Fourteenth installment of “Archienemies de Roma “. Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló.
Today we will talk about the barbarian leader to whom the doctors of History have granted the honorable honor of liquidating the decrepit Western Empire and, with it, ushering in the Middle Ages. Perhaps, if he hadn't been the one to depose the irrelevant Romulus Augustulus no one would know of his existence, but it was not so; Odoacer he was the man who ended a world that had been dying for more than a century...
Odoacer he was half Herulus, half Scirian, two ethnic groups of Scandinavian and Germanic origin respectively that had ended up dissolved and integrated into the Empire after being fueled by the wars between the Huns and the Romans. While of the sciros little is known, it is known that the Herules they were a warrior tribe that spread throughout the limes European, knowing both his raids as pirates in the Cantabrian Sea and his belligerent presence in the Danube since the 3rd century. They were very badly treated by the Christian historians of the time, such as Procopius of Caesarea , who accused them of practicing ritual pedophilia among warriors and bestiality with their beasts of burden.
Heruli in combat
Let's go back to today's archenemy; born around 435 AD, his original name, Audawarks, means in German “he who seeks wealth ”, name given by Aide-de-camp , his father and adviser to Attila; his military career is uncertain, since he appears in the ancient chronicles as a result of the revolt of the federated Germans of Orestes , father of Rómulo Augustulus, according to history books, the last emperor of the Western Empire. Raised between the Hun camps and the Danube limes, he acted as a mercenary and auxiliary until one of the inbred internal revolts of the Empire provided him with the opportunity to carve his name in History...
Let's put ourselves in situation:Year of the Lord of 475. Julio Nepote , Emperor of the West with the permission of Constantinople since he had dethroned Glicerio in 474, he is deposed by Flavius Orestes , an aristocrat of German origin from Pannonia. The latter, knowing that his brazen usurpation would not be well regarded by the powerful and intact Eastern Empire, does not choose to take the throne but places his teenage son on it, Romulus Augustus (who has gone down in history as Augustulo , a derogatory diminutive; It is curious that providence made the last official regent of the Empire bear the name of the founder of the city and that of its first emperor).
Odoacer threatens Augustulus (The Last Legion)
For such a maneuver, Orestes recruits federated Germans who serve him as mercenaries among his old acquaintances Heruli and Sciri, which works for him until his funds run out, as well as his promises of land distribution in Italy for all of them. It is then that Odoacer enters the scene, leading a revolt that, after demanding a third of the available land in Italy without any response from the Senate and the imperial court, ends the life of Orestes in Ticino and causes the subsequent deposition of his son in Ravenna on September 4, 476 . This is the date that appears in the Encyclopedias as the beginning of the Middle Ages.
But this artificial separation between the Old Age and the Middle Ages is a caprice of our days. For those who lived and suffered those turbulent years there was no difference between being ruled by Nepos, Augustulus or Odoacer. The Roman Empire as we imagined it no longer existed; the throne of Ravenna was an instrument at the mercy of any ambitious barbarian, the tentacles of the Church had replaced state administrative control and the theoretical authority of the Caesars was limited to Italy, a forgotten corner of Mauretania Tingitana and a strip of Atlantic Gaul in the hands of the hard legate Afranio Siagrio. They were barbarian leaders who controlled the imperial troops, no longer organized as legions, who acted as authentic sovereigns in the provinces of Hispania, Gaul or Africa (as we saw in other installments with Alaric or Genseric). The curious thing is that none of those chiefs The Germans wanted to break such a strange nominal homage to Rome... They all wanted to have a position ratified by the Senate.
Once Orestes and his son were eliminated, Odoacer did not intend to usurp the throne like so many predecessors, but instead wrote to Leo I the Great , Eastern Emperor, requesting that he be granted the title of Dux from Italy and accompanying said letter with the sending of the imperial ensigns, symbols that Constantinople did not reject.
For Leo I, the legitimate sovereign of the West was Nepos, exiled in Dalmatia since Orestes entered Ravenna and took control of Italy. Julius Nepote returned to Ravenna and Odoacer, we do not know if due to pressure from the Eastern Empire or by his own will, respected his position, coming to mint coins with his name. That's how complex politics was then; real power was in the hands of the Germans, who wanted to maintain the status quo of past times even if it was only a facade. They did not want to destroy Rome, they wanted to participate in its government.
Perhaps the intercession of the deposed and spiteful Glicerio , serving as bishop of Salona (Dalmatia) since he was banished, he made the situation complicated. Nepos was assassinated by his troops, most likely on April 25, 480, accused of plotting against Odoacer to regain control of Italy. That turn of events encouraged the Doge to invade Dalmatia and become an annoying and powerful neighbor for the Eastern Empire.
Odoacer controlled both territories for thirteen years, the time it took for the court of Constantinople to resolve their succession conflict and commission a barbarian more in tune with his plans for imperial reconstruction to campaign against those Heruli and Sciri who continued to rule over Italy. The one chosen by the new emperor Zeno was Theodoric , King of the Ostrogoths. The death of Nepos had greatly complicated relations between Ravenna and Constantinople, because, despite his last suspicions, while he lived he never showed himself independent of him, accepting him as his direct superior as the East had arranged. His absence caused a shift in the fragile local balance. Perhaps for this reason, many historians consider that Julius Nepos, and not the insignificant Romulus Augustulus, was the last of the Caesars.
Romulus prostrates himself before Odoacer
Theodoric, with the unconditional support of Constantinople, entered Italy in 489 and for four years warred against Odoacer until he had no choice but to surrender. His end was as sad and violent as that of many of the great men of Rome of whom he was the indirect heir. As a treat to seal the peace between the two régulos, Theodoric invited Odoacer to a banquet where he was stabbed to death with his own sword. After that event, Italy became a Gothic kingdom just as it had happened with Hispania. The Western Roman Empire was already History .
A couple of good novels about these times are “The Last Legion ” by Valerio Massimo Manfredi , made into a movie quite recently, and “The Fall of Rome ” by Michael Curtis Ford; the latter recounts the life of Odoacer from the time of Attila until his decline as Rex Italiae.