The Fall of the Roman Empire

A sad day today, being the 1532nd anniversary of the end of the Roman Empire. On this day in AD 476, the Gothic warlord Odoacer forced the Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus to abdicate his throne. This was a seismic event in that it brought to an end the office of Emperor and Roman power in the west but could not have been unexpected by Roman citizens - the Empire in the west had been ailing ever since the sack of Rome by Alaric's Visigoths in 410 (witnessed by St. Augustine).

The English historian Edward Gibbon blamed Christianity for Rome's fall. But his reasoning, that the Empire had with the rise of Christianity become effete and therefore unable to defend itself, is risible. Consider the example of Constantine. On the eve of the battle of the Milvian Bridge, as Constantine got ready to fight his opponent for the Imperial throne, Maxentius, Constantine saw a cross in the sky. On it was written 'in hoc signo vinces' (conquer by this sign). But he did not go on to win the Roman Empire by becoming a pacifist. Neither did he let up following his assumption of the imperial purple. Consider also the example of the Warrior Monks in the Middle Ages, the Crusades etc etc.

Of course, there were many reasons why the Roman Empire fell but I think a - if not the - major factor behind them all was the weakness caused to authority by the fact that it was really a normal practice to claim the throne by violent means. No society which allows that to happen can last.

As for Romulus Augustus, he is more commonly known as Augustulus ('little Augustus'). Not because he was short, I think, but because by the time he came to power in 475 the western empire had shrivelled to a fraction of a fraction of its former size.

Augustulus was still a teenager when Odoacer deposed him. The best proof that he had become an insignificant figure was that unlike many of his deposed predecessors he was not assassinated in 476 but allowed to live out the rest of his days in peace in retirement in southern Italy.