Odoacer
Odoacer (Flavius Odoacrus/Odovacar/Odowaker/Odoacer; born c. 430 † probably March 15, 493 in Ravenna) was a soldier of Germanic descent in the army of the Western Roman Empire.
When he forced the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, to quit his throne in 476, Odoacer became King of Italy. That event is considered by historians to be the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. After a rule of 17 years, Odoacer was killed in 493, at around the age of 63, by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great.
Odoacer Media
Latin memorial plate from 1521, that mentions Odoacer as Rex Rhutenorum (Petersfriedhof, Salzburg)
Romulus Augustus resigns the Crown (from a 19th-century illustration).
An early illustration of a mythologized Theodoric killing Odoacer in a joust. From the Chronica Theodericiana (1181).
