Romulus Augustus

On August 28, 476, Orestes, father of Emperor Romulus Augustulus was captured and executed by Odoacer and his followers. When Romulus Augustulus was deposed, he became the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire. An excerpt from the article:

"Romulus' father Orestes was a Roman citizen, originally from Pannonia, who had served as a secretary to Attila the Hun and later rose through the ranks of the Roman army. The future emperor was named Romulus after his maternal grandfather, a nobleman in Noricum. Augustus was a common cognomen at the time. Many historians have noted that the last western emperor bore the names of the founder of Rome and its first emperor, but this appears to have been coincidental.

He is widely known by the disparaging nickname "Romulus Augustulus", though he ruled officially as Romulus Augustus. The Latin suffix -ulus is a diminutive; hence, Augustulus effectively means "Little Augustus", though "little" in the sense of insignificant or unimportant. Some Greek writers even went so far as to corrupt his name sarcastically into "Momylos", or "little disgrace".

Orestes was appointed master of soldiers by Julius Nepos in 475. Shortly after his appointment, Orestes launched a rebellion and captured Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire since 402, on August 28, 475. Nepos fled to Dalmatia, where his uncle had ruled a semi-autonomous state in the 460s. Orestes, "from some secret motive," refused to become emperor, and installed his son on the throne on October 31, 475.

The empire they ruled was a shadow of its former self. Imperial authority had retreated to the Italian borders, and the Eastern Empire treated its western counterpart as a client state: the Eastern Emperor Leo, who died in 474, had appointed the western emperors Anthemius and Julius Nepos. As a result, Constantinople viewed Orestes' coup d'etat coolly, and neither Zeno nor Basiliscus, the two generals fighting for the Eastern throne at the time of Romulus' accession, accepted him as ruler.

As a proxy for his father, Romulus made no decisions and left no monuments, though coins bearing his name were minted in Rome, Milan, Ravenna and Gaul. Several months after Orestes took power, a coalition of Heruli, Scirian and Turcilingi mercenaries demanded that he give them a third of the land in Italy. When Orestes refused, the tribes revolted under the leadership of the Scirian chieftain Odoacer. Orestes was captured near Piacenza on August 28, 476 and swiftly executed.

Odoacer advanced to Ravenna, capturing the city and the youthful Emperor. Romulus was compelled to abdicate the throne on September 4, 476. This act is considered the end of the Western Roman Empire, but Romulus' deposition did not cause any significant disruption at the time. Rome had already lost its hegemony over the provinces, Germans dominated the "Roman" armies and Germanic generals like Odoacer had long been the real powers behind the throne. Italy would be far more devastated in the next century when Emperor Justinian I re-conquered it.

After Romulus Augustus's abdication, the Roman Senate, Odoacer, and Julius Nepos sent representatives to the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno. Odoacer petitioned for the position of viceroy in Italy. Julius Nepos requested the restoration of his throne. Odoacer's solicitation was accepted under the condition that he become Italy's viceroy for the legitimate Western Emperor Julius Nepos. Coins bearing Nepos' name were struck in Italy and in the domains in Gaul under the control of Roman general Syagrius until Nepos' death in 480."