Special Delivery: The Fall of Rome

September 4, 476 – This is the date many textbooks reference for the Fall of Rome, but the way it ended was surprisingly anticlimactic.

By the middle of the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire was in disarray. Italy had been ravaged by invasions, and its treasury was out of money. The once indomitable imperial army was a ragtag horde of misfits and mercenaries.

A German chieftan named Odoacer led an army of mutineers into the capital, Ravenna, and forced the last emperor, a teenager named Romulus Augustulus, to relinquish his crown.

Odoacer then proclaimed himself the King of Italy, and to make it “official” he packed up all the imperial regalia (i.e. jeweled headband, purple cloak, scepter, etc) and sent the crate to Zeno, the Eastern Roman Emperor who ruled from Constantinople. The shipment arrived with a message from Odoacer to Zeno:

“One emperor is sufficient for both East and West.”

Even the deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus survived mostly unscathed. He was given a pension and sent off to Campania where he would fade from history.

So, instead of a brutal bloodbath, the end of the Roman empire arrived with a “special delivery” and a short note.