In memory of the Roman general Orestes, who was killed on this day in MCCDIX AUC, one year to the day after he forced the western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna. In between, in October in MCCDVIII AUC, Orestes, the former viceroy of Attila and present master of soldiers of that fragment of Rome called the Western Empire made his son, the ironically named teenager Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the West until Karl der Grosse of the Franks in MDLIV AUC. He was emperor for less than a year before the Goths killed Orestes, but merely deposed his son. Shaw wrote a play in which Odoacer spared the boy king when Romulus said all he wanted to do was raise chickens, an occupation dear to Odoacers own heart. In the play, an fat and aged Odoacer visited a fat and aged Romulus, and told him he wished he had raised chickens himself. I know I read that, but I have found no mention of it in wiki. Born an aristocrat of Pannonia Savia, Orestes was probably at least partly of Germanic descent. He was son of Tatulus, a pagan, and son-in-law to Romulus who served as Comes (Count, a companion of the Emperor, One Who Counts!) in the Western Roman Empire. After Pannonia was ceded to Attila the Hun, Orestes a Pannonian native, joined Attilas court, reaching high position as a secretary (notarius) in MCCII AUC and MCCV AUC. In MCCII AUC Orestes was sent by Attila twice to Constantinople as envoy to Emperor Theodosius II. After the death of Attila, he went back to his birth allegiance, and became a power in the Empire. In MCCDVIII AUC, Orestes was appointed magister militum and patricius by Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos. This proved to be a mistake on the part of Nepos, as Orestes, at the head of the foederati levies, managed to take control of the government in Ravenna, which had been the de facto capital of the Western Roman Empire since MCIV AUC. Julius Nepos fled without a fight to Dalmatia, where he would continue to reign until his assassination in MCCXXXIII AUC. With the emperor far away, Orestes elevated his son Romulus to the rank of Augustus, so that the last Western Roman emperor is known as Romulus Augustulus meaning little Augustus as the emperor was only a 12 year old boy. Why Orestes did not take the purple himself, I do not know. youtube/watch?v=p6jPzN_LjAk
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 02:19:15 +0000
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