The Deposition of Romulus Augustulus and the Causes of Rome's Fall

By around 475 CE the Western Roman Empire was in a state of extreme political weakness and instability. Romulus Augustulus was proclaimed emperor that year by his father, the general Orestes, without recognition from the East — a name of striking symbolic resonance, since it coincided with that of Rome's legendary founder. Discontent among the Germanic foederati troops over the refusal to grant them land in Italy fueled a rebellion led by Odoacer, a military leader of Scirian or Herulian origin, in 476 CE; Odoacer's forces defeated and executed Orestes, and Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in August or September of that year, treating the deposed emperor with relative clemency by exiling him with a pension.