As a Germanic tribesman of Arian faith, Ricimer was felt to be ineligible the imperial throne himself, but as "magister militum" he gained influence over the Germanic peoples occupying Gaul, Hispania, and Northern Africa. He was left with the options of dissolving the Western Empire and ruling as an official viceroy of Leo in Constantinople or exerting his power over the West through a puppet emperor. Though he had hoped to take the first option, the Roman aristocracy refused to consent to this step and Ricimer was forced to take the latter.