TIME

Fall of Rome

476 CE

Nineteenth-century wood engraving of Romulus Augustulus surrendering the imperial insignia to Odoacer.

Recorded HistoryFall of Rome

The Western Empire ends.

In 476 CE the general Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, a boy emperor in Ravenna, and ruled Italy as king. The year is the conventional end of the Western Roman Empire.

The empire had unraveled for generations, and the Eastern Empire continued until 1453.

476 CE, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Recorded History
Period
476 CE
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing ruins of a burning city at dusk. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The scene is imagined.