Background
In 474, Julius Nepos became Roman emperor. He successfully fought against the Vandals, and also commanded a fleet that defended the shores of the Adriatic Sea from pirates.
Impressed by the success of the new commander, the Byzantine emperor Leo I, invited him to Constantinople, gave him the title of patrician, and let him marry his niece. Before leaving, Julius Nepos received a military squadron from Leo.
However, soon after the death of Leo, a fierce struggle for power began at the imperial court, and to maintain his position, the new emperor Flavius Zeno withdrew the granted squadron.
A similar situation developed at the court of the Roman emperor: Nepos was forced to defend his throne from hostile groups which attempted to overthrow him. For this, Nepos urged the mercenaries from Pannonia to protect him from a possible military rebellion, and also hoped to improve his position among the common people by saving the empire from capture by barbarians. However, these measures did not help him to extend his power beyond Italy, since the Franks were the masters of North-Western Gaul, and the Burgundians – of the South-East. In addition, the Visigoths again intensified attacks on the borders of the empire from Spain. In such a situation, the emperor decided to appoint as master (commander in chief) of the Roman army in Gaul, Flavius Orestes, a native of Pannonia, who was a secretary of Attila, who later enlisted in the service of Rome.
Declaring a campaign against the Spanish Visigoths, Orestes led an army of Pannonian mercenaries from Rome and headed for Ravenna, which was the residence of the Roman emperors at that time. Reaching the gates of the city, Orestes announced that he intended to besiege the city and overthrow the emperor. Instead of organizing a proper defense, the emperor fled to his hereditary possessions in Dalmatia, to the Salon. After the escape of Nepos, Orestes declared his infant son Romulus emperor. Later he was given the nickname Augustus.
After the new “emperor” was enthroned, the mercenaries demanded land plots in Italy from Orestes, as the federals who had taken the service of Rome should have received the land. However, instead, Orestes began to recruit new mercenaries for the massacre of the former army. At the same time, Odoacer, the son of Oresta’s friend from the time of Attila’s service, was appointed head of the Oresta Guard. Odoacer was sent to Pannonia to form a new army.
The Coup
Being in Pannonia on the instructions of Orestes, Odoacer recruited many mercenaries, mostly immigrants from the tribes of the Heruls, Rugs and Skyrids (he himself was a tribesman of the latter). Having such a large army under his command, he could now claim the supreme power himself. After bringing on his side also the guard of Orestes , Odoacer began to plan a military coup. In addition, he increased his strength by promising land plots to other mercenaries from the Italic garrisons at the end of his service.
By the time Orestes learned about the impending military coup, the rebel army possessed quite significant forces, so Orestes fled Ravenna to Pavia , leaving the defense of the capital to his brother.
Odoacre’s scouts told him that Orestes had fled, and he moved his army after him, capturing and plundering Pavia, and also executing his former commander on August 28, 476. Then, with a quick march, the rebellious commander reached Ravenna, which fell on September 4 of the same year. The captured emperor Romulus Augustus was exiled to the former estate of Lucullus in Campania near Naples on September 5, where he lived until the end of his days, receiving a life-long pension as an important prisoner.
Effects of the Coup
The Senate of Rome sent a letter to Odoacer, where he recognized the coup as legitimate, and also sent legates to Constantinople so that the Byzantine emperor Zeno recognized Odoacer as the legal ruler and allowed him to rule Italy and the western part of the empire in patrician status. However, at about the same time, Ambassadors Nepoth arrived to seek help from Constantinople in returning the throne to the fleeting emperor. Zeno eventually sent a letter to Odoacer, where he recommended that Nepos be recognized as emperor, and also accept patrician status from him. But at the same time, Zeno there also calls Odoacer a patrician. After reading the letter, Odoacer decided that he had received the approval of the Eastern Emperor and is now the legitimate ruler. However, Nepos decided the same thing, retaining a purely formal authority over Italy, as evidenced by the coins with his image issued at that time. But in 480, Julius Nepos was killed by his own guards. There is a possibility that the assassination was organized by his enemy Glyceria, who later received from Odoacer the status of bishop in Mediolan.
It is believed that it was in the year 476 that the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist, since from that moment the policy of the Italian state was completely changed. Now, the rulers no longer called themselves emperors (although Odoacer still proclaimed his son, the Body, the emperor before death), since the signs of imperial dignity ( diadem and purple mantle ) were sent by Odoacer to Constantinople, and the great-power policy changed to a policy of preserving the integrity of Italy. In addition, Odoacer did not use pseudo-Roman origin to justify his own status as a ruler. And since that time, the Byzantine emperor was considered the formal ruler of the entire Roman Empire, which, however, did not prevent the newly-minted kings from pursuing their own policies, regardless of the opinion of Constantinople.
At the same time, state administration in Italy remained the same: after the brief abolition of the institution of the consulate at the very beginning of the reign of Odoacer, everything returned to the same forms (by the year 480) as before the coup. Titles, positions and courts are preserved. The Senate also survived, but now it had lost the opportunity to intervene in the affairs of Italy, becoming, in fact, an ancient revered body, authorized only in the city of Rome.
Sources:
Ryzhov K. All the monarchs of the world. Ancient Greece. Ancient Rome. Byzantium.
V. Sirotenko. The history of international relations in Europe in the second half of the 4th – early 6th centuries
Fedorova E.V. Imperial Rome in the faces