Romulus Augustulus

• 1. The Shadowy Figurehead

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  No known policies, laws or inscriptions of significance survive from the ten-month reign of Romulus Augustus. The historical record leaves a profound silence around his time on the throne. He was placed on the imperial throne while still a minor by his father Orestes. This arrangement made him little more than a figurehead for actual power. Historians have noted that he was perhaps even the least significant of the short-lived emperors near the end of the Western Roman Empire. His immediate family came from the Roman province of Pannonia. Many of his family members had military backgrounds. Yet no concrete evidence exists regarding his personal actions or decisions during those months. The lack of surviving records creates an impression of a shadowy and relatively inconsequential figure.

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• 2. Geopolitical Collapse And Usurpation

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  Julius Nepos fled to Dalmatia after Orestes entered Ravenna with his army on the 28th of August 475. Nepos continued to claim the imperial title in exile despite losing control of Italy. This situation hampered Romulus's legitimacy and ensured he was never recognised by the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno. The western empire experienced a period of catastrophic decline throughout the 5th century. Much of the west was more rural, with fewer people and a less stable economy compared to eastern provinces. An increasing number of Germanic barbarian invasions and settlements added to these issues. In 410, the Visigoths under Alaric I had sacked Rome. That same year, Rome was sacked again for the second time in less than fifty years, this time by the Vandals. By 475, the western empire was in critical condition. Outside of Italy, authority was only exercised in Raetia and some regions of Gaul.

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• 3. Odoacer's Rebellion And Deposition

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  On the 28th of August 476, Odoacer defeated Orestes in battle at Ticinum and captured him. Orestes had once worked alongside Odoacer's father Edeko at the court of Attila. The barbarian foederati in Italy demanded land to settle on, which was refused by Orestes. On the 4th of September, Odoacer captured Ravenna, killing Orestes' deputy and brother Paulus during the fighting. Romulus was captured and deposed whereafter Odoacer assumed control of Italy as its first king. Odoacer sent Romulus' western imperial regalia to emperor Zeno in the east. He swore allegiance to Zeno, ruling without further imperial successors in the west. According to the 5th-century Eastern Roman writer Malchus, Odoacer may have forced Romulus himself to send a letter of resignation to Zeno. This letter stated that the Roman Empire from this point only required a single emperor, ruling from Constantinople.

• 4. Exile In Campania And Later Life

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  Romulus was granted an annual pension of 6,000 solidi and an estate in Campania called Castellum Lucullanum. This fortress was originally built by the consul and general Lucius Licinius Lucullus in the 60s BC. It later served as the retirement villa of Tiberius, Rome's second emperor. By late antiquity, Castellum Lucullanum likely functioned as a small administrative and military centre in Campania. Romulus was accompanied to Campania by a large retinue and some of his surviving relatives. Theodoric the Great wrote a letter to a Romulus concerning a pension in either 507 or 511. Per Thomas Hodgkin, who translated the letter in 1886, the identification is strengthened by the name Romulus not being very common at that time. If the Romulus in the letter is the same person, he had likely died before the mid-530s eastern Roman invasion of Italy. He may have played a role in founding a monastery around the remains of Saint Severinus of Noricum in the 480s or early 490s.

• 5. Coinage And The Derisive Nickname

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  The full style used on his coinage was Dominus Noster Romulus Augustus Pius Felix Augustus. All of Romulus' coins use the names Romulus Augustus without exception. The nickname Augustulus means little Augustus and was a derisive reference to his young age. It was never in official use during his lifetime. In Greek, his first name Romulus was also changed derisively into the nickname Momylus meaning little disgrace. Many historians have noted the coincidence that the last western emperor bore the names of both Romulus and Augustus. Romulus was named after his maternal grandfather, a nobleman from Poetovio in Noricum. Upon his accession to the imperial throne, he took Augustus as a proper name, not just a title. Edward Gibbon wrote that he assumed and disgraced the names of Romulus and Augustus.

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• 6. Historical Legacy And The End Of Antiquity

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  Romulus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor with his deposition marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus is one of the most commonly used dates by historians to mark the transition from antiquity to the medieval period. Romulus being seen as the last emperor derives from him having been the last emperor proclaimed in the west. The poetic nature of being named after both Romulus and Augustus has drawn attention from many historians. Some modern scholars consider this distinction dubious, pointing to Julius Nepos as the actual last Western Roman emperor. Though he never regained Italy, Nepos continued to rule in Dalmatia until he was murdered in 480. Throughout the duration of his brief reign, Romulus was never recognised in Constantinople. The earliest known writer to consider him as such was Marcellinus Comes who died in 534. Procopius and Jordanes also considered Romulus to have been the last legitimate ruler in the west.