Romulus Augustulus
Last Western Roman Emperor (r. 475–476 AD)
"The boy bore the names of Rome's founder and its first emperor, and reigned over the empire's end."
Biography
Romulus Augustulus — 'the little Augustus' — was the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a teenage figurehead installed by his father, the general Orestes, who held the real power. His reign lasted barely ten months. By bitter coincidence his names recalled both Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, and Augustus, its first emperor, so that the empire ended under a boy who carried the names of its beginning. When Orestes refused the barbarian troops' demand for land, they rose under Odoacer, killed Orestes, and deposed the boy in September 476. Odoacer, finding no reason to harm a harmless youth, spared his life and granted him a comfortable pension and an estate in Campania, where Romulus vanishes from the historical record. His quiet retirement is a fitting epitaph for an empire that ended not with a battle but with an abdication.
Did you know?
Odoacer's pension to him was 6,000 solidi a year — a generous settlement for the emperor he had just overthrown.
Key Battles
The Deposition of Romulus Augustulus
Germanic & Hunnic Peoples victorySeptember 4, 476 AD · 1,000 total casualties
The quiet deposition of a boy who bore, with bitter irony, the names of both Rome's founder and its first emperor is the conventional end-date of the Western Roman Empire. No legions clashed; the office simply ceased. Italy passed to Germanic kings, and the institutions, peoples, and faith of the Roman West reorganized into the kingdoms of early medieval Europe.
Life Journey
Timeline
c. 465 AD
🌅 Birth
Born in Italy, son of the general Orestes
October 475 AD
📍 Posting
Proclaimed Western emperor as a boy
September 476 AD
⚔️ Battle
Deposed by Odoacer — the Western Empire ends
after 476 AD
🕊️ Postwar
Retires on a pension to an estate in Campania