Summer –
Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (
Herulic/
Scirianfoederati), visits the imperial palace at
Ravenna. He petitions
Orestes (magister militum) to reward his
mercenaries for their services and their support of his rebellion a year earlier, by making good on his promise to grant them lands to settle permanently in
Italy. Orestes refuses this proposal and Odoacer leads his tribesmen in a revolt.
August –
Basiliscus, Roman
usurper, is deposed and
Zeno is restored as emperor of the
Eastern Roman Empire. With the support of his adviser
Illus, he besieges
Constantinople, but the Senate opens the gates, allowing him to resume the
throne. Basiliscus flees to
sanctuary in a church, but surrenders himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood. Basiliscus is sent to a fortress in
Cappadocia, where he later dies from
starvation.
August 23 – Odoacer, age 43, is proclaimed rex Italiae ("king of Italy") by his troops. He leads his
Ostrogoth army into the
Po Valley, and advances to Ravenna while plundering the countryside.
Julius Nepos, de jure ruler, becomes legally the last "Western Roman Emperor". He governs
Dalmatia (
Balkans), Morocco, and Northwest Gaul until his death in
480, but has no effective power on the
Italian Peninsula.
The
Visigoths under King
Euric march into Italy, and suffer defeat against the forces of Odoacer. Emperor Zeno concludes a
peace treaty between the Goths and Odoacer surrenders the newly conquered territory in Gaul. Euric pledges himself to undertake no further hostilities.
The
Roman Senate petitions
Zeno to recognize Nepos as deposed and take the sole emperorship himself, abolishing the 81 year-long east/west division of the empire and recognizing Odoacer's authority in Italy. Zeno declines the first request, but names Odoacer Patricius, investing his rule with Imperial legitimacy.
^Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. Page 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire; [...])
^United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]. Page 43. (cf. ... in the history of Europe, which marks both the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western Roman Empire.)