Orestes

Nepos, a year after ascending the Western throne, is obliged to recognize the independence of the Visigothic kingdom centered near present Toulouse, France.

Orestes, born an aristocrat of Pannonia Savia, is probably at least partly of Germanic descent.

He was the son of Tatulus, a pagan, and son-in-law to Romulus, who had served as comes in the Western Roman Empire.

After Pannonia was ceded to Attila the Hun, Orestes had joined Attila's court, reaching high position as a secretary (notarius) in 449 and 452.

In 449 Orestes had been sent by Attila twice to Constantinople as envoy to Emperor Theodosius II.

In 475, Orestes had been appointed magister militum and patricius by Julius Nepos.

This proves to be a mistake on the part of Nepos.

By August 28, 475, Orestes, at the head of the foederati, manages to take control of the government in Ravenna, which has served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire since 402.

Julius Nepos flees without a fight to Dalmatia, where he will continue to reign until his assassination in 480.

Orestes, with the emperor far away, on October 31 elevates his son Romulus to the rank of Augustus.

Thus he is known as Romulus Augustulus, meaning "little Augustus", as this last Western Roman emperor is only a twelve-year-old boy.

The new administration is not recognized by the rival Eastern Roman Emperors Zeno and Basiliscus, who still consider Julius Nepos to be their legitimate partner in the administration of the Empire, but as they are engaged in a civil war with each other, neither emperor is about to oppose Orestes in battle.

Orestes is free to issue new solidi in the mints of Arles, Milan, Ravenna and Rome, enabling him to pay the barbarian mercenaries who constitute most of the Roman Army at this time.

However, Orestes denies the demands of Heruli, Scirian and Turcilingi mercenaries to be granted Italian lands in which to settle.

Before he overthrew Nepos, the Roman general had promised his barbarian soldiers a third of Italian territory in exchange for assisting with the deposition of the emperor.

After being turned down by Orestes, the dissatisfied mercenaries revolt under the Germanic chieftain Odoacer, whom they declare to be their king on August 23, 476.

Odoacer leads his tribesmen against their former employer, ravaging every town and village in northern Italy and meeting little resistance.

Orestes flees to the city of Pavia, where the city's bishop gives him sanctuary within the city walls.

Despite the protection he receives from the bishop, Orestes is forced to flee for his life when Odoacer and his men break through the city defenses and ravage the church, stealing all the money that the bishop had collected for the poor and razing many of the city buildings to the ground.

After making good his escape from Pavia, Orestes rallies the few surviving units of Roman troops stationed in northern Italy and is able to move his small army to the city of Piacenza.

The forces of Odoacer and Orestes finally meet on the battlefield.

The inexperienced Roman commander and his few and sparse Imperial troops, disorganized and unprepared, stand no chance against the savagery of Odoacer's mercenary army.

The majority of the Roman soldiers are either killed, captured, or driven off, while Orestes is on August 28 apprehended near the city and swiftly executed.

Ravenna is captured within week and Romulus Augustus is deposed.

This act has been cited as the end of the Western Roman Empire, although Romulus' deposition does not cause any significant disruption at this time.

Rome has already lost its hegemony over the provinces, Germanics dominate the Roman army and Germanic generals like Odoacer have long been the real powers behind the throne.

Italy will suffer far greater devastation in the next century when Emperor Justinian I re-conquers it.

Eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon will attach great significance to this event due to Odoacer's foreign birth.

Gibbon's romantic description of the events of 476 as the fall of the Western Roman Empire will remain influential for two centuries until modern scholarship discredits this view.

Nevertheless, Odoacer's defeat of Orestes and his son are sometimes still used to demarcate the transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, or Late Antiquity.

According to the Anonymus Valesianus, Odoacer was moved by Romulus' youth and his beauty to not only spare his life but give him a pension of six thousand solidii and sent him to Campania to live with his relatives.

To what extent Odoacer is a military commander of a Roman army and how much a German “tribal” leader is by now impossible to tell.

After the abdication of Romulus, the Roman Senate, on behalf of Odoacer, sends representatives to the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, whom it asks to formally reunite the two halves of the Empire.

He is also asked to make Odoacer a Patrician, and administrator of Italy in Zeno's name.

Zeno points out that the Senate should rightfully have first requested that Julius Nepos take the throne once more, but he nonetheless agrees to their requests.

Odoacer now rules Italy in Zeno's name.

Unlike most of the last emperors, he acts decisively, taking many military actions to strengthen his control over Italy and its neighboring areas.

According to Jordanes, at the beginning of his reign he "slew Count Bracila at Ravenna that he might inspire a fear of himself among the Romans."