To many historians, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE has always been viewed as the end of the ancient world and the onset of the Middle Ages, often improperly called the Dark Ages, despite Petrarch's assertion. Since much of the west had already fallen by the middle of the 5th century CE, when a writer speaks of the fall of the empire, he or she generally refers to the fall of the city of Rome. Although historians generally agree on the year of the fall, 476 CE, and its consequences for western civilization, they often disagree on its causes.
Unlike the fall of earlier empires such as the Assyrian and Persian, Rome did not succumb to either war or revolution. On the last day of the empire, a barbarian member of the Germanic tribe Siri and former commander in the Roman army entered the city unopposed. The one-time military and financial power of the Mediterranean was unable to resist. Odovacar easily dethroned the sixteen-year-old emperor Romulus Augustalus, a person he viewed as posing no threat.
Romulus had recently been named emperor by his father, the Roman commander Orestes, who had overthrown the western emperor Julius Nepos. With his entrance into the city, Odovacar became the head of the only part that remained of the once great west: the peninsula of Italy. By the time he entered the city, the Roman control of Britain, Spain, Gaul, and North Africa had already been lost, in the latter three cases to the Goths and Vandals. Odovacar immediately contacted the eastern emperor Zeno and informed him that he would not accept that title of emperor. Zeno could do little but accept this decision. In fact, to ensure there would be no confusion, Odovacar returned to Constantinople the imperial vestments, diadem, and purple cloak of the emperor.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Last Stand Against the Barbarians | Rome: Rise And Fall Of An Empire
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post your favorite barbarian kingdom in the post-roman med! i'll start:
Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans, or: that piratical paradise what Gaiseric the Great built.
lots of people think of Attila as the most badass boy who caused the fall of Rome---au contraire! that Hun didn't even sack the City, nevermind enter his people's name into the lexicon for fucking shit up. Gaiseric is the true face of the Fall of Rome.
MF was born near Hungary, to a people soon on the run from hunnic arrows. his father dies leading them across the Rhine in a desperate mass of refugee peoples.
and he dies in Carthage, having sacked the richest city in western eurasia & defeated/bankrupt both halves of the Roman empire. and he killed that prick Augustine of Hippo too
You can't pick the Vandals, those are the coolest ones.
I'm a little fuzzy on on my 5th century, were the Visigoths around then? Because I always loved them, Spanish medieval history is a really interesting era.
oh you talkin about the Shit-i-goths?
they were in southern gaul in the late 5th century, took iberia right toward the 470s. it's unfortunate their sources are more sparse and of worse quality than the Ostrogoths, makes people think they were the less sophisticated of the two, but it could just be an error of recordkeeping lol
Hmmm didn't the big titty Visigoth girlfriends kick the Vandcels out of Iberia? I'm not gonna check my sources, I'm gonna state it confidently anyways.
oh you mean when they fumbled a bad bitch who went on to kick more ass in a single lifetime than the visigoths did in 300 years? look up the battle of Cape Bon
Sounds like the Vizzies hung around for 300 years and the Vandals became a word for teenagers acting goofy. Their law code survived into modern times too.
And no I WON'T look up an ancient battle from over a thousand years ago, even though that's one of my favorite things to do.
Vandals probably, but maybe the Ostrogoths as well they were cool