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Article: THE FALL OF THE WEST.(fall of Rome in 476 AD)
- Article from:
- Calliope
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN A.D. 476, A BARBARIAN LEADER NAMED ODOACER OVERTHREW THE BOY EMPEROR ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS. HISTORIANS EARLY ON RECOGNIZED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EVENT. "WITH THIS Augustulus," wrote Marcellinus Comes in the mid-500s, "perished the western empire of the Roman people."
"Little-Augustus" was the last Roman emperor of the West. His defeat came as the final blow in a century of disasters. Since 376, Rome had been losing control over its provinces to land-hungry Germanic tribes. Eyewitnesses and their immediate descendants everywhere in the western empire described the nightmarish invasions.
Bishop Victor of Vita depicted the Vandals' devastation of North ...