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Odoacer [a] (/ ˌ oʊ d oʊ ˈ eɪ s ər / OH-doh-AY-sər; [b] c. 433 – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, [c] was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493).
Odoacer had previously become the de facto ruler of Italy following his deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the final emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in 476. Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern Southern France in the west to the modern western Serbia in the southeast.
After the deposition of the last Western Emperor in 476, Heruli leader Odoacer was appointed Dux Italiae (Duke of Italy) by the reigning Byzantine Emperor Zeno.Later, the Germanic foederati, the Scirians and the Heruli, as well as a large segment of the Italic Roman army, proclaimed Odoacer Rex Italiae ('King of Italy). [1]
A massacre of Odoacer's soldiers and supporters follows. Theodoric the Great allies with the Franks and marries Audofleda , sister of Clovis I . He also marries his own female relatives to princes or kings of the Burgundians , Vandals and Visigoths , establishing a political alliance with the Germanic kingdoms in the West.
Zeno eventually granted Odoacer patrician status as recognition of his authority and accepted him as his viceroy of Italy. Zeno, however, insisted that Odoacer had to pay homage to Julius Nepos as the emperor of the Western Empire. Odoacer accepted this condition and issued coins in the name of Julius Nepos throughout Italy.
Odoacer's deposition of Romulus Augustus, occurring in 476 AD, was a coup that marked the end of the reign of the Western Roman Emperor last approved by the Western Roman Senate and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy through Odoacer's decision to adopt the title of Dux/Rex Italiae(Duke/King of Italy), although Julius Nepos exercised control over Dalmatia until 480.
The siege of Ravenna was a military engagement from 490–493, when Theodoric besieged Odoacer in Ravenna. The siege ended when the two men agreed to peace, but on 15 March 493 CE, Theodoric murdered Odoacer during a banquet.
Theodoric stipulated with [Zeno], that if Odoacer should be vanquished, in return for his own labors in Odoacer's place he should rule in his stead only until the arrival of Zeno. Therefore, when the patrician Theodoric came from the city of Nova with the Gothic people, he was sent by the emperor Zeno from the regions of the Orient, in order to ...