Julius Nepos

Infobox Roman emperor
name =Julius Nepos
full name=
title=Emperor of the
Western Roman Empire


caption =Tremissis of Julius Nepos
reign =June 474 - August 28 475 (ruling from Italy)
475 - 480 (ruling from Dalmatia)
predecessor =Glycerius
successor =Romulus Augustus
spouse 1=Niece of Leo I
date of birth=c. 430
date of death=April 25, May 9 or June 22 480
place of death=Dalmatia|

Julius Nepos (c. 430–480) was a Western Roman Emperor (474–475 or –480) during the last stage of the Western Roman Empire. Some have also considered him to be the last "de jure" Western Roman Emperor. He reigned, at first, over Italy and the adjoining lands held by the Western Empire. In 475, after he fled from Orestes (without any opposition) his rule resumed over Dalmatia and Gaul only.

Julius Nepos was deposed by Flavius Orestes and replaced with his son Romulus Augustus (Augustulus) as the new Western Emperor. Nepos continued to be recognized by the Eastern Roman Empire, Dalmatia, where he later died, and Roman Gaul as the rightful Western Emperor until he was murdered in 480.

Romulus was seen as a usurper, whose reign ended with his deposition in 476 and was sent by Odoacer, the new leader of the Foederati, to Campania. Odoacer (through the senate) requested that he be made a Patrician by Emperor Zeno and ruled Italy on his behalf. Although Romulus was soon deposed by Odoacer, Nepos never returned from Dalmatia and was, until his death, recognized as the rightful Western Emperor by the Eastern Roman Empire, Roman Gaul and by Odoacer in Italy.

Rise to power

Nepos was married to the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I, hence his "nepos" — "nephew" — agnomen, and was named as Emperor in the West by Leo in 474, in order to end the reign of the usurper Glycerius, who had been raised to the throne by a Burgundian "magister militum" in the western capital of Ravenna. Officially, however, Leo was the sole Emperor and had the right to select a new Western Emperor. He chose Nepos, the governor of the province of Dalmatia, and in June 474 Nepos entered Ravenna, forced Glycerius to abdicate and was himself raised to the Purple. Glycerius was essentially exiled to Dalmatia as bishop of the city of Salona, where he and Nepos were later to cross paths again.

Rule

As emperor, Nepos tried to consolidate the empire's remaining Western holdings, which consisted of Italy,part of the Balkans and footholds in northern and southern Gaul. He was able to renegotiate a recently concluded peace settlement with the Visigoths and their king Euric, which restored the Provence region of Gaul to imperial control in exchange for some other, minor territories where Nepos was unable to maintain firm control. But he was less successful in negotiating with Geiseric, the king of the Vandals, who was once again launching pirate attacks on the Italian coast. Having recently made peace with the eastern empire, Geiseric saw no need to make new concessions to Nepos.

Nepos was, by all accounts, one of the more capable of the late Western Emperors, but he was unpopular with the Roman Senate, the members of which disliked him for his close ties to the east. When Nepos made the mistake of appointing the untrustworthy Orestes as his "Magister Militum", his lack of a western core of support came back to haunt him.

Fall

On August 28, 475, Orestes took control of the government at Ravenna and forced Nepos to flee by ship to Dalmatia. Unable to appoint himself as the Western Roman Emperor, Orestes instead appointed his son Romulus Augustus. Romulus was a citizen of Rome. The boy was probably around 12 years old when he became Emperor and is ironically known to history as Romulus "Augustulus", meaning "Little" Romulus.

However, Nepos continued to rule in Dalmatia as the rightful Western Roman Emperor. He continued to be recognized as such in Gaul and in the eastern court. When Odoacer captured Ravenna, killed Orestes, and deposed Romulus on September 4, 476, he proclaimed himself ruler of Italy and asked the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno to legalize his position as "Patricius" of the Roman Empire and Zeno's viceroy in Italy. Zeno did so, but insisted that he recognize Nepos as Western Roman Emperor. Odoacer did this, and even issued coins in Nepos' name throughout Italy. A similar situation persisted in north Gaul where the Roman general Syagrius minted coins in Nepos' name until his defeat in 486. In name at least, the Western Roman Empire continued to exist after 476, but only as a legal formality and as a sop to imperial tradition.

Similar arrangements might have continued for many years had not events taken another course. First, in about 479, Nepos began to plot against Odoacer, hoping to regain control of Italy for himself. Another possibility, (according to some sources) is that Glycerius, who continued as bishop of Salona, was plotting revenge against Nepos. What is certain is that Odoacer was determined to get rid of him.

He was murdered by his soldiers on one of three possible dates — April 25, May 9 or June 22 — of 480. The April 25 date is probably the correct one [Ensslin, Wilhelm,Julkius Nepos,in Paully-Wissowa-Kroll,Real-eEncyclopadie 16(1935)2505-1510] . Almost immediately, Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, defeated a force led by the Roman general Ovida on December 9, and added the province to his own kingdom. Adding fuel to the suspicions about Glycerius is a report that Odoacer then made him bishop of Milan.

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