476

The fall of the Western Roman Empire

In 476 the Germanic leader Odoacer deposed the last Western emperor, the young Romulus Augustulus. He sent the imperial regalia to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople, declaring the empire reunited.

By this time the western provinces had already effectively become Germanic kingdoms. The event is traditionally regarded as the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the beginning of the "Dark Ages." In that period monasteries remained almost the only islands of learning and stability. Zeno later invited the Ostrogoths to conquer Italy, which remained nominally part of the Eastern Empire.