had made agreements with Valentiniano, and to whose son Unnerico Eudocia had already been promised, considered himself released from those agreements and, taking advantage of the precarious condition of the Empire, landed with a fleet at Porto on 3 May. Rome was seized by panic; P., terrified, sought safety in flight, but was massacred by the people and his body was thrown into the Tiber (May 455).