The new Emperor needed the support of both the civil institutions, the Roman senate and the Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian, as well as that of the army and its commanders (the generals Majorian and Ricimer) and the Vandals of Gaiseric.
The dates of his birth and death are unknown; he was alive and in exile in 437 according to Prosper, who, in his Chronicle, records that Possidius and two other bishops were persecuted and expelled from their sees by the Vandal king, Gaiseric, who was an Arian.