Roman Imperial Romulus Augustus

Flavius Momyllus Romulus Augustulus - Romulus Augustus​

D N ROMVLVS AVGVSTVS P F AVG​

On 31st October AD 475, the usurper Romulus Augustus was crowned Western Roman emperor. Placed on the throne as a proxy by his father, Romulus' rule was short lived and unremarkable for he made no notable achievements. Despite this, the end of Romulus Augustus' ten-month reign was popularised by famed historiographer Edward Gibbon as the extinction of the Roman empire in the West, meaning following his reign, Western emperors were no more than ineffectual puppets [The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776–88].

Romulus Augustus was the son of the Western Empire's Magister Militum, Orestes. While serving the emperor Julius Nepos, Orestes staged a military coup forcing Nepos to flee into exile in Dalmatia. Having deposed Julius Nepos, Orestes proclaimed his son as emperor, a strange candidate since he was thought to be around fourteen years old at the time. Although not officially in charge, Orestes ruled with his son fulfilling the symbolic requirements of imperial tradition and his armies supplying military support. However, legitimacy to rule could only be achieved with the consent of the Eastern emperor who throughout Romulus Augustus' reign still considered Julius Nepos [living in exile in Salonae near Split] the constitutional emperor. Historiographers have disagreed whether Julius Nepos was in fact the final Western emperor since following his death in AD 480, the Eastern emperor Zeno declared himself sole Roman Emperor. However, Julius Nepos never returned from his exile to rule as emperor in the West and following his usurpation by Orestes and Romulus Augustus, he was in fact completely powerless, thus, Romulus Augustus was undeniably the last de facto ruler of the West. Another more poetic reason for choosing Romulus Augustus as the final Western emperor over Nepos is that the names Romulus and Augustus tie the final emperor with both the mythical founder of Rome, and its first emperor.

In AD 476 Orestes' troops mutinied and he was executed at the hands of their new leader Odovacar. Odovacar advanced on Ravenna and captured the city and the young ruler. Romulus Augustus was compelled to abdicate and a signed letter was taken along with his imperial regalia to the Eastern emperor, Zeno, in Constantinople. Odovacar's message to the East was that there was no longer need for the Empire to be split between Byzantium and Ravenna and that one ruler based in Byzantium would suffice. Romulus Augustus' life was spared and he was sent by Odovacar to Campania to live with his relatives apparently with a pension. A letter by Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric the Great in AD 507 seems to be written to the ex-emperor suggesting he was still alive in the sixth century. He is also mentioned by Count Marcellinus, a writer under Justinian, where he is called Augustulus, a diminutive often given to Romulus Augustus highlighting his youth.

The coinage struck in the name of Romulus Augustus survives as part of very limited evidence of his reign. The standardised portraits are the only surviving images of Romulus Augustus and yet they tell us nothing about the person behind the imperial façade. Unfortunately, scholars thought the boy of little importance compared with the political crisis his reign concluded in and no information regarding his character survives.