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Romulus Augustus

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              Romulus Augustus
            Last emperor of the
   Western Roman Empire
       Tremissis of Romulus Augustus.
   Reign       28 August 475 - 4 September 476
   Full name   Flavius Romulus Augustus
   Died        After 476
               Castellum Lucullanum
   Predecessor Julius Nepos
   Successor   None
   Father      Flavius Orestes

   Flavius Romulus Augustus (c. 463 – after 476), often called Romulus
   Augustulus, was the last of the Western Roman Emperors ( 28 August 475
   - 4 September 476).

   His father Orestes, the commanding general of the Roman army, installed
   Romulus on the throne after deposing the emperor Julius Nepos. Romulus,
   who may have been little more than a child, acted as a figurehead for
   his father's rule. Reigning for only ten months, Romulus Augustus was
   deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer and sent to live in the
   Castellum Lucullanum in Campania; he disappears from the historical
   record afterward.

   Romulus Augustus' deposition traditionally marked the end of the Roman
   Empire, although the Eastern Roman Empire survived until 1453 and the
   Western Roman Empire had all but collapsed by the time of Romulus
   Augustus' reign. Despite his significant place in history, very little
   is known about the last Western Roman Emperor.

Life

   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.

After the abdication

   The Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which succeeded the Western Roman
   Empire. By the time of Augustus' abdication, imperial authority did not
   extend beyond Italy.
   Enlarge
   The Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which succeeded the Western Roman
   Empire. By the time of Augustus' abdication, imperial authority did not
   extend beyond Italy.

   Romulus' ultimate fate is unknown. The Anonymous Valesianus wrote that
   Odoacer, "taking pity on his youth", spared Romulus' life and granted
   him an annual pension of six thousand solidi before sending him to live
   with relatives in Campania. Jordanes and Count Marsellinus, however,
   say Odoacer exiled Romulus to Campania, and do not mention any reward
   from the German king.

   The sources do agree that Romulus took up residence in the Lucullan
   Villa, an ancient castle originally built by the Scipio family in
   Campania. From here, contemporary histories fall silent. In the History
   of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon notes that
   the disciples of Saint Severinus were invited by a "Neapolitan lady" to
   bring his body to the villa in 488, "in the place of Augustulus, who
   was probably no more." The villa was converted into a monastery before
   500 to hold the saint's remains.

   Cassiodorus, then a secretary to Theodoric the Great, wrote a letter to
   a "Romulus" in 507 confirming a pension. Thomas Hodgkin, a translator
   of Cassiodorus' works, wrote in 1886 that it was "surely possible" that
   the Romulus in the letter was the same person as the last western
   emperor. The letter would match the description of Odoacer's coup in
   the Anonymous Valesianus, and Romulus could have been alive in the
   early sixth century. In Early Medieval Europe, author Roger Collins
   suggests that Romulus likely lived on in quiet retirement until 510 or
   so. But Cassiodorus does not supply any details about his correspondent
   or the size and nature of his pension, and Jordanes, whose history of
   the period abridges an earlier work by Cassiodorus, makes no mention of
   a pension. The connection between the last western emperor and the
   "Romulus" in this letter is, at best, uncertain.

The last emperor: Romulus Augustus or Julius Nepos?

   Julius Nepos on a gold Tremissis.
   Enlarge
   Julius Nepos on a gold Tremissis.

   Because Augustus was a usurper, Julius Nepos legally held the title of
   emperor when Odoacer took power. Some have argued that Nepos, who ruled
   in Dalmatia until his murder in 480, should be recognized as the last
   Western Roman Emperor, noting that Odoacer struck coins in Nepos' name
   and did not take the imperial title for himself. But few of Nepos'
   contemporaries were willing to support his cause after he fled Italy.
   Following Odoacer's coup, the Roman Senate sent a letter to Zeno,
   saying that "the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and
   protect, at the same time, both the East and the West." While Zeno told
   the Senate that Nepos was their lawful sovereign, he did not press the
   point. The Eastern Emperor acknowledged Odoacer as the Patrician of
   Italy, and when the latter sent the Imperial ensigns to Constantinople,
   Zeno accepted them gratefully.

Romulus Augustus in fiction

   Romulus Augustus is the main character of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play
   Romulus der Große ("Romulus the Great"), which revolves around the last
   days of Romulus' emperorship.

   Romulus is also one of the characters in Valerio Massimo Manfredi's
   book, The Last Legion. In this work of fiction, Romulus survives his
   fall from power and finds a strange new destiny in Britain.
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