Battle of Ravenna (476)

Part of the Germanic Wars

Date	2 September 476
Location	Ravenna, modern day Italy
Result	Western Roman Empire disintegrated

Belligerents

Western Roman Empire

Germanic foederati

Commanders and leaders

Paul, brother of Orestes^[1]

Odoacer

Strength

Unknown

Casualties and losses

Unknown

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Adrianople Pollentia Verona Florence Faesulae Moguntiacum The Rhine Rome (410) Nervasos Mountains Narbonne Catalaunian Plains (Chalons) Aquileia Rome (455) Arelate Cartagena Orleans Cap Bon Ravenna

The Battle of Ravenna took place on the 2 September 476 and was a minor confrontation between the Heruli under their King Odoacer and the remnants of the Western Roman Army in Italy. The Roman Empire had been in relative decline until 455 when the Vandals sacked Rome effectively destroying the empire. By 476 the Roman Emperor was little more than a warlord having very little de facto control of any territory outside of Italy. The Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, wasn't even recognized as a legitimate ruler outside of Italy.

Herulians were foederati of the Western Roman Empire; they were mercenary troops of the Roman Army of Italy. They envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, the father of the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, rejected their demand causing their revolt. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy the confederates flocked to the standard of Odoacer, their leader; and Orestes retreated to Pavia. Pavia was pillaged and Orestes was executed.^[1]

The decisive battle was fought near Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire: it saw the Foederati defeat the heavily depleted Roman garrison. The city was captured swiftly and easily. Two days later the sixteen year old Emperor Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer ending twelve-hundred years of Roman rule in Italy beginning with the Roman Kingdom in 753 BC. Romulus was sent into retirement in Campania.

References

1 2 Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. II, Ed. J.B.Bury, (Random House, 1995), 1141.

Coordinates: 44°25′N 12°12′E / 44.417°N 12.200°E / 44.417; 12.200

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