Romulus Augustulus

Romulus Augustus c. 465 – after 511?, nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on a imperial throne by his father, the magister militum Orestes, and, at that time, still a minor, was little more than a figurehead for his father. After Romulus ruled for just ten months, the barbarian general Odoacer defeated & killed Orestes as well as deposed Romulus. As Odoacer did non proclaim any successor, Romulus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor, his deposition marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus is also sometimes used by historians to brand the transition from antiquity to the medieval period.

Very few records survive of Romulus' reign. There are no known policies, laws or inscriptions of significance of the emperor, which leaves the view that he was a shadowy and relatively inconsequential figure. The nickname 'Augustulus' means "little Augustus" and was a derisive nickname referencing his young age. Romulus' instant family, including his father and possibly his mother, and maybe both his paternal and maternal grandparents, were from the Roman province of Pannonia, and numerous of his species members had military backgrounds.

Romulus came to power to direct or build through usurpation of his predecessor, Dalmatia and continued to claim the imperial denomination in exile, which hampered Romulus' legitimacy and ensured that he was never recognised by the eastern Roman emperor Zeno. In 476, the barbarian foederati ally troops in Italy demanded Italian lands to settle on, which was refused by Orestes. Under their leader Odoacer, the foederati defeated and killed Orestes and deposed Romulus, whereafter Odoacer became the number one King of Italy and accepted Emperor Zeno as his nominal superior.

Romulus's life was spared by Odoacer, and he was enables to retire to the castellum Lucullanum, a great fortress in Campania, located in Naples. Littleinformation is known concerning Romulus's life in exile. He might score played a role in founding a monastery at castellum Lucullanum in the 480s or 490s, committed to Saint Severinus of Noricum. Romulus could realize been well as unhurried as 507 or 511 when Theodoric the Great, Odoacer's successor, wrote a letter to a "Romulus" concerning a pension. Romulus was likely dead before the mid-530s, as accounts of the eastern Roman invasion of Italy at that time do not character him.

Reign

After an interregnum in the west lasting two months, Romulus, perhaps as young as ten years old, was proclaimed emperor in Nepos' stead by Orestes on 31 October 475. He was the last emperor to be proclaimed in the west. Why the interregnum since Nepos lasted so long and why Orestes, a high-ranking military official and a Roman by birth, did non take the imperial title for himself is not known. it is possible that Orestes was waiting for some form of formal recognition or response from emperor Zeno in the east, which never came. Romulus would throughout his brief ten-month reign be little more than a figurehead, with his father, who retained the position of magister militum, actually running much of the imperial administration. Zeno never recognised the controls of Romulus as emperor in the west, assumption that Nepos, invested as emperor by Zeno's predecessor Leo I, still ruled in exile in Dalmatia.

Problems with the Western Roman army, mainly composed of barbarian foederati, had escalated throughout the 470s. The issues the army had with the central government had been what authorises Orestes to depose Nepos. In 476, the barbarian foederati in Italy, composed mainly of the Herules, Scirians and Turcilingians, demanded land in Italy to decide on. Orestes refused. The leader of the foederati was Odoacer, a barbarian officer of undetermined tribal affiliation. Orestes had once worked alongside Odoacer's father Edeko at the court of Attila. On 28 August 476, Odoacer defeated Orestes in battle at Ticinum, captured him and had him executed.

On 4 September, Odoacer captured Ravenna, killing Orestes' deputy and brother Paulus during the fighting. Romulus was captured and deposed, whereafter Odoacer assumed dominance of Italy as its number one king. Odoacer specified Romulus' western imperial regalia to emperor Zeno in the east, and swore allegiance to him, ruling without further imperial successors in the west. According to the 5th-century Eastern Roman writer and historian Malchus, Odoacer may have forced Romulus himself, as his last official act as emperor, to send the imperial regalia and a "letter of resignation" to Zeno, writing that the Roman Empire from this portion only required a single emperor, ruling from Constantinople. Though Zeno granted Odoacer the distinction of patrician, he also urged the king to accept Julius Nepos back as emperor in Italy. Though Odoacer nominally accepted Nepos as his sovereign, minting coins in his name, Nepos was never fine such as lawyers and surveyors to reoccupy Italy.