Romulus Augustus and the fall of the Western Roman Empire

Flavius Romulus Augustus was so loudly called father, military chief Orestes of Pannonia, his son in the hope that a bright future awaits him. Life, however, turned everything in its own way. Romulus Augustus is not the great Augustus, but the small Augusten. So his contemporaries nicknamed him. He remained in the centuries as the last emperor, overthrown by the leader of the German barbarous Odoakr tribe in 476 AD. This date historians later adopted the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Origin

Romulus Augustus came from a noble patrician family. His father was Flavius Orestes, and Norik's mother was the daughter of the chief Roman officer Romulus. He was born in the early 60-ies of the fifth century. At this time, Rome was on the verge of falling. Under the pressure of the barbarians everything was cracking at the seams. The victories were only remembered, and the life of contemporaries literally collapsed under the pressure of the northern barbarians, who in turn fled to the fertile provinces, where there were beautiful lands, from attacks from the east. The military leader Marcellin perceived the attacks of vandals and barbarians as a personal tragedy, but served, however, Atilla and left interesting notes. Atile also served as the father of Romulus Augustus, but, having raised the uprising, he captured the capital of the empire. In those days she was no longer in Rome, but in Ravenna.

Ascension to the throne

The reasons why Flavius Oreste did not become emperor, and in 475 appointed them a juvenile teenage son, are unknown. But he controlled the lands under his control personally. The boy, ironically, not only joined the two great names Romulus (the founder of Rome) and Augustus (the first emperor), but also disgraced his fellow tribesmen. Nobody wanted to recognize him as an emperor.

Romul Augustul the ruler, as we have already said, was only nominal, although gold coins (solid pieces) with his profile were produced. The attacking parties (wild tribes) demanded the allocation of land to them. They were refused, and rebellion rose towards the end of the tenth month of the reign of the young emperor. Romulus Augustus did not even have the means to pay for the services of suppressing the riot. The Roman army was financed poorly, and the soldiers stopped obeying and protecting the emperor.

Sunset Empire

The soldiers chose themselves as the leader of the German Odoacra. The troops under his command seized Father Romulus and executed him. The young emperor Romulus Augustul abdicated in 476 AD. His place quickly occupied the basil of the eastern empire of Zeno, and the leader of the Germans became his official representative in the West. Formally, the Eastern and Western empires were a country. It lasted until 480, until Julius Nepot was killed in Dalmatia. He was deposed by the father of Romulus in 475 AD. And now, after his death, Odoakr sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople, making a barbarian gesture - "Take it, we do not need it." The Western empire was gone. But remained Constantinople (Eastern Empire), which, no matter what, sought to integrity. It lasted another thousand years.

The fate of Romulus after the abdication

About it remained confused information. It is assumed that Romulus Augustus received a pension from Odoacra in six thousand solid pieces, because he was young and handsome. He was sent into exile. He received for residence the palace of Lucullus (the most famous gourmet who gave magnificent feasts) in Campania, in the district of Naples. Romulus's relatives and retinue remained with him. All sources agree on the opinion that the last emperor Romulus Augustul lived in the palace of Lucullus. However, his further life is not described by anyone.

About how he lived and died, no one left any information. There are vague assumptions that in 507 he was still alive. There are only conjectures and judgments that Romulus founded a monastery near the palace. There were still references to it even in the 10th century. In all likelihood, the former emperor, all forgotten, died before the reunification of the Eastern Empire from the West to the middle of the VI century. About him was filmed a film in 2007 under the title "The Last Legion."