Early Middle Ages

Who was Odoacer?

Odoacer was a Germanic chieftain who deposed the last Western Roman emperor in 476 and ruled Italy as king, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Question & answer

Short answer

Odoacer was a Germanic chieftain of Scirian origin who deposed the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 CE, and ruled Italy as king until his death in 493. His deposition of Romulus Augustulus is conventionally taken as the end of the Western Roman Empire, although he ruled Italy as a subordinate of the Eastern Roman emperor, not as an independent ruler.

A longer answer

Odoacer is one of the most important and least well-known figures in the history of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He is conventionally credited with ending the Western Empire, but his actual reign was more complicated than the simple story of deposition suggests.

The early life of Odoacer

Odoacer was born around 433, possibly in the region of the Middle Danube. He was of Scirian origin, the Sciri being a small Germanic people who had lived north of the Black Sea before being displaced by the Huns. His father was a chieftain of the Sciri, and Odoacer grew up in the military service of the western Roman Empire.

By the 470s, Odoacer had become a prominent leader of the Germanic foederati, the allied troops who made up a large part of the late Roman army. He served under several commanders, including the patrician Orestes, who deposed the western emperor Julius Nepos in 475 and installed his own son Romulus Augustulus as a puppet. Orestes, however, soon lost the support of the foederati, who had not been paid as promised.

The deposition of Romulus Augustulus

In 476, the foederati revolted under Odoacer’s leadership. They marched on Ravenna, the de facto capital of the Western Empire, captured Orestes, and executed him. Odoacer spared the young emperor Romulus Augustulus, an act of clemency that is often noted by historians. He sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople, with the message that the West no longer required its own emperor and that he would rule Italy as a subordinate of the eastern emperor Zeno.

The deposition of Romulus Augustulus, on September 4, 476, is conventionally taken as the end of the Western Roman Empire. The eastern emperor Zeno, in a complicated political maneuver, eventually granted Odoacer the title of patrician and recognized him as king of Italy, although Zeno continued to recognize the deposed Julius Nepos as the legitimate western emperor until Nepos’s assassination in 480.

The reign of Odoacer

Odoacer ruled Italy for nearly seventeen years, from 476 to 493. His rule was, in many respects, a continuation of the Roman administration rather than a violent break. He maintained the Roman senate, kept Roman officials in place, continued to use Roman law, and issued coinage in the name of the eastern emperor. The transition from empire to kingdom was, in this sense, less abrupt than the symbolic date of 476 suggests.

Odoacer faced several major problems during his reign. The first was the political settlement of the Germanic foederati, the soldiers who had made his coup possible. According to the historian Papyrius, Odoacer gave his soldiers one-third of the land of the Italian landowners, a settlement that was bitterly resented by the Roman aristocracy. Modern historians have questioned whether this settlement was as harsh as Papyrius suggests, but it was clearly a major source of tension.

The second problem was the relationship with the eastern Empire. Odoacer was theoretically subordinate to the eastern emperor, but in practice he ruled independently. Zeno was not happy with this arrangement, and he eventually encouraged the Ostrogothic king Theodoric to invade Italy.

The third problem was the Vandals. The Vandals, under their king Geiseric, were a major naval power in the western Mediterranean, and they raided the Italian coasts repeatedly. Odoacer fought several naval battles against the Vandals, with mixed results.

The end of Odoacer

In 488, the eastern emperor Zeno encouraged the Ostrogothic king Theodoric to invade Italy. Theodoric marched from the Balkans, defeated Odoacer in two major battles, and besieged him in Ravenna. The siege lasted for nearly three years, from 490 to 493. Odoacer eventually surrendered, and a treaty was agreed in which he and Theodoric were to rule Italy jointly.

The treaty did not last. On March 15, 493, Theodoric invited Odoacer to a banquet and there killed him. According to the historian Procopius, Theodoric said, “Where is God?” as he struck the fatal blow, mocking the fact that Odoacer’s name means “watcher of wealth” in some interpretations, or perhaps alluding to Odoacer’s trust in divine protection. Theodoric then ruled Italy as king, founding the Ostrogothic kingdom that would last until the Gothic War of the 530s and 540s.

The significance of Odoacer

Odoacer’s significance lies less in his own reign than in the fact that he is conventionally credited with ending the Western Roman Empire. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the sending of the imperial regalia to Constantinople, and the recognition by the eastern emperor are the events that define 476 as the end of the Western Empire.

But Odoacer’s actual reign shows that the fall of the Western Empire was not as clear-cut as the symbolic date suggests. He maintained Roman administration, Roman law, and Roman institutions. He did not declare himself emperor. He ruled as a subordinate of the eastern emperor, with the title of king. The fall of the Western Empire, in other words, was as much a political and constitutional event as it was a military or social one.

The story of the last emperor, whom Odoacer deposed, is told in the Who was the last Roman emperor?, and the broader context in the The Last Western Emperors. The Ostrogothic kingdom that succeeded Odoacer’s rule is described in the The Germanic Migrations.

Conclusion

Odoacer was a Germanic chieftain of Scirian origin who deposed the last Western Roman emperor in 476 and ruled Italy as king until 493. He was not, in his own eyes, ending the Roman Empire but reorganizing it under a new arrangement that he and the eastern emperor had agreed. His reign shows that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a complex and gradual process, not a single dramatic event.