Imperial candidates had vied for control of the remnants of the once Mighty realm most of them losing their heads in the process for it wasn’t just gismos of Germanic descent who attempted to hold sway over the ebbing tide from both within and without but full-blooded Romans too
Just the previous year though having all the support of Constantinople Mighty capital of the eastern half of the Empire and a good military pedigree being the son of a famed General the emperor Julius nepos had been outsmarted left a drift to rule over a rump state in
Dalmatia much had changed since the days of Augustus and hadrien so many centuries before even the imperial capital itself had been moved in the wake of repeated sackings by barbarians over the course of the fifth century and in the 470s in the well fortified Imperial Lair of
Rena it was a certain areses who now pulled the strings but in instead of placing himself on the throne in a Brazen decision it was his teenage son Romulus who would be made Emperor but arrestes clearly failed to realize what was really going On when a group of Germanic officers arrived at court to ask for an increase in pay to ensure their continued loyalty they were flatly refused in truth the only reason Italy hadn’t already been flooded by their far more uncivilized un romanized cousins from Beyond the borders of the
Realm they took issue heading to their boss to demand something be done his name was Odaka and so it was in late August 476 areses was seized paying for his insolence with his life but when odaka found himself in the presence of the young Romulus only around 15 years old at the time he took pity on the little Emperor sending him to to Exile on a rural Villa Instead and with that relatively simple act the vaunted days of the western Emperors were over odaka had rid himself of the petty bureaucrats once and for all and yet in actuality for the vast majority of citizens life would go on just as it had before Gathering up all the Imperial
Regalia odaka sent it over to Constantinople saying only one Emperor would be necessary now and pledging his Allegiance officially the West was still part of the Roman Empire though now under the official rule of a romanized Germanic Elite Julius nepos lingered on for another four years before he too was
Killed from then on there would be no more Roman emperors in the west and yet as we shall see the title would be revived many times over the next thousand years and the concept of a Roman was far from dead was there in truth ever a last Roman is such a concept even
Possible it’s a question that has transfixed historians for centuries since procopius in the 6th Century ad and particularly since Edward Gibbon in the 18th there have been many candidates for the title of last Roman to signal I their Valor and their virtue As Romans of old figures who for one reason or
Another due to some extraordinary material or scholarly achievements were considered fit for such a title from flavus Stilo staunch half Vandal defender of the Empire betrayed and murdered by his own Emperor to the very last emperor himself Constantine VI 11th who died fighting the ottoman Turks in 1453 well over a millennia
Later join us on this journey of a thousand years as we trace the decline and fall of the Roman Empire through the individuals who did their utmost to preserve its existence hello and welcome to history time as always I’m your host Pete Kelly now usually I research write film and edit these things on my own but this episode is something special the research and the initial script was put together by YouTube’s Premier channel on the fall of Rome mayori anus so in terms of what you hear you can think of this as a collaboration
Between the two of us go and check out his excellent channel for epic videos on all things fifth century and the late Roman Empire one of the most fascinating periods in all of history when it comes to editing these videos I’ve always done it myself much to the detriment of my life
As these things take years to make and I end up doing nothing else but this year I’m delighted to announce that I finally got a video editor involved meaning I can focus on putting together bigger and better things for the channel than ever before it’s going to be
Ridiculous of course I’ll still be editing some of the videos around half of them probably but not all in doing it this way we’ve already doubled the output of the channel so a big thanks to Damiano petruci for editing this video and the recent episode on the Spartans
Let us know what you think in the comments also don’t forget to sign up to my substack newsletter where I journey to distant lands in search of the world’s greatest archaeological Sites shortly we’ll get back to the fall of Rome but first a quick word from our sponsor as Rome crumbled in the fifth century ad all manner of vagabonds and Robber Lords set about making a living from the Carnage some sold their countrymen into slavery others ended up slaves
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Safe thanks again to incog for making this massively timec consuming long form project feasible and now back to the last days of the empire In order to truly understand the fall of the Empire we must go back to the very beginnings of its fracture to the war riddled 4th Century ad in those days more often than not the real enemy was a fellow Roman usurper or upstart general usually by far the biggest
Threats coming from the upper echelons of the military rather than Germanic barbarians as American writer Ariel Durant once said a great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed it itself from within in 363 ad the last Pagan Roman Emperor and savior of Gaul Julian played
His hand one too many times heading off on an ill-conceived campaign to Persia from which he would never return now content to Simply Escape with their lives the soldiers proclaimed Julian’s Lieutenant Jovian as their new emperor spending close to a year making humiliating peace treaties and traveling back to
Constantinople he died before he got there in that age of magnates and Generals when only the strongest survived a number of Replacements were then put forward all of them were high ranking generals from military families on the frontier ultimately the best man for the job was chosen a career soldier with
Decades of experience fighting the Germanic barbarians who now yet again threatened to spill Over the Rind into the Empire his name was Valentinian in an unprecedented new situation of relative stability valentinian was able to appoint his brother vilans as emperor in the East whilst he set about pacifying the Ry Frontier in the west proving to be exceptionally capable in his position methodically taking on one group of Interlopers after the [Applause]
Other little did Valentine Ian know it but he was to be the very last Roman emperor to campaign significantly on the other side of that great riverine barrier to the Barbarian World marching deep into Germanic Territory between 367 and 369 whilst there not only did he strengthen the various River defenses
And watch posts on the Eastern side of the river but he rebuilt and refurbished old and dilapidated forts also building new ones valentinian clearly had an eye for similarly capable subordinates too dispatching the Hispanic General theodosius to deal with a massive invasion of Britannia in 367 with only a small task force
Theodosius was able to bring the situation under control winning himself and his family lasting Fame in the process we will hear from his son again at around the same time in 368 valentinian moved into Germanic territory that had once been occupied by the Romans since abandoned during the chaos of the 3D
Century a situation which had first led to the Perpetual installment of Frontier generals to the post of emperor the Agri deartis had been given up after the reign of Probus and since settled by the alamani one of the most powerful tribal confederations to emerge in the third
And fourth centuries as a very real threat to the prosperity of Roman Gaul at salicinium valentinian fought a large scale pitched battle against the alamani led by their King Rand the Romans were victorious but suffered substantial losses gone were the days of bloodless victories the so-called barbarians now
Utilizing tactics and Technology not too dissimilar to the Romans this was the very last time the Romans would ever win a major battle against Germanic tribes deep in Germania just four decades later not just the alamani but vast amounts of other neighboring confederations would cross Over the Rind storming valentinians painstakingly constructed defensive
Works and once over they would never leave it was for this reason for his impressive victories and for that last projection of Roman might beyond the borders of the frontier that valentinian would be remembered as last of the Romans in 375 valentinian died of a stroke we’re told his young son gracian became
Emperor of the west but in the East were on the danu frontier similarly catastrophic events were brewing his brother veilance still ruled an entire Barbarian Confederation the Goths two Nations to be precise theingi and the grat tongi had crossed the danu into Roman territory in 376 beseeching the Romans for protection
Against a much more terrifying foe which had come storming in from the East the Huns had arrived in Europe up until the late 370s veilance had been quite a successful Emperor like his brother valentinian in the west he’ successfully campaigned beyond the borders of the realm heading across
Cross the Danube to defeat the Goths between 367 and 369 forcing them to sue for peace however this time as tens of thousands of desperate men women and children poured into Roman territory some of them refusing to give up their arms there was no rule book to explain what to do
The subsequent situation was badly mismanaged by the local Governors resulting in outright Rebellion by the Goths eventually spiraling into open War when yet more Gothic Warriors crossed over the river in Persia at the time vilans was forced to give up his campaign against the assassinates heading back West to
Personally deal with the precarious situation which was now brewing in thce where the Goths had now begun attacking cities and ravaging the countryside in 378 vein arrived at Constantinople apparently urged by the people of the city to attack the Goths immediately and against the advice of graci’s advisers who urged him to wait
For reinforcements from the West veence set out for war perhaps fueled in part by his own ego without backup vein arrived at the city of Adrian opal to engage the Goths initially the battle went well but the Romans were soon overwhelmed by the clever tactics of the Goths and a devastating ing surprise
Cavalry attack in the heat of battle vein himself was cut down joining the ranks of the very few Roman emperors to be killed in combat Adrien opal was quite simply one of the greatest disasters the Roman empire ever suffered in its aftermath the Goths could now roam unhindered through Roman territory for years
Only being temporarily pacified by the new emperor theodosius for veillance instead of achieving a grandiose Victory and immortalizing himself as a hero the defeat set a devastating Chain Reaction into motion which was signalized to the Barbarian tribes that the Romans could indeed be defeated it would also set the dangerous
Precedent of Germanic tribes being allowed to settle within Roman land a so-called federa a practice which would later spell Doom upon the Western empire particularly when it was officially split into an independent entity upon the death of theodosius but by no means all Germanic soldiers had the Doom of the Empire on
Their minds it wasn’t long after the Empire had been split into an Eastern and a western part the Doom would be spelled on the West in particular though the ancestral home of all Romans of late it had fallen behind the rich glittering cities of the East and Constantinople in particular as imperial
Capital increasingly the non-unified state did not uniformly fight against Barbarian invasions seeking first and foremost the survival of their own half they would often now scheme against each other and even more disastrously fight Civil Wars within each half weakening them even more severely but especially in the west with
Its poorer provinces and much more accessible and open geography susceptible to being overrun by hordes of Cavalry and foot soldiers alike over the course of 80 years from New Year’s Eve in 406 when a vast horde of sway by vandals and allam crossed over the Frozen R to the final fall of
The general syagrius last Western Roman Remnant in 486 to clovis’s Frankish Army the West would suffer a lingering end and yet over the course of that near Century there were many heroic characters who gave everything for the empire and there were ensuing periods of Peace when the Germanic Invaders were subdued
Into pacifism and servile Aid to the Imperial armies many of these individuals were called last Romans in ancient and modern histories perhaps none more so however than flavus Stilo a half Vandal and exceptionally capable career Soldier Stilo had been born in 359 during the days when the Empire had been
Whole joining the Army at a young age he’d risen through the ranks ultimately serving admirably as the stalwart right-hand man of the emperor theodosius I later known as the Great the successor to veen’s Eastern Empire and eventual ruler of the West too on theodosius death in 395 the empire was split between his
Sons arcadius in the East and honorius in the west it fell to Stilo as majest militum or Master of the soldiers to watch over the Western boy King also marrying into the royal family by marrying theodosius his sister stilicho’s service was exemplary from his Manning of the northern
Frontier in Britannia against the PS and Scots to his defeat of alleri and the viig Goths in 402 perhaps the greatest threat though came in 405 when a mighty Germanic King named ragus descended upon Italy at the head of a vast horde allegedly with the express intention of sacrificing the emperor to
The pagan gods Stilo was Victorious swatting aside the enemy with vastly Superior Tactics forcing them into submission through starvation and once again defeating another force in 406 when yet more barbarians crossed the rine to spill into GA however despite these heroic efforts perhaps fearing his ever Growing Power
Whilst also wary of his Germanic Heritage in 408 the emperor honorius whom Stilo had dedicated his entire life to protecting had his mighty General one of Rome’s greatest Defenders put to death just two years later the situation Stilo had done his utmost to avoid would come to
Pass he’d spent vast amounts of time and energy in negotiating with all aleric and the viig Goths descendants of the victors of Adrian opal but now with still gone Aller and his army headed to Rome where the great city was sacked and burned for the first time in 800
Years for his incredible victories and Valiant efforts to defend the Eternal City Edward Gibbon famously called Stilo last of the Romans in his Masterpiece Decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire and Stilo perhaps above most others is surely deserving of that title and yet others perhaps equally as
Great yet with less and less resources to call from due to the hemorrhaging territory of the West would arise again 3 years after the assassination of Stilo a new figure would arise in the service of the emperor honorius inheriting Silo’s role as majest militum of the West in
411 although not called last of the Romans by any of the ancient or modern sources he surely deserves the title much more than many others on this list his name was constantius III and it was he who managed to stabilize the empire in the wake of the fall of
Rome allowing it to survive for another 65 years to come an aian by birth constantius steadily Rose through the ranks of the military and till in 411 he was given the highest rank of all essentially the Undisputed Master of the western armies though of late it was a state
Riven by usurpers and Germanic Invaders first on the agenda was Constantine III a rival Emperor to honorius who’d seized Britain and vast SES of Gaul and hispania yet it was constantius who triumphed reclaiming much of Gaul and hispania though Britain would be lost forever next constantius embarked on campaigns against the Germanic tribes
Who’d now managed to establish themselves on the territory of the Western Empire in 4:16 he defeated the vizzy Goths in Northern hispania blockading them and forcing them into submission by means of starvation their King wallia surrendered to Rome and the viig Goths were forced to become federa of the Empire and to
Fight for them against the vandals galapia the daughter of theodosius who had been captured in the sack of Rome in 408 was returned into Roman hands becoming the wife of constantius she would go on to be a significant power behind the Throne of the Western Empire for decades to
Come in the following years constantius continued campaigning Against The Barbarians in hispania and managed to recapture vast tracts of territory from the Goths the vandals and the sby thus stabilizing the Western Empire that had come so dangerously close to disintegration and after the invasions of 406 in 421 he was even made co-emperor
Of the west by honorius unfortunately though he reigned only for seven months before he died in that same year and this would be the last time that the Western Roman Empire would see some semblance of stability for which he truly does deserve the title last of the Romans it was to be the
Vandals then a fairly insignificant faction in hispania who would go on the war path next in 428 black sails were spied off the coast of Africa for centuries the Mediterranean had been clear of pirates but now all that was to change sailing south from hispania in a great
Armada where they’d been Waring and wandering for the past 20 years or so came a vast force of tens of thousands of vandals and alanic horse Warriors their destination was the soft underbelly of the Empire and its Bread Basket the province of Africa were the grain ships to Italy
Needed to keep sailing if the empire was to survive though the general who went to the defense of that most important of provinces was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempts for his Valiant efforts he was described by the historian procopius writing just over a hundred years later as the last of the
Romans that man was count bonface or bonasus as he is known by procopius first appearing as a general of constantius III in 4:13 bonasus held various posts over the ensuing nearly two decades proving himself a reliable and able Soldier before confronting the vandals in open field battle at Kalama in 430 unfortunately for
Bonasus the ruler of the vandals was gueri one of the greatest Germanic Kings in history who pretty much never lost a to battle in his entire career and that day was no different after the battle bonasus and his surviving soldiers retreated to the city of Hippo Regus home of the famed
Theologian and Saint Augustine of Hippo fortifying themselves in the city the vandals then began a lengthy and brutal Siege finally seizing the place in 431 it’s thought that Augustine himself died in the chaos yet bonasus didn’t give up yet in early 432 he took to the field of
Battle once more this time with support from the Eastern Empire aspar the alanic king maker behind the throne of Constantinople dispatching a force to Aid him when the Romans lost that day it was the beginning of the end for Roman Africa with the Metropolis of Carthage eventually being seized and set up as
The capital of a new vandalic kingdom for a 100 years to come like all Roman generals of that age bonasus was also engaged in various Civil Wars against the other powerful Roman commanders in the west most notably flavus Felix and flavus eus it’s thought very likely by modern
Historians that his failures against the vandals would you at least in part to the intense Civil Wars raging in the back ground effectively preventing a united front Against The Barbarians with bonasus only being able to call on his immediate soldiers of his own Province and yet after winning a battle
Against eus the all powerful majester militum in Gaul in 432 bonasus The Last Hope of Africa mortally wounded wed by a lanch during the fighting always seeming to fight in the thickest of the combat passed away it is to his rival that we must now turn with the death of bonasus in
432 flavius eus stood alone among the most powerful generals of the Western Empire though unpopular with Gala plaia in Rena due to his politicking and ruthless climbing of the ladder of power and the killing of many of her allies when eus personally rode to Rena at the head of an army of battle
Hardened hunk mercenaries the Rena admin rtion had no choice but to acques many years earlier flavius eus had been fostered at the court of Aller the visigoth himself before being handed on to Aline King of the Huns it was a childhood forged in Bloodshed and turmoil but one which forged one of the
Greatest Generals in Roman history history now all those years later he was still able to call on the support of the new honik king rugia who he seems to have known as a youth it was this ability to command genuine respect and service from so-called barbarians from Beyond the
Edge of the Empire that would make eus into such a Powerhouse overseeing the Empire through its final phase of relative stability and as we shall see one final major crisis arguably the greatest it would ever face violently holding the West together in a time of utter chaos and Desperation and eventually commanding
The respect and service of practically all soldiers from hispania to Gaul Germanic mercenary and legionary alike for the last time Ever eus first came to prominence in the mid 420s as a capable General in service to the usurper yanas backed up by his army of hunts he was able to renegotiate his position upon Yan’s death arriving in Gore in 426 to take command of the western Army a force 40,000
Strong following the death of honorius the six-year-old valentinian III now sat on the Imperial Throne though the real power lay with his mother Gala pdia who installed various generals such as eus with positions in the military eus was quickly able to subdue the Goths in Gaul before turning North to defeat the Franks
Too coaxing Oaths from all of them to serve him personally should he need it as a result eus was promoted to the position of majest militum though still outranked by the overall commander of the army flavus Felix by 4:30 however following a feud Felix was tracked down and summarily
Executed supposedly to forall eos’s own execution another conflict with bonasus ensued and though defeated on his march to Italy bonasus soon passed away and eus returned to Italy to seize his position back as usual at the head of a large honik army reinstated as maest militum eus was
Now by far the mightiest power in the west a position he would hold for going on 20 years to come to the north of the danu eus his ally rugia soon died in 434 replaced as king of the burgeon honik state by his nephews an older youth named
Bedder and a younger by the name of a tiller after two decades of keeping order in the west the East having largely suffered the Wrath of the Huns in the meantime eventually LED solely by a tiller after the mysterious death of his brother the honik Army launched a
The fullscale invasion of the West press ganging multitudes of Germanic Nations wholesale into their service driving terrified peasants and slaves alike before them Across The Plains of Gaul vast pitched battle that followed on the catalonian plains in 451 eus is personal Charisma was so great that the veteran viig Gothic King
Theodori I ruler for an astonishing 33 years fought to the death on his behalf the Huns were pushed back and a Tilla died not long after leading to the breakup of the hunk Confederation like stillo before him however ets’s reward for his service was an ignominious death This Time
Supposedly by the very hands of of the emperor himself thus plunging the empire into utter chaos once more valentinian himself was murdered soon after by the vengeful Bodyguards of eus and only months later ever opportunistic the vandals under geeric sailed over to Rome to lay the city to
Waste yet again the second time in only 45 years yet more vicious Civil Wars would ensue only hastening the demise of the West and without the strong arm of eus keeping both Germanic mercenaries and Roman usurpers alike in line through cunning and skillful diplomacy it seemed only a matter of
Time before everything fell apart for good and yet there was one more hope one last figure to try and save the Empire a grandson of one of theodosius I’s greatest generals majorian became a distinguished officer in the service of eus particularly making a name for himself against clodo ravaging Franks in the late
440s in around 450 however he fell out of favor after the emperor considered marrying his own daughter to the young General a position eus wanted for his own son majorian was demoted and only allowed to return to service upon eos’s death in 454 ultimately becoming emperor in
457 in his short but astonishing reign of only four years majoran almost managed to restore the Western Empire to its former extent with the aid of his capable commanders marcelus of Dalmatia nepus the father of the later Western Emperor Julius nepos and aidus He restored much of Gaul and hispania to Roman
Control the burgundians viz Goths and sui were all decisively defeated and reduced to federa status astounding victories for a supposedly dying Western Roman Empire he also instigated laws to protect the architecture of the Western Empire itself which had begun to fall into disrepair and ruin of late seeming
To have a genuine desire to not only restore the territory of the state but its former glory and culture too yet there was one last grand feat to accomplish the reconquest of Vandal Africa that lost province of the Western Roman Empire that had been captured by the vandals about 20 years before majorian
Time meticulously planning the reconquest majorian had even amassed the largest Western Roman Fleet in centuries 300 ships near carago Nova but unfortunately his fleet was destroyed in 461 whilst still at anchor possibly set on fire by traitors who were paid off by the vandals thus perished The Last Hope of
The Romans to restore the Western Roman Empire to its former extent on his way back to Italy majoran made a terrible mistake namely disbanding his army and only keeping a small personal bodyguard around him the treacherous majest militum Ricker conspiring against him had heard of this riding hard and fast to
Intercept the emperor on his way to Rome at the city of torona majoran was tortured and executed in August of 461 thus ended the life of a remarkable figure who rightfully deserves the title last of the Romans within just a few years of majorian murder the situation had become even
More desperate than before his Reign had begun all of the territorial gains that the emperor had made were reversed the sui viig Goths and burgundians were expanding and no longer considered federa but entirely independent states worse marcelus of Dalmatia and aidus in Gaul had split away from the
Western Empire as a direct result of Ricker’s execution of majoran forging their own factions whilst ever threatening to invade Italy themselves but even then one One Last Hope for the dying Western Empire emerged anthemus an often overlooked Emperor unjustly called the Greek on the western Throne when in fact he too like majorian
Gave everything to try and save the Western Empire eventually making the ultimate sacrifice antheus became emperor in 467 sent to the west by the Eastern Emperor Leo I Damascus tells us that he was possibly a secret Pagan and that he planned to restore the Temple of Jupiter on the capitaline hill at Rome and like the old Emperors of days
Gone by he reigned from Rome and already one year into his Reign he would try to to actively save the empire together with the Eastern Emperor and marcelus of Dalmatia a huge Naval Landing operation was organized in order to once again try to reconquer the Lost Western Roman province of
Africa to that end Leo had amassed a giant Fleet of over a thousand ships and anthemus had sent m Aus of Dalmatia to Aid in this operation so even as late as 468 anthemus had tried to save the Empire but sadly the commander of the operation a very incapable Eastern Roman patricius called
Bazilus was fooled by geeric and so the largest part of the fleet was destroyed at Cape bon in 46 8 after this disaster however still anthemus did not give up calling upon the help of the Romano Britain ramus to fight against the viig Goths in Gaul ramus called King of the Britain
Crossed over from Britain in 470 but he was ultimately defeated by the Visigoths under their Fierce King Yori finally in one last desperate attempt anthemus sent forth his son and tholus together with three other Roman commanders and the last remnants of the Western Roman army to Gaul in order to fight against the
Vizo but unfortunately this also failed and tholus was killed in the end anthemus too would suffer the same fate as majorian before him Ricker the treacherous majest militum of the Western Empire became displeased with anthemus his Vigor attempting to restore the empire and thus waste vital
Resources and so he marched on Rome to besiege the emperor in the Eternal City intense fighting ensued and Ricker finally sacked Rome in 472 finding the emperor and having him killed and so ended the last best hope for the Western Roman Empire that Greek on the Western Roman throne
Deserves to be called the last Roman much more than so many other Romans on the western Throne since he too like majorian gave his life in order to save the state but we do have hints of other forlorn attempts at Roman survival too even far beyond the borders of Italy
Just as chaos rained on the continent on the Distant Shores of Britannia once the trophy and glory of the Emperors who sailed beyond the ends of the Earth death had come from Beyond the Frontiers too from the west and the North in the form of pictish and Scottish Raiders
And from the east from Saxon anglian and jutish Pirates as well as Germanic mercenary commanders already long inside the province and Romano British usurpers alike almost entirely lacking of historical sources and with little to go on in the Continental accounts instead we must turn to the 6
Th Century British monk gild us for any semblance of a story and in his fiery pical work on the ruin and conquest of Britain he gives us the name of one particularly Valiant individual who two generations before his own time in the second half of the fifth century
Ad around about the same time as ramus King of the Britains made his expedition into G unified some sort of resistance against the Saxon Invaders then besetting the Western portions of the island winning an important Victory and securing peace for years to come his name was Ambrosius oranus according to gild’s
Account Ambrosius his parents had supposedly worn the purple and been slain in it suggesting some sort of continuation from the Roman administration of the island it is for this reason that gildas calls Ambrosius aurelianus last of the Romans perhaps along with ramus in part the original inspiration for the King
Arthur Legend Ambrosius was later transformed into King Arthur’s uncle and eventually merged with Merlin to form an entirely new character an interesting halflife for a figure we know next to nothing about who may well have been a form of last Roman governor in Britain after most Roman troops had been withdrawn from the
Island in 407 and it officially being left by 410 but whose grandparents May well have regaled him of tales of the empire in his youth meanwhile on the continent that Empire Still clung on by a thread in most conventional histories of the Western Roman Empire and certainly in the popular imagination
The last de facto Roman emperor in the west and a figure often called a last Roman is the Little Caesar Romulus Augustus deposed by the Germanic General oaka in 476 to be replaced by a new system of kingship he certainly was the last emperor to rule over Italy though as we have seen
He was far from the last Western Emperor to rule anywhere let alone in the EAS Empire which would survive for another thousand years across the Adriatic in Dalmatia where great Roman generals had been born and raised for centuries Julius nepos and his supporters including the Eastern Court
Considered him not Romulus to be the last rightful emperor in the west the son and heir of one of majorian generals nepus Julius nepos initially went to Rome to depose garius puppet of The Burgundian General gundabad who seemed to be becoming a new Ricker his uncle nepos had some initial success
Against the burgundians bringing them back in line but crucially he failed to defeat the vizzy Goths this coupled with his Earth while supporter the Eastern Emperor Zeno being temporarily overthrown by a usurper resulted in nepos being forced to flee from his recently appointed and now almost immediately rebellious majester militum
Arrestes still backed by the Eastern Emperor Zeno and married to the previous Emperor Leo’s niece nepos continued reigning in his home province of Dalmatia until in 480 just as he planned another incursion on Italy he was murdered by two of his generals Julius nepos was the last emperor to be
Crowned in Rome until the Frankish King Charlamagne in the year 800 and yet even Julius nepos wasn’t the last Western Roman ruler to hold power over a substantial territory for in the north of Gaul hemmed in by hostile powers on all sides the sprawling remnants of the Imperial province still held On after the emperor majoran was murdered in 461 replaced by Ricker’s puppet libus seus the maest militum in Gaul aidus immediately rebelled probably pledging his allegiance to Emperor Leo in the east in order to retain some legitimacy with his Legions he repeatedly threatened to invade Italy to depose the new emperor and Ricker’s
Regime viig Gothic pressure proved too much to actually act however though as a native of Gaul perhaps from a well-respected aristocratic family fin aidus was able to maintain order and when he died in around 465 he was succeeded by his son far from an unsuitable hereditary climate as so often happened in Roman
History syagrius would hold on to the Reigns of power in a sprawling State extending from the borders of Britany to Germany for an astonishing 20 years to come holding off Childer’s Salan Franks for decades as well as making gains against the Visigoths only to finally succumb to one
Of the most powerful Germanic leaders in all of history cheri’s ambitious young son Clovis at the Battle of swason in 486 cagas was captured and quietly executed his administration however and probably his army would largely survive going on to form a major component in clovis’s new conception of a single
United frankia which would ultimately turn into France it is thanks to figures like syagrius that French is a Latin derived romance language not Germanic Gallow Roman life would continue in frankia and to a certain extent the Roman way of life never died out there going on to form a major part
Of the Merovingian and subsequently carolingian regimes in the Early Middle Ages cagas was the last Western Roman ruler and in France in particular he is often considered last of the Romans but a version of Rome would survive in the successor kingdoms that followed odaka ruled Italy for 17
Years and though the Western Empire might have officially been gone in reality very little had changed like most soldiers of Germanic Heritage whose ancestors had converted as much as a hundred years before odaka was an Aryan Christian and though distinct from the Roman Church he rarely intervened in ecclesiastical matters spending significant resources
In defending Italy from potential Germanic Invaders like the rugii after involving himself with a usurpers attempt to overthrow the Eastern Emperor Zeno however Oak’s days were numbered in 489 a new group on the scene the ostrogoths formerly part of atilla’s honik Empire beyond the danu came crashing into
Italy finally seizing Rena in 493 and killing odaka there was to be no hostile sack by the ostrogoths however happy to present themselves as the new Defenders of Rome odaka was portrayed as a tyrant and a new ostrogothic kingdom ushered in like Odo akas very much based on the Roman one that came
Before theodoric the ruler of the ostrogoths was happy to maintain the Senate invested time in repairing and rebuilding Roman infrastructure and dedicated patronage to Artistic and educational Endeavors rather than a break the reign of theodoric was a continuation of what had come before with a minor transformation of the ruling
Class it was into this system that a lorded figure would arise often called last of the Romans due to his dedication to knowledge and his deep desire to keep intact the world of before born in Italy just a few short years after the fall of the Western Empire
Anus Manlius severinus boethus was an integral Senator Consul ma officiorum historian and philosopher in theodoric’s Kingdom boethius earned his title as last Roman because he was one of the very last true Statesmen and Senators who just as in the days of old wielded Roman politics masterfully being
An excellent orator and writer in the Latin tongue compared by some to the likes of Cicero boethus lived and studied in the city of Rome still in those days despite its repeated sackings quite identical in form and in shape to the last Decades of the Western Empire unfortunately in the last few
Years of his Reign theodoric the great ceased to be as wise and as benevolent a ruler as he had once been and after beus took a contrary ecclesiastical stance to the great king one too many times he was Executed but there was another integral figure of the time too often lorded as perhaps perhaps even greater than boethus by the time flavius Magnus orelus Codorus reached the end of his days in around 585 ad the once prosperous towns and cities of the Western Empire were utterly unrecognizable from the time of his
Youth Italy in particular had been prosperous in those days under the benevolent rule of the ostrogoths when Romans still held many significant political and societal positions hailing from an elite senatorial family with links stretching back into the fth century and earlier after the usual scholarly education cassiodorus Rose through the ranks of
Society becoming Consul in 514 and Magister of phorum in 523 ultimately becoming a vital pillar of the ostrogothic administration War would soon arrive once more though this time when the Eastern Romans made an attempt to take back Italy for good in the Carnage that followed the countryside would be
Scorched devastated by years of turmoil seeming to quietly disappear from political life Codorus spent his last 30 years in a monastery where he wrote many magisterial works of History most of which we sadly only have fragments off today it was during those years that the most devastating Invasion yet arrived in
The form of the Lombards still Pagan Barbarians from Beyond the r Italy was ravaged its complicated bureaucratic Administration overthrown as factions began to tear the peninsula apart most most obviously visible of all architecture suffered massively as the classical buildings of the past began to be left to
Ruin the ston workking secrets of the ancestors beginning to be forgotten but in the East the Empire Still survived following the deaths of the last Western Roman emperors in the dying days of the fifth century it was the still surviving eastern half of the Empire based on Constantinople which saw itself as the
True successor to Rome particularly by the early 6th Century as none of the western provinces were considered even nominally part of the Roman state by 533 then under the strong hand of the emperor Justinian the time was right for another campaign to the West this one a full scale Invasion by
Land and sea to reconquer the Lost provinces with the ultimate goal being Rome itself Justinian was probably one of the last Eastern Roman emperors to speak Latin as a first language due to this fact and for his remarkable restoration campaigns which were successful for a brief time he is
Often considered the last Roman by Some yet Justinian leaned hard on one particular individual often considered one of the greatest strategic and Military mins in all of history his name was flavius belisarius in truth Justinian likely would not have achieved anything at all without him the stalwart General having kept him on his throne against Rebels
Inside the capital during the early tumultuous part of his Reign later winning astounding victories in an IIA Persia Africa and finally Italy where he did against all the odds managed to rest back the great City for a time from the ostrogoths belisarius was the secret super weapon of the emperor winning
Almost every battle he ever fought despite often receiving far too little support from the emperor and being pitted against rival generals for the emperor’s favor for his incredible achievements in conquering two entire kingdoms with a surprisingly small army of not even 20,000 men belisarius is often called last of the Romans but in Rome itself as the smoke cleared from the Maelstrom of the gothic Wars there were still individuals who sought to preserve the glory of the distant past not long after the deaths of Justinian and belisarius there arose a person to power in Italy who for his Valiant efforts to
Preserve the glory of Rome Rome would sometimes be called the last Roman he was born Gregorius anus but today we know him as Pope Gregory the Great the son of a senator Gregory became prefect of Rome at a young age yet in those days in the aftermath
Of the disastrous Gothic Wars and with the Lombards sweeping down from the north to lay waste to Italy the resources needed to repair the city could simply not be spared not to mention the massive population Decline and plague that ravaged its inhabitants in this tumultuous time with
The city of Rome falling faster and faster into Decay Gregory did everything in his power to help the inhabitants of Rome and to preserve the buildings as best he could As well as preserving as much knowledge as he could in a great Central Library ultimately being made Pope in 590 realizing that the secular power of Rome was likely Gone Forever Gregory focused instead on winning over the hearts and minds of the Pagan Germanic Warrior Elite who now
Held sway in many part parts of Europe working hard to convert the Heathen Lombards and more famously dispatching a mission to Britain to begin the conversion of the Pagan Anglo-Saxons who’d set up a very different set of Nations than those Christian Germanic ones on the continent far from just a spiritual
Leader Gregory was a very able Statesman too notably visiting Constantinople to convene with the patriarch of the East and even with the emperor Tiberius II for these achievements he has sometimes been called the last Roman yet despite his best efforts the Decay continued by the early 8th Century a 100 years had
Passed since the days of Gregory the Great Italy was then ruled by a myriad collection of states most of them Lombard but with a number of Eastern Roman enclaves around major cities that never fell Rome itself had never been conquered lingering on as a shadow of its former self into this confusing political
Situation there was one person who could in theory be called the last Western Roman Emperor and though we know very little about his life he might deserve the title last of the Romans his name was Tiberius petasus italian-born usurper when parts of Italy were still a part of the Eastern
Empire who may have roused up a sort of Italian independence movement in 730 Tiberius his Reign however was shortlived and in 731 he was killed in battle his decapit ated head sent to the Eastern Emperor Leo III as a trophy by the early 9th century events in northern Europe would change the
Concept of what it meant to be a Roman forever more in the year 800 the all powerful Frankish King Charlamagne rode down across the Alps to have himself crowned as a new emperor of the Romans in actuality a completely different and new institution to that in the
East the title would be revived again and again over the ensuing centuries perhaps most notably with the high medieval German tendency to call call themselves Holy Roman emperors though a famous quip reminds us today that they were not in fact holy nor Roman nor Emperors nevertheless this was largely
Lost on the people of Western Europe who after charlamagne’s crowning in 800 did not now recognize the Eastern Romans as having any more of a legitimate claim to the succession of ancient Rome therefore we can turn to the last Eastern Roman Emperor to sit on the throne of Constantinople before charlamagne’s Imperial
Coronation Constantine v 6 as a potential candidate for the title of last Roman as he was in actuality the last authentically Roman emperor to be recognized as such in in the west though the two sides of the former Empire would only drift further and further apart over the years unrecognizable
Unreconcilable a situation only made worse during the Crusades when they came head-to-head in centuries of chaotic violent Warfare the Eastern Empire commonly known as Byzantium today though that is a phrase used by 15th century historians like hyronimus wolf would survive for another 700 years defeating all enemies holding out
Against essentially the entire Middle East alone for a ridiculous amount of time but eventually all things must come to an end though the world had irrevocably changed and would only continue to do so at more of a rapid Pace from then on by the 15th century toward the close of the Medieval
Era the Emperors of Constantinople now a rump state with a modest territory continued to see themselves as true Romans the true successors of the Roman Empire with an unbroken line of succession stretching back all the way to the first Emperor Augustus in the first century ad Eastern Romans had never stopped
Referring to themselves as such and when Constantinople finally fell in 14 53 its last emperor Constantine VI 11th paleologus even bearing the name of the first Constantine of the 4th Century ad has a good claim to being the last Roman he fought valiantly defending the city tooth and
Nail and though not a great deal of information survives from his last moments his Ed last words do survive the city has fallen yet I am still alive before charging alone into the vast Army of Ottoman Turks surging through the breach in the walls never to be seen
Again because of this heroic defense of Constantinople Constantine is often called the last Roman and yet Constantinople wasn’t the only hold out in the Eastern Empire to the north of the Black Sea the trading Emporium of trebizond had long thrived at a Crossroads of north south east and west having broken away from
Constantinople during the cataclysmic years of occupation by Latin westerners in the 13th century and later making itself useful to the various surrounding turkic Muslim Powers the so-called Empire of trebizond had managed to not only survive but thrive by the 15th century however 10 years after the fall of Constantinople trebis On’s time was
Finally up its final Emperor David II comminos often called the last Roman was taken to Constantinople after the city fell where he was executed along with his sons and nephew though astonishingly there was one more Eastern Roman state yet to Fall when the Fortress of Venza finally fell to the ottoman Turks in 1479 thus officially ended the Empire that had lasted 1500 years though a successor State founded after the Crusader sack and capture of Constantinople in 1204 the commander of Venza the despot of epirus Leonardo III TCO is often said
To have ruled over the very last Eastern Roman Remnant State and thus listed as one of the very final candidates to be considered the last Roman as we have seen it is an extremely difficult task to call one specific person that illustrious title and though
This list is long it is by no means complete there were innumerable claimants and candidates over the long centuries all of them outstanding characters playing a pivotal role in the 1500e history of the Roman Empire in reality there were many last Romans you’ve been watching history time don’t forget to like And subscribe tell us in the comments who you think is most deserving of the title the last Roman and we’ll see you next time
