Julius Nepos

Julius Nepos (male; b. circa 430, d. 480) was Western Roman Emperor de facto from 474 to 475 and de jure until 480. He was also the ruler of Roman Dalmatia from 468 to 480. Some historians consider Nepos to be the last Western Roman Emperor, while others consider the western line to have ended with Romulus Augustulus in 476.

In contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire and its line of Emperors survived this period of history relatively intact.

Julius Nepos, already in control of a semi-autonomous Dalmatia, was appointed Western Roman Emperor in early 474 by the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I; in an effort to replace the western emperor Glycerius, who was regarded as an usurper. His agnomen of "Nepos" (nephew) was probably earned through a marriage to Leo's wife's niece; this relationship likely also played a significant part in his selection for the western throne.

In June 474, shortly after Nepos' arrival in Italy, Glycerius surrendered. Nepos spared his life and appointed him bishop of Salona. After this Nepos ruled, briefly, over the whole of the remaining Western Roman Empire; centered in Italy, still the Empire's heartland, and including his native Dalmatia, and the remaining parts of Roman Gaul. Nepos' rule in Italy ended in 475, when he was deposed by his magister militum, Orestes. Fleeing from Italy and Orestes without opposition, Nepos returned to Dalmatia; over which he retained control.

In the same year, following Nepos' departure, Orestes enthroned his own teenage son as the new western emperor with the regnal name Romulus Augustus; in reference to whom, the second element is often used in the diminutive "Augustulus" (little Augustus). The reasons for Orestes' decision to crown his son as a puppet-emperor, rather than become Emperor himself, are somewhat unclear. In the eyes of Roman law and of the eastern court in Constantinople, however, Romulus' position as Emperor was unconstitutional. His short reign ended in 476 with the execution of his father, and his own subsequent forced abdication; both the result of an uprising led by Odoacer, head of the Germanic Foederati in Italy. Odoacer, the new ruler of the Italian peninsula, sent the teen-aged former emperor to Campania in exile or retirement, after which Romulus Augustulus disappears from the historical record.

Although his successor had been deposed, Nepos never returned to Italy; however the "Emperor of the West" continued to reign from Dalmatia, and he still enjoyed some support from Constantinople. Odoacer, attempting to bypass Nepos, used the Roman Senate to petition the newly-restored Eastern Emperor, Zeno; he requested the title of Patrician, and sought to end the separate line of Western Emperors. Patrician rank was granted, but at Zeno's insistence Odoacer also grudgingly acknowledged Nepos' Imperial status, and even issued coinage in Nepos' name.

As Patricius, Odoacer ruled over Italy and an expanding sphere of related territories as a viceroy, theoretically under Zeno's authority as the head of a "re-united" Imperium Romanum, while still technically acknowledging Nepos as Emperor of the West. In practical terms, Odoacer was an increasingly independent rex Italia, nominally recognizing the Eastern Empire's suzerainty; Nepos retained claim to the Imperial title, but exercised no real power outside of Dalmatia.

This political solution lasted approximately 4 years. Julius Nepos, still residing in Dalmatia, was murdered by members of his own military in 480; possibly as a result of machinations by Odoacer and/or Glycerius, possibly aggravated by ambitions on Nepos' part to regain control of Italy. The competing desires of various persons to replace him as ruler of Dalmatia probably also played a part in his assassination. The instability in the West continued; and Nepos' death ended the last serious legal claims of a Western Roman Empire, independent of the Roman East, until the coronation of Charlemagne as "Imperator Romanorum" in 800.