Odoacer
Odoacer (Odovacar), born in Pannonia around 435, is the son of Ederon, chief of the Heruli allied to the Huns and minister of Attila.
He is the main actor in the final fall of the Western Roman Empire by deposing the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and returning the imperial regalia to Byzantium. Supported by his Heruli and the barbarian mercenaries from Italy, whom he mainly massed in the north of the country, he governed the peninsula with the title of patrician from the year 476.
On the death of Julius Nepos in 480, he occupied Dalmatia but from 488 he had to fight against the Ostrogoths and their allies of King Theodoric the Great, sent by Byzantium with the aim of driving him out of Italy. He was beaten three times by Theodoric, supported by the Visigoths of his son-in-law, King Alaric II; in Aquileia in 489, in Verona, then on the banks of the Adda in 490. Forced to retreat to Ravenna, its capital, it resisted for three years while under siege.
Theodoric ended up offering him a deal and Odoacer agreed to capitulate in March 493. Fifteen days later, he was assassinated in the middle of a banquet by the Ostrogoth king himself:his family, his followers and his lieutenants were assassinated or executed, his army decimated or integrated into the Ostrogothic armies.