THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYAD 476
The fi fth century saw one of the most famous non-events in history – the
so-called ‘fall of the Roman empire in the west’, which according to tradi-
tional views took place in 476, when the young Romulus Augustulus, the last
Roman emperor in the west, was deposed and replaced by Odoacer, a Ger-
manic military leader, who followed Ricimer (457–72) and Orestes (475–6)
as power-broker. Odoacer differed from his barbarian predecessors in that
he did not attempt to rule through a puppet emperor; he sent an embassy of
Roman senators to the Emperor Zeno (474–91) in Constantinople asking to
be given the prestigious title of patricius. Zeno had only recently secured his
own throne from the serious threat mounted by Basiliscus, and the emperor’s
reply was equivocal; the deposed Julius Nepos, who was also now seeking
his aid, had been placed on the western throne with eastern support in 473.
However, Odoacer satisfi ed himself with the title rex, and henceforth the only
emperor was the eastern emperor in Constantinople.^5 Zeno had other prob-
lems to contend with, including dealing with two powerful Gothic leaders,
Theodoric the Amal and Theodoric Strabo (Chapter 1), but eventually used
the former to put down Odoacer (493); Theodoric promptly succeeded him,
founding the Ostrogothic kingdom and ruling Italy until 526. The date 476
has traditionally provided a convenient point at which to place the formal
end of the Roman empire, and Procopius of Caesarea begins his history of
Justinian’s Gothic war (535–54) by recounting the history of Italy from that
point. Gradually, though not immediately, the eastern empire came to terms
Figure 2.1 The artistic patronage of the late Roman aristocracy: a marriage casket adapted
for a Christian couple, Proiecta and Secundus, from the Esquiline treasure, Rome, late fourth
century. Trustees of the British Museum