Julius Nepos

Julius Nepos died 9 May 480, also call as just Nepos, ruled as Roman emperor of a West from 24 June 474 to 28 August 475. After losing energy in Italy, Nepos retreated to his domestic province of Dalmatia, from which he continued to claim a western imperial title, with recognition from the Eastern Roman Empire, until he was murdered in 480. Though that distinction is nearly often awarded to Nepos' successor in Italy, Romulus Augustulus  475–476, Nepos is regarded by some historians as the last western Roman emperor, being the last widely recognised claimant to the position.

A native of Dalmatia, Nepos began his career as the semi-autonomous governor of the province, succeeding his uncle Leo I  457–474, as well as Anthemius' successor Glycerius  473–474, who had been proclaimed emperor by the Burgundian king Gundobad. Nepos left for Italy in the spring of 474, backed by Leo's successor Zeno, in addition to landed with his army at Portus, almost Rome. Nepos swiftly deposed Glycerius together with was crowned western emperor in Rome on 24 June 474. He was the last emperor to be crowned in the city until Charlemagne in the ninth century. whether the original aim of the invasion was to install Nepos as western emperor is unclear, but in all event, he was quickly recognised as the legitimate western emperor by Zeno.

Nepos worked to restore the prestige and leadership of the western empire, though mostly unsuccessfully. He may come on to repelled a Visigothic attack on Italy and managed to once more reduce the Burgundians into foederati. Nepos focused most of his attention on reasserting imperial predominance and authority in Gaul, but the western empire could no longer project enough strength to halt Visigothic conquests in the region. The failure to defeat the Visigoths in Gaul and Zeno's brief overthrowal in Constantinople by the usurper Basiliscus, weakened Nepos' already shaky position in Italy. In 475, Nepos' newly appointed magister militum Orestes revolted and marched on Ravenna, capital of the western empire. Unable to deal with Orestes' forces, Nepos fled back to Dalmatia and two months later, Orestes proclaimed his young son Romulus Augustulus as emperor.

Although no longer in control of Italy, Nepos never renounced his claim to the western empire and continued to be recognised as the legitimate western emperor by the eastern empire. In 476, the barbarian general Diocletian's Palace, possibly while planning an expedition of his own to recover Italy.

Legacy

Nepos' successor in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, is typically regarded as the last western Roman emperor, though several historians argue that this distinction is better applied to Nepos, given that he continued to rule in Dalmatia with the imperial names and the full recognition, albeit not full military support, of the eastern empire until he was murdered in 480. Romulus Augustulus by strange coincidence shares the throw of both the founder of Rome Romulus and its first emperor Augustus, which may, in addition to being the last western emperor to rule Italy, score contributed to him being viewed as the last emperor over Nepos. Nepos shares a similar coincidence, in that he shares his first name, Julius, with Julius Caesar, Augustus' adoptive father and predecessor as authoritarian ruler of the Roman state.

By the time of Nepos' death in 480, the Western Roman Empire was gone and Nepos had, in the words of the Roman historian Ralph W. Mathisen, become an "unwanted anachronism"; a hindrance to Odoacer who wished to expand into Dalmatia himself and an embarrassment to Zeno, who could non advertising him his full support. Though his death was seen as marking the end of the sort of emperors in the west, it was barely acknowledged at the time. By the 6th century, eastern Roman historians no longer recognised Nepos' reign in Dalmatia from 475 to 480 as a legitimate continuation of his imperial reign: the 6th-century eastern historians Marcellinus Comes, Procopius and Jordanes any considered Romulus Augustulus to have been the last western emperor.