Odoacer
Soldier and former King of ItalyWikipedia
135
MENTIONS
34
EPISODES
27
PODCASTS
Search complete. 135 mentions across 34 episodes found for "Odoacer".
Oct 15, 2026
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
But Orestes failed to play the part of Ricimer.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
A younger and more daring barbarian adventurer, Odoacer the Herule or Rugian, bid higher for the allegiance of the army.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Orestes was slain, and the young emperor was left to the mercy of Odoacer.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
In singular and significant contrast to the common usage when a pretender fell, Romulus Augustulus was spared.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
He was made to abdicate in legal form in 476, and the Roman Senate, at the dictation of Odoacer, officially signified to the Eastern Emperor Zeno their resolution that the separate Western Empire should cease and their recognition of the one emperor at Constantinople, who should be supreme over West and East.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Amid the ruin of the empire and the state, the dethroned emperor passed his days in such luxurious ease as the times allowed at the villa of Lucullus at Misenum, and Odoacer, taking the Teutonic title of king, sent to the emperor at Constantinople the imperial crown and robe, which were to be worn no more at Rome or Ravenna for more than 300 years.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Thus in the year 476 ended the Roman Empire, or rather the line of Roman emperors in the West.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Thus it had become clear that the foundations of human life and society which had seemed under the first emperors eternal had given way.
Jennifer Beckett WoodNARRATOR
Yet this powerful prince, moved by the persuasion of Leo, the Bishop of Rome, and perhaps still more by costly gifts, by the prevalence of disease among his troops, and by the superstitious presentiments of his own mind, abandoned his design of entering Rome and gave another respite to the doomed city.
Jennifer Beckett WoodNARRATOR
Twenty-four years elapsed, and Odoacer at the head of the Vandals, who with the Goths seemed to have sprung from a common origin, again inspired terror in the enfeebled Romans, took the city, dethroned the last of the emperors, who was styled Romulus Augustus, as if in mockery of the proud associations connected with those two noble names, and caused himself to be proclaimed the King of Rome.
Jennifer Beckett WoodNARRATOR
But the empire cannot be said even then to have completely fallen, for the barbarian rulers held the government in commission under the imperial successors of Constantine, who occupied the throne of the East.
Jennifer Beckett WoodNARRATOR
Scenes of conflict and desolation followed in rapid succession.
speaker_5NARRATOR
There was never any question of invasion or conquest.
speaker_5NARRATOR
Odoacer held a regular Roman commission.
speaker_5NARRATOR
He was a Roman soldier.
speaker_5NARRATOR
Theodoric supplanted him by leave of, and actually under orders from, the emperor.
EmilyHOST
Yeah.
EmilyHOST
It was a very striking-
CamHOST
Yeah
EmilyHOST
... uh, picture.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
In order to comprehend Frederick's position and the power and pretensions of his enemy, it is necessary to recall to mind the development of the medieval empire and the papacy, and the gradual enmity which arose between them.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
In the year 476 the throne of the Western Empire became vacant through the deposition of Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer, who sent the imperial insignia to his patron the Eastern Emperor at Constantinople.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
For over three centuries there was no emperor at Rome, until there arose in the West a giant whose power qualified him to fill with dignity the ancient throne of the Caesars.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Pippin, king of the Franks, had defended the pope of Rome against the Lombards, and had bestowed certain rich lands on the spiritual power.
Dave FarinaHOST
This officer, Valentinian, and his descendants were the last family to rule the Western Empire until a few decades before it ceased to exist in the later 5th century.
Dave FarinaHOST
The city of Rome was attacked and looted by a Gothic army in 410, and in 476, Italy became an independent kingdom under a foreign-born army officer named Odoacer.
Dave FarinaHOST
He led a rebellion against a young emperor who had only recently been appointed over the West, and with the end of its imperial court, it turned into a group of kingdoms in France, Spain, and Italy that were occupied and ruled by Gothic tribes.
Dave FarinaHOST
They adopted Latin and many aspects of Roman law and institutions, and Italy continued for a time to produce men learned in classical culture, like the writer Cassiodorus and the philosopher Boethius, both of whom lived in the 6th century.
Jeremy Ryan SlateGUEST
And 476 is that traditional fall date.
Jeremy Ryan SlateGUEST
But what actually happens then is that there is a barbarian general named Odoacer, and Odoacer is basically running this small teenage boy named Romulus Augustus as the last emperor, and he basically retires him, gives him a pension, sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople, and tells Emperor Zeno, "Well, we don't need an emperor anymore.
Jeremy Ryan SlateGUEST
I'm basically going to, to serve, uh..." He- initially he tells him, "I'm going to serve you and your interests here," but then he makes himself king.
Jeremy Ryan SlateGUEST
And that's kind of the fall of Rome.
speaker_0HOST
I'm ending there because 518 is when a new family, the Justinian dynasty, took control of the empire, and it is this family that will lead the Eastern Roman Empire to the acme of its power and prestige.
speaker_0HOST
Once again, we begin in Ravenna in the year 476, when the barbarian general Odoacer formally deposed the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus.
speaker_0HOST
Odoacer sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople, where the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno ruled.
speaker_0HOST
Unlike the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus, Zeno was not a barbarian puppet.
speaker_0HOST
He was an effective general in his own right, serving as magister militum before he was named as co-emperor and effective regent for his child son, Leo II.
35 MINS LATER
speaker_0HOST
Illus began preparing for war, but he knew that he was in a weak position.
speaker_0HOST
His men controlled only Isauria and parts of Syria, while Zeno commanded the rest of the empire.
speaker_0HOST
Illus sent embassies to Odoacer, the King of Italy, and to the Sassanid Shahanshah asking for support, but his efforts were unsuccessful.
24 more episodes mention Odoacer.
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