Odoacer

Odoacer maintained most of the structures of the Roman government during the nearly 17 years he controlled the state.

Although everyone from schoolchildren to scholars now learn that the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, 5th century Romans did not see anything particularly special about Odoacer’s coup.

For 1,500 years, Odoacer’s coup has concluded a cautionary tale about how barbarian commanders in the Roman army ended Rome’s empire.

The Constantinopolitan chronicler Marcellinus Comes would write in the 510s that when “Odoacer, king of the Goths, took control of Rome” the “Western Empire of the Roman people … perished.”

Liberius was promoted to the office of Prtorian prfect for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer.

Liberius was promoted to the office of Praetorian praefect for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer.

Odoacer passed the Adriatic, to chastise the assassins of the emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia.

As soon as Odoacer had extinguished the Western empire, he sought the friendship of the most powerful of the Barbarians.

Odoacer's monarchy was not more oppressive than those of his neighbours in Gaul, Spain, and Africa.