Fall of the Western Roman Empire

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

On Monday, 04 September A.D. 476—1,549 years ago today—the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus, abdicated in favor of Odoacer, leader of the German foederati in Italy. There’s a story transmitted by several historians that the Senate sent an embassy to Zeno, the eastern emperor in Constantinople, in the wake of the abdication or deposition of Romulus Augustulus, whichever it was, with the embassy even sending the imperial regalia of the western empire in a symbolic gesture that there was no longer a Roman emperor in Rome. What have historians had to say about these events? In this episode I discuss the work of Edward Gibbon, Malchus of Philadelphia, Jordanes, St. Jerome, Alexandre Koyré, Aldo Schiavone, Johan Huizinga, and Oswald Spengler.

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#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #Rome #RomanCivilization #RomulusAugustulus #Odoacer #Byzantium #AldoSchiavone #OswaldSpengler #JohanHuizinga