A gold solidus of Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in the collection of the American Numismatic SocietyImage: ANS · CC0The last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed
In 475 the general Orestes drove the emperor Julius Nepos out of Ravenna and placed his own son Romulus, still a boy, on the Western Roman throne. Mocked as Augustulus, ‘the little emperor’, he had no power of his own. Real strength lay with the army in Italy, made up largely of Germanic soldiers, and when Orestes refused their demand for land of their own, they turned to one of their officers, Odoacer, and proclaimed him king on 23 August 476. Odoacer defeated and killed Orestes, then took Ravenna and its emperor. The ancient sources do not give an exact day, but the deposition of Romulus took place on or soon after 4 September 476. Odoacer spared the boy because of his youth, gave him a pension and sent him to live with relatives in Campania. Rather than take the imperial title himself, Odoacer sent the regalia to Constantinople and ruled Italy as king. No new emperor was ever named in the West, and 476 became the date traditionally given for the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Source: De Imperatoribus Romanis (Loyola University Chicago): Romulus Augustulus ↗
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