September 4, AD 476

Romulus Augustulus

Odoacer takes Ravenna; traditional deposition of Romulus Augustulus

Instead of killing the deposed boy, Odoacer reportedly assigned him an income of 6,000 gold solidi — and the date memorized as the fall of Rome may mark the capture of Ravenna, not the abdication.

September 476: Ravenna falls to Odoacer

The end came in stages. Orestes — father of the young emperor Romulus Augustus and the regime's effective ruler — had refused his largely non-Italian troops' demands for land in Italy; they proclaimed Odoacer king, and Odoacer defeated and executed Orestes at Placentia on 28 August 476. His forces killed Orestes's brother Paulus near Ravenna and took the city on or shortly after 4 September.

The traditional account places Romulus's deposition at Ravenna on 4 September itself. A 2024 reappraisal argues otherwise: Odoacer probably captured Ravenna then, but Romulus remained nominally emperor for several more weeks and formally abdicated later in 476.

The boy who was pensioned, not executed

The Anonymus Valesianus records that Odoacer spared Romulus because of his youth — the terse source adds 'and comely' — gave him an income of 6,000 solidi, and sent him to Campania to live with relatives. His exact age is unknown; ancient sources establish only that he was young, and figures like ten or sixteen are conjecture.

Odoacer installed no replacement emperor in Italy. A subsequent embassy told the eastern emperor Zeno that the West required no separate emperor and requested recognition for Odoacer; Zeno instead maintained that Julius Nepos — the eastern-recognized western emperor, living across the Adriatic in Dalmatia — remained lawful.

Not yet 'the fall of Rome'

Roman government did not disappear by nightfall: Odoacer retained Roman institutions and ruled without assuming the imperial title, his kingship resting on his troops' earlier acclamation rather than a 4 September proclamation as 'King of Italy.'

Julius Nepos kept his imperial claim until his death in 480, and the use of 476 as the end of the Western Roman Empire is a later historical convention — not something contemporaries universally understood to be happening.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0476-09.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact 4 September deposition date is now disputed. A 2024 source study concludes that Odoacer probably captured Ravenna then but that Romulus formally abdicated weeks later.
Ancient sources call Romulus young but do not securely establish his age; estimates such as ten, eleven, or sixteen are conjectural.
The Anonymus Valesianus says Romulus was sent to Campania with relatives; Jordanes specifies the Lucullan castle. Combining those reports is plausible but not certain.
The source reports an income of 6,000 solidi; interpreting it explicitly as an annual pension is conventional but not stated in every account.