Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire is the name given to the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 286 AD. It would exist intermittently in several periods between the 3rd Century and the 5th Century, after Diocletian's Tetrarchy and the reunifications associated with Constantine the Great and his later successors, and is generally held to have ended with the abdication of Romulus Augustus on September 4, 476, under pressure of the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. Its counterpart, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, survived for another 1,000 years.

Fall of Rome

With the death of Stilicho in 408 the weak emperor Honorius was left in charge, and although he ruled until his death in 423, his reign was filled with usurpations and barbarian invasions, particularly by the Vandals and Visigoths. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th Century BC, and in effect as the military order of the western empire unraveled it ceased to be Roman and became barbarian. The instability caused by usurpers throughout the Western Empire helped the barbarians in their conquests, and as the 5th century wore on the barbarians became usurpers themselves. In 475, Orestes, a former secretary of Attila the Hun drove the emperor Julius Nepos out of Ravenna and proclaimed his son Romulus Augustus to be Emperor. Although some pockets of Roman civilization continued, (in northwest Gaul and Britannia, under Syagrius and Ambrosius Aurelianus, respectively) the rule of Rome over the west was effectively ended. In 476 after Orestes refused to grant the Heruli led by Odoacer federated status. Odoacer sacked Rome and sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople, installing himself as King over Italy. The last hope for a reunited Empire came in 493 when Odoacer was replaced by the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great. Theodoric had been recruited by the Eastern Emperor Zeno to retake the western portion of the empire, Rome most importantly. Technically he was to be subordinant as a viceroy to the Emperor of the East, Theodoric was in fact an equal. It was in this period while Rome was under direct barbarian control for the first time starting 476 that the collapse started to become final in the West. Barbarian tribes flooded into the western provinces and began to take control, and without an organized Roman Army to stop them they had free reign. Following Theodoric's death in 526, the west no longer resembled the east, as both had transformed. The west was now fully controlled by barbarians, while the east retreated from former borders and hellenized. While the East would make some further attempts to recapture the west, it would never more be the Roman Empire.

Related Topics:
Stilicho - Honorius - Vandals - Visigoths - 4th Century BC - 5th century - Orestes - Attila the Hun - Julius Nepos - Ravenna - Romulus Augustus - Gaul - Britannia - Syagrius - Ambrosius Aurelianus - Heruli - Odoacer - Ostrogoth - Theodoric the Great - Zeno - Viceroy - Roman Army

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