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Glycerius held the rank of Count of the Domestics at the Imperial court in Ravenna when he was raised to the Imperial purple by the western empire's new Magister militum (or Master of Soldiers), the Burgundian Gundobad, on or around March 3, 473. As a puppet of Gundobad who had succeeded the legitmately chosen emperor Anthemius, who had been murdered, he received no recognition from the eastern Roman court of Emperor Leo I.

Glycerius may have delayed the final end of the Western Empire for a few years. During his brief reign, Italy was threatened by both the Visigoths, living in southern GaulGallia (in English Gaul is the Latin name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. In English the word Gaul commonly ref and SpainThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc at the time, and the Ostrogoths, living in DalmatiaDalmatia ( Croatian Dalmacija Italian Dalmazia Serbian ) is a region of Croatia on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, spreading between the island of Pag in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The inner Dalmatia Dalmatinska Zagora str. When the Ostrogoths moved into Gaul in 473, Glycerius sent Roman troops to the area, preventing the armies of the two branches of GothsThis article is about the Germanic tribes. For the late 20th century youth subculture see Goth. The Goths were a Germanic tribe which according to their own traditions originated in southern Sweden (cf. Gotaland and Gotland). They migrated southwards and from joining forces against Rome.

However successful he might have been, however, Leo was unwilling to tolerate his presence on the western throne, and appointed his relative Julius NeposJulius Nepos (c. 430 480), was the last legitimate emperor ( 474- 475 de facto 474 480 de jure of the western Roman Empire. Nepos was the husband of the niece of the Eastern Roman emperor Leo, and was named as emperor in the West by Leo in 474, in order t to that position. Nepos, with a powerful force given him by Leo, sailed from Dalmatia to the port city of OstiaOstia an ancient town on the coast facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Latium, Italy, was the harbour of ancient Rome and perhaps its first colonia''. Located at the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was said to have been founded by Ancus Marcius, one of the king, near Rome, in June 474. For whatever reason, Glycerius was there instead of at the capital of Ravenna, and he surrendered forthwith to Nepos.

Perhaps as a reward for his cooperation, Nepos granted the deposed emperor the bisphopric of Salona, in Nepos' homeland of Dalmatia. Ironically, the two men crossed paths again only two years later, when Nepos was deposed by his own master of soldiers and forced to flee to Dalmatia, where he reigned as emperor-in-exile until 480.

A contemporary account by the historian Malchus states that Glycerius was involved in a plot that resulted in Nepos' murder in either April or May of 480, most likely with the cooperation of Odoacer, the barbarian King of Italy. Another account states that after Nepos' death, Glycerius was appointed by Odoacer to be bishop of Mediolanum (modern Milan), then as now one of the largest cities in Europe. However, the surviving historical evidence to confirm either account is meagre, and even the date of Glycerius' death is unknown.