When Did the Western Roman Empire Fall? 476, 480 and the Other Dates
When did the Western Roman Empire fall? The traditional answer is 476 CE, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, but the last legitimate Western emperor, Julius Nepos, lived until 480. The timeline, the dates historians use and why they disagree.
Last updated September 2026
Contents14
- When did the Western Roman Empire fall: the candidate dates
- Timeline of the fall, 376-480
- What was left of the West by 476
- The peoples who settled in the West
- The sacks of 410 and 455
- What happened in 476
- Odoacer's rule, 476-493
- The last Western emperor: Romulus or Nepos
- The last Western emperors, 455-480
- Why 476 became the standard date
- Fall or transformation
- What carried on after 476
- How people at the time saw it
- Verdict: when did the Western Roman Empire fall
The question "when did the Western Roman Empire fall" has a textbook answer. It is 476 CE, when a Germanic general named Odoacer removed the last emperor in Italy. But that answer hides a real dispute over who the last Western emperor was. It also hides a wider debate over whether the empire "fell" at all, or slowly turned into something else. This page sets out the timeline, the main dates put forward and the evidence for each.
TL;DR: The usual date is 4 September 476 CE. That day Odoacer removed Romulus Augustulus in Ravenna. But Constantinople treated Julius Nepos as the lawful Western emperor. Nepos was driven out in 475 and killed in 480. Earlier turning points include the sack of Rome in 410 and the loss of Carthage in 439. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453.
When did the Western Roman Empire fall: the candidate dates
| Date | Event | Why some choose it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 410 | Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome | A symbolic shock; the city fell to an enemy for the first time in centuries | Reviewed |
| 455 | Vandals sack Rome; Valentinian III's dynasty ends | End of the last stable imperial dynasty in the West | Reviewed |
| 476 | Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus | No emperor in Italy after this; the traditional date | Disputed |
| 480 | Julius Nepos killed in Dalmatia | Death of the last Western emperor recognised by Constantinople | Disputed |
| 486 | Clovis defeats Syagrius at Soissons | Fall of the last Roman-ruled enclave in northern Gaul | Reviewed |
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The events in the table are well recorded. What is disputed is which one should count as "the fall".
Timeline of the fall, 376-480
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 376 | Gothic groups cross the Danube into Roman territory |
| 378 | Emperor Valens is killed by the Goths at Adrianople |
| 395 | The empire is divided between the sons of Theodosius I |
| 406 | Vandals, Alans and Suebi cross the Rhine into Gaul |
| 410 | Rome sacked by the Visigoths; Roman rule in Britain ends around this time |
| 418 | Visigoths settled in south-western Gaul |
| 429 | Vandals cross from Spain to North Africa |
| 439 | Vandals take Carthage, the West's richest city after Rome |
| 451 | Romans and allies halt Attila's Huns at the Catalaunian Plains |
| 455 | Valentinian III assassinated; Rome is sacked again, by the Vandals |
| 468 | A great East-West expedition against the Vandals fails |
| 475 | Orestes drives Julius Nepos out of Italy and makes his own son emperor |
| 476 | Odoacer kills Orestes and deposes Romulus Augustulus |
| 480 | Julius Nepos murdered in Dalmatia |
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What was left of the West by 476
By 476 the Western emperor ruled very little outside Italy. Kings ruled most of the old provinces. They had settled inside the empire.
| Region | Who controlled it by 476 |
|---|---|
| Italy | The Western court at Ravenna, dependent on its Germanic troops |
| Dalmatia | Julius Nepos, in exile after 475 |
| North Africa | The Vandal kingdom, since the fall of Carthage in 439 |
| Spain | Mostly the Visigoths, with the Suebi in the north-west |
| South-western Gaul | The Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse |
| South-eastern Gaul | The Burgundians |
| Northern Gaul | The Franks, and a Roman enclave around Soissons under Syagrius |
| Britain | No longer under Roman rule since about 410 |
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The peoples who settled in the West
Many of the groups who took over the Western provinces first came into the empire as allies or refugees. Some served in the Roman army under treaties. The treaties let them settle on Roman land.
| People | Main area of settlement | Key date |
|---|---|---|
| Visigoths | Gaul, then Spain | Sacked Rome in 410 |
| Vandals | North Africa | Took Carthage in 439; sacked Rome in 455 |
| Ostrogoths | Italy | Took Italy from Odoacer in 493 |
| Franks | Northern Gaul | Defeated Syagrius in 486 |
| Burgundians | Rhône valley | Settled in the 440s |
| Anglo-Saxons | Eastern Britain | Settled during the 5th century |
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The sacks of 410 and 455
| Point | 410 | 455 |
|---|---|---|
| Attackers | Visigoths under Alaric | Vandals under Gaiseric |
| Length | Three days | About two weeks |
| Background | Failed talks with Emperor Honorius, who stayed safe in Ravenna | The murder of Valentinian III and the chaos that followed |
| Effect | A huge psychological shock across the Roman world | Heavy plunder, and captives taken to Carthage |
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The sack of 410 moved Augustine of Hippo to write The City of God. He defended Christianity against the charge that Rome fell because it left the old gods. Neither sack ended the Western empire. But together they showed that the old capital could no longer be kept safe.
What happened in 476
In 475 the general Orestes turned against Emperor Julius Nepos. Nepos fled from Italy to his home province of Dalmatia. Orestes put his young son Romulus on the throne on 31 October 475. The boy became known as Augustulus, "little Augustus".
A year later the Germanic troops in Italy demanded land. Orestes refused. They turned to one of their officers, Odoacer.
He killed Orestes in August 476 and removed Romulus in early September. Odoacer did not make himself emperor. He did not name a new one either.
He sent the imperial regalia to the Eastern emperor, Zeno, in Constantinople. Then he ruled Italy as king. Romulus was allowed to retire to Campania with a pension.
Odoacer's rule, 476-493
Odoacer ruled Italy for 17 years. He kept the Roman officials, worked with the Senate and formally accepted the Eastern emperor. After Nepos died in 480, Odoacer took Dalmatia too. But Zeno came to distrust him. In 488 he urged Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, to invade Italy.
After years of war, Theodoric took Ravenna. He killed Odoacer with his own hands in 493. The Ostrogothic kingdom he founded lasted until Justinian's armies destroyed it in the mid-500s.
The last Western emperor: Romulus or Nepos
Romulus Augustulus or Julius Nepos
Last Western Roman emperor, 476 or 480.
Status: Disputed Two answers can be defended.
Note: Britannica calls Julius Nepos, who died on 9 May 480, "the last legitimate Western Roman emperor". It calls Romulus Augustulus, the boy removed in 476, "a usurper and puppet not recognized as a legitimate ruler by the Eastern emperor". Zeno told Odoacer to restore Nepos.
Nepos kept his title in exile in Dalmatia until he was murdered in 480. Popular histories keep 476, because that is when Italy stopped having an emperor. Others prefer 480, because that is when the last recognised Western emperor died.
Sources: Britannica, "Julius Nepos"; Britannica, "Romulus Augustulus".
The last Western emperors, 455-480
| Emperor | Reign | Fate |
|---|---|---|
| Petronius Maximus | 455 | Killed as the Vandals approached |
| Avitus | 455-456 | Deposed |
| Majorian | 457-461 | Deposed and killed |
| Libius Severus | 461-465 | Died; not recognised in the East |
| Anthemius | 467-472 | Killed |
| Olybrius | 472 | Died |
| Glycerius | 473-474 | Deposed by Nepos |
| Julius Nepos | 474-475 (title until 480) | Driven out; murdered in 480 |
| Romulus Augustulus | 475-476 | Deposed; pensioned off |
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The table shows how weak the Western throne had become. Nine emperors reigned in 21 years. Real power lay with generals.
One was Ricimer, a Germanic commander. He made and unmade several emperors between 456 and his death in 472. The full list is on the emperors of Rome page.
Why 476 became the standard date
People at the time did not all see 476 as a turning point. Odoacer ruled with the Senate and Roman officials, and life in Italy went on. The idea that the empire ended in 476 came later. Writers in Constantinople set it out in the 500s, such as the chronicler Marcellinus Comes.
Later historians made it famous. Above all there was Edward Gibbon. His History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire appeared from 1776. Once the date was in the textbooks, it stayed.
Fall or transformation
Historians also disagree about what happened, not just when.
- The "fall" view sees violent collapse: invasions, lost tax revenue, and a sharp fall in living standards after 400. Historians such as Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather have argued for this view.
- The "transformation" view sees a gradual change into the kingdoms of the early Middle Ages, with Roman law, language and church carrying on. Peter Brown's work on "late antiquity" shaped this view.
Both sides agree on the main events. They disagree on how sudden and how harmful they were. The causes are discussed on the decline of the Roman Empire page.
What carried on after 476
The end of the Western emperors did not end everything Roman in the West. The Senate in Rome kept meeting for more than a century. Roman law still governed Romans in the new kingdoms. The Church, led by the bishop of Rome, grew in power.
In the 530s-550s the Eastern emperor Justinian I won back Italy, North Africa and part of Spain. For a time, imperial rule returned. And the Eastern Roman Empire itself lasted until 1453, as the Roman Empire of the East page explains.
How people at the time saw it
For most people in Italy, 476 changed little at first. The same officials collected the same taxes. The Senate still met, and the Church went on as before.
Writers in the Eastern empire looked back decades later. They were the first to treat Romulus's removal as the end of the Western empire. Later historians repeated that view. It turned an ordinary coup in Ravenna into one of the most famous dates in history.
To read more, see our guide to the best Roman history books. Kaldellis follows the empire that went on in the East.
Verdict: when did the Western Roman Empire fall
The usual answer to when did the Western Roman Empire fall is 476 CE. That year Odoacer removed Romulus Augustulus and did not replace him. But Constantinople never recognised Romulus. Julius Nepos kept the title until his murder in 480.
So this page marks both dates as disputed. The events are not in doubt. The choice of end date is. For Rome's longer story in the East, see the Eastern Roman Empire hub.
Sources checked for this page
- Britannica, "Julius Nepos"
- Britannica, "Romulus Augustulus"
- World History Encyclopedia, "Fall of the Western Roman Empire"
- EBSCO Research Starters, "Fall of Rome"
- UNRV, "Did Rome really fall in 476 AD"
- History.com, "8 Reasons Why Rome Fell"
Questions people also ask
When did the Western Roman Empire fall?
The traditional date is 476 CE, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus. Some historians prefer 480, when Julius Nepos, the last Western emperor recognised by Constantinople, was killed.
Who ended the Western Roman Empire?
Odoacer, a Germanic general in Roman service, who deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476 and ruled Italy as king rather than naming a new emperor.
Did Rome fall in 410?
The city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths under Alaric in 410, the first time in about 800 years that a foreign enemy had taken it. But the Western empire continued, with emperors, for another six decades.
Did the whole Roman Empire fall in 476?
No. The Eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople, continued until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
What was the capital of the Western Roman Empire when it fell?
Ravenna, in north-east Italy. The Western court moved there from Milan in 402, because the city's marshes made it easy to defend.
How long did the Western Roman Empire last?
As a separate half of the empire, from the division of 395 to 476 or 480, about 80 years. The Roman Empire as a whole had begun under Augustus in 27 BCE.
What happened to Romulus Augustulus?
Odoacer spared him because of his youth and sent him to live in Campania, in southern Italy, with a yearly pension. Nothing certain is known of him after that.
Why did the Western Roman Empire fall and not the Eastern?
The East had a richer economy, a more defensible capital in Constantinople and fewer long land frontiers exposed to invasion. It could also pay off or redirect invaders westward. Historians still debate how much each factor mattered.
Who was Odoacer?
A soldier of Germanic origin who rose to command the barbarian troops in Italy. After deposing Romulus Augustulus in 476 he ruled Italy as king until Theodoric the Ostrogoth killed him in 493.