Page "Odoacer" Paragraph 1

who after 476 became the first barbarian King of Italy.

His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos ' death in 480, of the Emperor in Constantinople.

Odoacer generally used the Roman honorific patrician, granted by the Emperor Zeno, but is referred to as a king ( Latin rex ) in many documents and he himself used it at least once and on another occasion it was used by the consul Basilius.

Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy.

He had the support of the Senate at Rome and was able to distribute land to his followers without much opposition.

Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477 – 478, but no such disturbances occurred during the later period of his reign.

Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he rarely intervened in the affairs of the orthodox and trinitarian State church of the Roman Empire.