Introduction

Eugipius recounts a prophecy that the monk Severinus made to a certain Odoacer when the latter visited him in the province of Noricum: ‘“Go,” he said, “go, for although now you are attired in the humblest of animal skins, soon you shall bestow great honours on many men.”’ This prophecy could represent the destinies of many individuals who, in the circumstances of the contemporary Roman empire, were able to change almost overnight from skin-clad, long-haired barbarians to commanders of the highest rank. Most modern historians consider that Odoacer's deposition of Romulus Augustulus, in 476, did not have any truly traumatic impact on contemporary consciousness: it was a ‘noiseless’ fall, as Arnaldo Momigliano has aptly put it. The event was not traumatic for two reasons: specifically because Odoacer was already in command of the troops in Italy, and the ousting of emperors – often ‘crowned puppets’- by military leaders was certainly no novelty; and generally because little or nothing actually changed in politics or in everyday life. The only novelty was the failure to replace the deposed emperor, but this omission – as has been rightly pointed out – acquired importance only by virtue of its duration.

Odoacer was not the leader of a people. His ethnic origins are unknown; he commanded an army in Italy made up of militias drawn from a variety of peoples seeking the benefits of hospitalitas. Even when he was proclaimed rex - a title implying a commander of the federated peoples of the Empire - he did not affix any territorial adjunct to his title, nor did he assume any insignia of rank.