356
GLYCJiEIUS.—JULIUS NEPOS.
Rome, which was besieged by Ricimer for three months. At
length Ricimer forced his way into the city by the bridge. It
was taken by storm and experienced all the horrors of a con-
quered city. As the marriage of Ricimer with the daughter
of Anthemius had been the last brilliant event for Rome, so
this capture of the city was the most fearful calamity that had
ever befallen it, more fearful even than the conquest by the
Goths and Vandals. Pope Gelasius expresses himself very
strongly respecting the horrible deeds of destruction which
were perpetrated on that occasion. Anthemius himself was
killed : Ricimer and Olybrius survived him only a few months.
About this time there seem to have been epidemics, which are
in fact mentioned.
Gundobald, king of the Burgundians, who had now become
patτicius and succeeded Ricimer, proclaimed Glycerius emperor.
But the court of Constantinople sent against him Julius Xepos,
likewise a noble Roman, who, with some assistance from Con-
stantinople, took possession of Rome and Ravenna. Glycerins
abdicated; but Orestes, a Roman of Noricum, who had risen into
importance as early as the time of Attila, refused obedience to
Nepos. After the withdrawal of Gundobald from Italy, Orestes
became patricius, that is commander-in-chief. Although a
native of Rome, he had been brought up among barbarians,
and had adopted their language, manners, dress, and mode of
living. For reasons with which we are not acquainted, he
proclaimed as emperor his son Romulus, who had received his
strange name from his maternal grandfather, a Comes Romulus
in Noricum.
Even Nepos had given up the Roman possessions in Gaul,
that he might be acknowledged by the Visigoths; and what
he ceded to them was more than they could occupy. The peo-
ple of Auvergne gave up the hopeless thought of resistance;
but in the north of Gaul, between the Burgundians and Franks,
a considerable part of the country was still Roman, though it
had been separated from the body of the Roman empire as
early as the death of Aegidius. It was now governed by
Syagrius, and continued to be so ten years after the fall of the
western empire, until Syagrius too was overpowered by Clovis.
Romulus, who was not called Augustus, but Augustulus, was
the last emperor. The barbarous nations stirred up by Odoacer,
a German prince, rose against him; they not only claimed
BOmulus Augustulus-ODOACEB.
357
their extravagant pay, but demanded the third part of the
landed property as their feudal possession, as was the case with
the Visigoths and Burgundians. As Orestes refused to grant
this, they rebelled, and wishing to have a ruler of their own,
they proclaimed Odoacer king. The latter defeated Orestes
and his brother in two battles, and both lost their lives. When
Odoacer came to Ravenna, Romulus surrendered to him; he
was treated humanely, and was sent with an ample revenue to
the Lucullianum in Campania. Whether he there died a
natural death or not is unknown.
Thus ended the Roman empire.
Some buildings of the fifth century still exist ; the magnificent
church of St. Paul, though made up of parts stolen from other
buildings, was nevertheless built in a grand style and very
ingeniously constructed. The robbery is described in a novella
of the Emperor Majorian, which forbade it. A hundred and
fifty years ago, there Stillexistedin the church of St. Agata de
Goti, a piece of Mosaic, from which it was clear, that that
church had been built and dedicated by Ricimer.
Although the Romans ceased to form a state, still the history
of this nation did not yet become extinct; and even their
literature continued to exist partly at Rome, partly at Ravenna.
We still possess a number of small poems and inscriptions on
tombs and churches, many of which are elegant and beautiful.
One sees that the times were not yet barbarous, and Boethius
was worthy of the best ages of literature. Several of the
Scholiasts still extant, such as Acron and Porphyrio, belong to
the seventh and eighth centuries. The Roman law continued
much more uninterruptedly than is commonly believed. An
account of the continued influence of the Roman intellect
would be very attractive and desirable.
THE END.