145-528: Odoacer ( / ˌ oʊ d oʊ ˈ eɪ s ər / OH -doh- AY -sər ; c. 433 – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar , was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally understood as marking
290-556: A dialect continuum . Turkic languages are spoken by some 200 million people. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish , spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans ; its native speakers account for about 38% of all Turkic speakers, followed by Uzbek . Characteristic features such as vowel harmony , agglutination , subject-object-verb order, and lack of grammatical gender , are almost universal within
435-474: A "barbarian term", it had at points in the past sometimes been used to describe Roman emperors and served to indicate that the barbarian rulers were sovereign rulers, though not with authority eclipsing that of the emperor in Constantinople. Many, but not all, of the barbarian kings used ethnic qualifiers in their title. The Frankish kings, for instance, rendered their title as rex Francorum ("king of
580-543: A banquet of reconciliation, where instead of forging an alliance, Theodoric killed Odoacer, and replaced him as king. The origin of the name Odoacer, which may give indications as to his tribal affiliation, is debated. It is however traditionally derived from the Germanic components * auda (luck, possession, wealth) and * wakra (awake, vigilant, lively). It is not clear from which branch of the Germanic language family it
725-582: A conceptual level. Treaties made with the Visigoths in 439 and the Vandals, who had conquered North Africa, in 442 effectively recognized the rulers of those peoples as territorial governors of parts of imperial territory, ceasing the pretension of active imperial administration. These treaties, though not seen as irrevocable, laid the foundations of true territorial kingdoms. Barbarian rulers took various steps to present themselves as legitimate rulers within
870-749: A failure to integrate the barbarian rulers into the existing Roman imperial systems. Early barbarian rulers were tolerated only on the terms of the Roman Empire. Early 'kingdoms', such as those of the Suebi and Vandals in Hispania, were consequently relegated to the edges of less important provinces. In 418, the Visigothic groups formerly under Alaric were settled by Emperor Honorius ( r. 393–423) in Aquitania in southern Gaul , establishing
1015-584: A group of barbarians on their way to Italy stopped to pay their respects to the holy man. Odoacer, at the time "a young man, of tall figure, clad in poor clothes", learned from Severinus that he would one day become famous. Despite the fact that Odoacer was an Arian Christian and Severinus was Catholic, the latter left a deep impression on him. When Odoacer took his leave, Severinus made one final comment which proved prophetic: "Go to Italy, go, now covered with mean hides; soon you will make rich gifts to many." By 470, Odoacer had become an officer in what remained of
1160-521: A kingdom, instead spending his career unsuccessfully trying to integrate himself and his people into the Roman imperial system. The earliest Visigothic ruler known to have called himself a king and to issue documents from something resembling an imperial chancery was Alaric II ( r. 484–507), though contemporary writings allude to widespread acceptance and recognition of a Visigothic kingdom in Gaul by
1305-466: A new administrative era over Roman lands. Odoacer introduced a few important changes to the administrative system of Italy. According to Jordanes, at the beginning of his reign he "slew Count Bracila at Ravenna that he might inspire a fear of himself among the Romans." He took many military actions to strengthen his control over Italy and its neighbouring areas. He achieved a solid diplomatic coup by inducing
1450-428: A perilous vacuum of authority." The major difference between the Roman imperial administration and the new royal administrations was their scale. Without a central imperial court and officers that linked the governments of the different provinces together, the administrations in the kingdoms were flattened, becoming significantly less deep and complex. The smaller size of the barbarian kingdoms meant that official power
1595-452: A result, there exist several systems to classify the Turkic languages. The modern genetic classification schemes for Turkic are still largely indebted to Samoilovich (1922). The Turkic languages may be divided into six branches: In this classification, Oghur Turkic is also referred to as Lir-Turkic, and the other branches are subsumed under the title of Shaz-Turkic or Common Turkic . It
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#17327651397821740-512: A three-year siege, Theodoric entered the city on 5 March. Odoacer died ten days later, slain by Theodoric while they shared a meal. Theodoric had plotted to have a group of his followers kill him while the two kings were feasting together in the imperial palace of Honorius "Ad Laurentum" ("At the Laurel Grove"); when this plan went astray, Theodoric drew his sword and struck him on the collarbone. In response to Odoacer's dying question, "Where
1885-458: A trusted man of Attila, and ambassador to Constantinople. He escorted Priscus and other Imperial dignitaries back to Attila's camp. It is not universally accepted that this Edeco is the father of Odoacer. Priscus once calls him a Scythian, and another time a Hun. It has been argued classifications like "Scythian" or "Hun" from this period could refer to social type and lifestyle rather than an exact ethnic origin. Macbain, however, argues that Priscus
2030-424: Is God?" Theodoric cried, "This is what you did to my friends." Theodoric was said to have stood over the body of his dead rival and exclaimed, "The man has no bones in his body." Not only did Theodoric slay Odoacer, he thereafter had the betrayed king's loyal followers hunted down and killed as well, an event which left him as the master of Italy. Odoacer's wife Sunigilda was stoned to death, and his brother Onoulphus
2175-515: Is a common characteristic of major language families spoken in Inner Eurasia ( Mongolic , Tungusic , Uralic and Turkic), the type of harmony found in them differs from each other, specifically, Uralic and Turkic have a shared type of vowel harmony (called palatal vowel harmony ) whereas Mongolic and Tungusic represent a different type. The homeland of the Turkic peoples and their language
2320-598: Is conceivable that the victor of such a conflict would have re-established the Western Roman Empire under his own rule. Though no war happened, such developments worried the Eastern Roman emperors. Worried that their granted honours could be seen as imperial "stamps of approval", the eastern court never granted them to the same extent again. Instead, the eastern empire began to emphasise its own exclusive Roman legitimacy, which it would continue to do for
2465-443: Is currently regarded as one of the world's primary language families . Turkic is one of the main members of the controversial Altaic language family , but Altaic currently lacks support from a majority of linguists. None of the theories linking Turkic languages to other families have a wide degree of acceptance at present. Shared features with languages grouped together as Altaic have been interpreted by most mainstream linguists to be
2610-512: Is derived. In favour of this etymology, this form has a cognate in another Germanic language, the titular Eadwacer of the Old English poem Wulf and Eadwacer (where Old English renders the earlier Germanic sound au- as ea- ). However, historians Robert L. Reynolds and Robert S. Lopez explored the possibility that the name Odoacer was not Germanic, making several arguments that his ethnic background might lie elsewhere. One of these
2755-479: Is generally accepted to be Germanic "Hun wolf". Reynolds and Lopez emphasized that the first part, "hun", although the meaning is uncertain, may refer to the Huns. Odoacer's son is given two different names in ancient sources, Thelan and Oklan. Reynolds and Lopez compare these to Turkic names: "Thelan resembles the name borne by the khagan of the eastern Turks, Tulan, who reigned from 587 to 600 A.D. Oklan resembles closely
2900-582: Is not clear when these two major types of Turkic can be assumed to have diverged. With less certainty, the Southwestern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Oghur groups may further be summarized as West Turkic , the Northeastern, Kyrgyz-Kipchak, and Arghu (Khalaj) groups as East Turkic . Geographically and linguistically, the languages of the Northwestern and Southeastern subgroups belong to
3045-517: Is suggested to be somewhere between the Transcaspian steppe and Northeastern Asia ( Manchuria ), with genetic evidence pointing to the region near South Siberia and Mongolia as the "Inner Asian Homeland" of the Turkic ethnicity. Similarly several linguists, including Juha Janhunen , Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, suggest that modern-day Mongolia is the homeland of the early Turkic language. Relying on Proto-Turkic lexical items about
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#17327651397823190-510: Is that his name, "Odoacer", for which they claimed an etymology in Germanic languages had not been convincingly found, arguing instead that it could be a form of the Turkic "Ot-toghar" ("grass-born" or "fire-born"), or the shorter form "Ot-ghar" ("herder"). There is also debate regarding the etymology of Edeco, the apparent name of Odoacer's father. Omeljan Pritsak considered it Turkic,; others such as Peter Heather considered it Germanic. The name of Odoacer's apparent brother, Hunulf or Onulf,
3335-411: Is the least harmonic or not harmonic at all. Taking into account the documented historico-linguistic development of Turkic languages overall, both inscriptional and textual, the family provides over one millennium of documented stages as well as scenarios in the linguistic evolution of vowel harmony which, in turn, demonstrates harmony evolution along a confidently definable trajectory Though vowel harmony
3480-604: Is widely rejected by historical linguists. Similarities with the Uralic languages even caused these families to be regarded as one for a long time under the Ural-Altaic hypothesis. However, there has not been sufficient evidence to conclude the existence of either of these macrofamilies. The shared characteristics between the languages are attributed presently to extensive prehistoric language contact . Turkic languages are null-subject languages , have vowel harmony (with
3625-643: The History of the Franks of Gregory of Tours , using two different spellings and involving two different regions. These involve events which were early enough to be Odoacer before his appearance in Italy. Both were during the lifetime of Childeric I , king of the Franks, who died about 481. Another early recorded event which is more certainly about Odoacer the future king, was shortly before he arrived in Italy. Eugippius , in his Life of Saint Severinus , records how
3770-415: The ğ in dağ and dağlı is not realized as a consonant, but as a slight lengthening of the preceding vowel. The following table is based mainly upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The following is a brief comparison of cognates among the basic vocabulary across
3915-525: The Burgundians seized the opportunity to plunder and devastated Liguria . Many Romans were taken into captivity and did not regain their freedom until Theodoric ransomed them three years later. The following summer, the Visigothic king Alaric II demonstrated what Wolfram calls "one of the rare displays of Gothic solidarity" and sent military aid to help his kinsman, forcing Odoacer to raise his siege. Theodoric emerged from Ticinum, and on 11 August 490,
4060-606: The Catholic missionaries sent to the Western Cumans inhabiting a region corresponding to present-day Hungary and Romania . The earliest records of the language spoken by Volga Bulgars , debatably the parent or a distant relative of Chuvash language , are dated to the 13th–14th centuries AD. With the Turkic expansion during the Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries AD), Turkic languages, in
4205-559: The Chuvash language from other Turkic languages. According to him, the Chuvash language does not share certain common characteristics with Turkic languages to such a degree that some scholars consider it an independent Chuvash family similar to Uralic and Turkic languages. Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for the classification purposes. Some lexical and extensive typological similarities between Turkic and
4350-604: The Consulate and other prestigious offices: " Basilius , Decius , Venantius , and Manlius Boethius held the consulship and were either Prefects of Rome or Praetorian Prefects; Symmachus and Sividius were consuls and Prefects of Rome; another senator of old family, Cassiodorus, was appointed a minister of finance." A. H. M. Jones also notes that under Odoacer the Senate acquired "enhanced prestige and influence" in order to counter any desires for restoration of Imperial rule. As
4495-608: The Loire . Between 405 and 407, a large number of barbarians invaded Gaul in what is called the crossing of the Rhine , including the Alans , Vandals , and Suebi . These groups were not from the kingdoms immediately adjacent to Roman Gaul; instead they had likely been heavily dependent on Roman gifts and were provoked to journey west as such gifts stopped and the Huns arrived in the east. The barbarians quickly overwhelmed what remained of
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4640-613: The Ostrogoths , who in turn were fleeing from the Huns . The Eastern emperor, Valens ( r. 364–378), was pleased at the arrival of the Visigoths as it meant that he could recruit their warriors at low cost, bolstering his armies. Barbarian tribes seeking to settle in the empire were typically broken up into smaller groups and resettled across imperial territory. The Visigoths were however allowed to remain united and to themselves choose Thrace as their place of settlement. Although
4785-537: The Ostrogoths , who were one of the most dominant of the post-Attila groups. It has also been pointed out by Reynolds and Lopez that Attila had an uncle named Rogus and that Jordanes may have been saying Odoacer was his descendant. After the battle of Bolia, the Scirii, Rugii and Heruli made up a large part of the military force Odoacer came to control in Italy, while the Ostrogoths moved into Eastern Roman territory in
4930-937: The Rugii of present-day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488, Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugii in their own territory. Zeno eventually appointed the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great , who had been menacing the Eastern Empire within the Balkans. Theodoric invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, forcing Odoacer to take refuge in Ravenna . The city surrendered on 5 March 493. Theodoric invited Odoacer to
5075-717: The Thuringii . While in one passage of Getica , Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi ( Torcilingorum rex ) with Scirian and Heruli followers, in another passage Jordanes mentions Italy being "shaken by the tyranny of the Torcilingi and Rugi" during Odoacer's reign. In his Romana , the same author defines Odoacer as a descendant of the Rugii , or of a person named Rogus ( Odoacer genere Rogus ), with Turcilingi, Scirian and Heruli followers. The Scirii and Heruls were among those known to contemporaries such as
5220-426: The Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia , East Asia , North Asia ( Siberia ), and West Asia . The Turkic languages originated in a region of East Asia spanning from Mongolia to Northwest China , where Proto-Turkic is thought to have been spoken, from where they expanded to Central Asia and farther west during the first millennium. They are characterized as
5365-667: The Vandal Kingdom in Africa and the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy. Most of the smaller kingdoms in Gaul were conquered and absorbed into the Frankish Kingdom or disappear from historical sources entirely. The emergence barbarian kingdoms was by and large a Roman political phenomenon which occurred in the context of the late Roman geopolitical landscape. In place of these kingdoms, new realms emerged in
5510-639: The Vandals took their turn to strike while both sides were fully engaged and invaded Sicily. While Theodoric was engaged with them, his ally Fredericus, king of the Rugians, began to oppress the inhabitants of Pavia , whom the latter's forces had been garrisoned to protect. Once Theodoric intervened in person in late August 491, his punitive acts drove Fredericus to desert with his followers to Tufa. By this time, however, Odoacer appeared to have lost all hope of victory. A large-scale sortie he sent out of Ravenna on
5655-456: The Vandals . In A.D. 476 the same principle of disintegration was first applied to Italy. The settlement of Odovacar's East Germans, with Zeno's acquiescence, began the process by which Italian soil was to pass into the hands of Ostrogoths and Lombards , Franks and Normans . And Odovacar's title of king emphasised the significance of the change. In 476, Odoacer was proclaimed rex by his soldiers and dux Italiae by emperor Zeno, initiating
5800-490: The Visigothic Kingdom . The Romans envisioned this as a provisional settlement of loyal clients of the imperial government, whose support could be relied on in internal struggles. The settlement was not seen as an actual ceding of imperial territory, given that the Roman administration was also envisioned as continuing in the granted lands, albeit overseen by the Visigoths as vassals. Though some Roman generals in
5945-483: The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. The barbarian kingdoms were the principal governments in Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages . The time of the barbarian kingdoms is considered to have come to an end with Charlemagne 's coronation as emperor in 800, though a handful of small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms persisted until being unified by Alfred the Great in 886. The formation of
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6090-587: The end of the Western Roman Empire . Although he held power over Italy , he also represented himself as the client of the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople , Zeno . He was referred to not only as a king ( Latin : rex ), but also as duke (Latin: dux ), or using the Roman honorific patrician , granted by Zeno. Odoacer himself used the title of king in the only surviving official document that emanated from his chancery, and it
6235-424: The foederati , who had been quartered in Italy all of these years, had grown weary of this arrangement. In the words of J. B. Bury , "They desired to have roof-trees and lands of their own, and they petitioned Orestes to reward them for their services, by granting them lands and settling them permanently in Italy". Orestes refused their petition, and they turned to Odoacer to lead their revolt against Orestes. Orestes
6380-715: The praetorian prefect . The biography of Pope Felix III in the Liber Pontificalis openly states that the pontiff's tenure occurred during Odoacer's reign without any complaints about the king being registered. In 487/488, Odoacer led his army to victory against the Rugians in Noricum , taking their king Feletheus into captivity; when word that Feletheus's son, Fredericus , had returned to his people, Odoacer sent his brother Onoulphus with an army back to Noricum against him. Onoulphus found it necessary to evacuate
6525-471: The " Turco-Mongol " tradition. The two groups shared a similar religion system, Tengrism , and there exists a multitude of evident loanwords between Turkic languages and Mongolic languages . Although the loans were bidirectional, today Turkic loanwords constitute the largest foreign component in Mongolian vocabulary. Italian historian and philologist Igor de Rachewiltz noted a significant distinction of
6670-433: The 450s. The Visigoths did not establish a secure power-base as a consciously post-imperial kingdom until the 560s under Liuvigild , after slow and often brutal conquests in Hispania. The practice of the barbarian kingdoms being subservient to the Eastern Roman emperor came to an end as a result of the wars of reconquest of Emperor Justinian I ( r. 527–565). Justinian sought to restore direct imperial control to
6815-466: The Balkans. The near contemporary Auctorium Havniense also calls Odoacer a king of Heruli. Many historians, such as medieval scholar Michael Frassetto , accept that Odoacer was of Scirian heritage, because of the apparent family links to Edeko and Hunulf. On the other hand, scholars are divided about whether Jordanes can be relied upon concerning the "Turcilingi". It has also been proposed that these are an otherwise unknown Turkic speaking people among
6960-519: The Eastern Empire. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian , his relations with the Chalcedonian church hierarchy were remarkably good. As G. M. Cook notes in her introduction to Magnus Felix Ennodius 's Life of Saint Epiphanius , he showed great esteem for Bishop Epiphanius : in response to the bishop's petition, Odoacer granted the inhabitants of Liguria a five-year immunity from taxes, and again granted his requests for relief from abuses by
7105-544: The Eastern Roman Empire. Their rule in Italy came to an end when their kingdom was conquered by the Franks in 774. The small successor kingdoms of the Visigoths in Hispania—predecessors of medieval kingdoms such as León , Castile , and Aragon —were fundamentally sub-Frankish, culturally and administratively closer to the Frankish Kingdom than the fallen Visigothic Kingdom. As the sole survivor of
7250-406: The Franks"). The rulers of Italy, where the pretense of Roman continuity was especially strong, are notable in that they only rarely used ethnic qualifiers. In addition to rex , the barbarian rulers also assumed various Roman imperial titles and honours. Virtually all of the barbarian kings assumed the style dominus noster ("our lord"), previously used only by Roman emperors, and nearly all of
7395-591: The Gothic peoples who came to the Middle Danube during the time of Attila's empire, including the Sciri , Heruli , and Rugii . In several passages, Jordanes also associated Odoacer with the otherwise unknown Turcilingi —who may have been a people or perhaps a dynasty. The Turcilingi are not mentioned in any other historical sources apart from those derived from Jordanes and their ethnic affiliations are unclear, but they may have been Gothic , Hunnic , or even precursors of
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#17327651397827540-534: The Great and his Ostrogoths the Italian peninsula if they were to defeat and remove Odoacer. As both Herwig Wolfram and Peter Heather point out, Theodoric had his own reasons to agree to this offer: "Theodoric had enough experience to know (or at least suspect) that Zeno would not, in the long term, tolerate his independent power. When Theodoric rebelled in 485, we are told, he had in mind Zeno's treatment of Armatus . Armatus defected from Basilicus to Zeno in 476, and
7685-544: The Great of Italy and Clovis I of the Franks. Both rulers received honours and recognition by the imperial court in Constantinople, which granted them a certain degree of legitimacy and was used to justify territorial expansion. Theodoric was recognised as a patrician by Emperor Anastasius I , who also returned the western imperial regalia, in Constantinople since 476, to Italy. These regalia were worn by Theoderic on occasions, and some of his Roman subjects referred to him as an emperor, but he himself appears to have used only
7830-507: The Huns. Whether or not this is accepted, there is also an argument that the Turcilingi mentioned by Jordanes were early Thuringians, who established a kingdom by about this time in what is now central Germany, relatively far to the north of the Danubian kingdoms. In favour of this argument, the 10th century Suda identifies Odoacer's apparent brother Hunulf as a Thuringian on his father's side and Scirian on his mother's side. This fragment
7975-562: The Roman Army. Although Jordanes writes of Odoacer as invading Italy "as leader of the Sciri, the Heruli and allies of various races", modern writers describe him as being part of the Roman military establishment, based on John of Antioch 's statement that Odoacer was on the side of Ricimer at the beginning of his battle with the emperor Anthemius in 472. Odoacer is said to have "hastened
8120-473: The Roman Empire ceased to make itself felt in the region; local offices were withdrawn to southern Gaul, aristocrats fled south, and the local capital was moved in 395 from Trier to Arles . Archaeological evidence from Britannia and northern Gaul showcase a rapid collapse of Roman industries, villa life, and Roman civilization as a whole. The effective border of imperial control moved from the Rhine frontier to
8265-506: The Roman Empire well into the sixth century. When Theodoric the Great ( r. 493–526), the Ostrogothic king of Italy, also became ruler of the Visigoths of Hispania in 511, this was celebrated in Ravenna as a liberation of Hispania and a re-integration of the Visigothic territories into the Roman Empire. This is despite the Visigoths also having been de jure part of the empire before this point. The exact process in which
8410-400: The Roman Empire. The new form of government was a personal one, based on powers of, and relationships between, individuals, rather than the heavily administrated, judicial and bureaucratic system of the Romans. The time of the barbarian kingdoms came to an end with the coronation of Charlemagne , king of the Franks , as Roman emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, in opposition to the authority of
8555-613: The Roman Senate, Odoacer thenceforth ruled Italy autonomously, paying lip service to the authority of Julius Nepos , the previous Western emperor, and Zeno. Upon Nepos's murder in 480, Odoacer invaded Dalmatia , to punish the murderers. He executed the conspirators, conquered the region and incorporated it into his domain within two years. When Illus , master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer's help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, Odoacer invaded Zeno's westernmost provinces. The emperor responded first by inciting
8700-526: The Roman defensive works in the region and led Roman forces in Britain to acclaim the usurper-emperor Constantine III ( r. 407–411). Constantine III managed to keep the barbarians on the Rhine somewhat in check. The end of his reign due to further internal Roman conflict left the armies in Gaul in tatters and led to the tribes being able to penetrate deep into Gaul and Hispania. Without sufficient military force and with administration impossible,
8845-547: The Roman imperial framework, nominally subservient to the Western Roman emperor. This practice continued even after the deposition of the final western emperor, Romulus Augustulus , in 476. Barbarian rulers after 476 typically presented themselves as subservient to the remaining Eastern Roman emperor, and were in turn at times granted various honors by the imperial government. Almost nowhere in Western Europe were barbarian rulers firmly linked to territorial kingdoms until
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#17327651397828990-451: The Roman religion) and the Latin language themselves, thus inheriting and maintaining Rome's cultural heritage. At the same time, they also remained connected to their non-Roman identity and made efforts to establish their own distinct identities. Roman identity gradually disappeared in Western Europe, both due to the Eastern Roman Empire emphasizing its own unique Roman legitimacy and due to
9135-433: The Roman state was to provide the Visigoths with food, imperial logistics could not handle the large number of refugees and Roman officials under the command of Lupicinus worsened the crisis by selling off much of the food before it reached the Visigoths. Amid rampant starvation, some Visigoth families were forced to sell their children into Roman slavery for food. After Lupicinus had a group of high-ranking Visigoths killed,
9280-523: The Skirians may have been [...] no one doubts that the Thuringians were Germans", and that while the "ancient sources exhibit considerable confusion over Odovacer's tribal affiliation" none of them calls Odoacer a Hun. Historian Patrick Amory explains that "Odoacer is called a Scirian, a Rugian, a Goth or a Thuringian in sources; his father is called a Hun, his mother a Scirian. Odoacer's father Edeco
9425-453: The Turkic family. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility , upon moderate exposure, among the various Oghuz languages , which include Turkish , Azerbaijani , Turkmen , Qashqai , Chaharmahali Turkic , Gagauz , and Balkan Gagauz Turkish , as well as Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar . Other Turkic languages demonstrate varying amounts of mutual intelligibility within their subgroups as well. Although methods of classification vary,
9570-442: The Turkic language family (about 60 words). Despite being cognates, some of the words may denote a different meaning. Empty cells do not necessarily imply that a particular language is lacking a word to describe the concept, but rather that the word for the concept in that language may be formed from another stem and is not cognate with the other words in the row or that a loanword is used in its place. Also, there may be shifts in
9715-496: The Turkic languages are usually considered to be divided into two branches: Oghur , of which the only surviving member is Chuvash , and Common Turkic , which includes all other Turkic languages. Turkic languages show many similarities with the Mongolic , Tungusic , Koreanic , and Japonic languages. These similarities have led some linguists (including Talât Tekin ) to propose an Altaic language family , though this proposal
9860-544: The Turkish-Tatar word oghlan, 'youth' ". The assumption that the etymology of Odoacer's name can be used to determine his ancestry or language has been criticized by historians and philologists such as Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen and Walter Pohl , who have pointed out that Germanic-speakers used Hunnic names in this period and region, and vice versa. As emphasized by Pohl, the same person could be considered Hunnic or Germanic under different circumstances, especially during
10005-593: The Vandal king Gaiseric to cede Sicily to him. Noting that "Odovacar seized power in August of 476, Gaiseric died in January 477, and the sea usually became closed to navigation around the beginning of November", F. M. Clover dates this cession to September or October 476. When Julius Nepos was murdered by two of his retainers in his country house near Salona (9 May 480), Odoacer assumed the duty of pursuing and executing
10150-495: The Visigothic kings and the barbarian kings of Italy (up until the end of the Lombard kingdom ) used the praenomen Flavius , borne by virtually all Roman emperors in late antiquity. The early barbarian rulers were careful to maintain a subordinate position to the emperors in Constantinople, and were in turn sometimes recognised with various honours by the emperors, in effect serving as highly autonomous client kings. Although
10295-467: The Visigoths revolted several times under Alaric, who sought to attain a formal position in the imperial framework as a Roman general, as well as pay for his followers as Roman soldiers. Alaric was repeatedly caught in the rivalry and court intrigue between the Eastern and Western empires and his failure to obtain formal recognition eventually led to his forces sacking Rome in 410. Roman civil wars in
10440-421: The Visigoths under their leader Alaric I ( r. 395–410) to become an active force in imperial politics, only tenuously linked to the imperial government itself. Both Visigoths and Romans were aware that Gothic autonomy had only been accepted because there were few alternatives and repeated Gothic casualties in Roman wars likely made the Visigoths increasingly suspicious of Roman motives. In this context,
10585-560: The Visigoths, Franks and Lombards —only the Frankish Kingdom survived the Early Middle Ages. The Visigothic Kingdom collapsed already in the sixth century and had to be restored almost from scratch by Liuvigild in the 560s and 570s. The kingdom was finally destroyed when it was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th century. In his wars of reconquest, the Eastern emperor Justinian I destroyed both
10730-523: The West, "if he truly wished to act with justice." Although he accepted the title of Patrician and Dux from Zeno, Odoacer did not invite Julius Nepos to return to Rome, and the latter remained in Dalmatia until his death. Odoacer was careful to observe form, however, and made a pretence of acting on Nepos's authority, even issuing coins with both his image and that of Zeno. Following Nepos's murder in 480, who
10875-542: The West. (See picture in the box on the right above.) For centuries, the Turkic-speaking peoples have migrated extensively and intermingled continuously, and their languages have been influenced mutually and through contact with the surrounding languages, especially the Iranian , Slavic , and Mongolic languages . This has obscured the historical developments within each language and/or language group, and as
11020-434: The acceptance of barbarian rulers by local Roman aristocrats, who in many cases saw the possibility of restored Western Roman central control as an increasingly futile prospect. Many barbarian rulers enjoyed considerable support from Roman aristocrats, who raised armies from their own lands both against and for them. The populace of the barbarian-controlled territories in Western Europe continued to view themselves as part of
11165-639: The armies of the two kings clashed on the Adda River . Odoacer again was defeated and forced back into Ravenna, where Theodoric besieged him. Ravenna proved to be invulnerable, surrounded by marshes and estuaries and easily supplied by small boats from its hinterlands, as Procopius later pointed out in his History . Further, Tufa remained at large in the strategic valley of the Adige near Trent , and received unexpected reinforcements when dissent amongst Theodoric's ranks led to sizable desertions. That same year,
11310-460: The assassins, and at the same time established his own rule in Dalmatia. As Bury points out, "It is highly important to observe that Odovacar established his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate, and this body seems to have given him their loyal support throughout his reign, so far as our meagre sources permit us to draw inferences." He regularly nominated members of the Senate to
11455-421: The barbarian kingdoms saw power in Western Europe being dispersed from a single capital, such as Rome or Ravenna in the past, to several local kings and warlords. Despite this, the apparatus of the former imperial government continued to fundamentally function in the west because the barbarian rulers adopted many aspects of the late Roman administration. Roman law remained the predominant legal system through
11600-695: The barbarian kingdoms was a complicated, gradual, and largely unintentional process. Their origin can be traced to the Roman state failing to handle barbarian migrants on the imperial borders, which led to both invasions and invitations into imperial territory. Despite an increasing influx of barbarians, the Romans simultaneously denied them the ability to properly integrate into the imperial framework. Barbarian rulers were at first local warlords and client kings without firm connections to any territory. Their influence only increased as Roman emperors and usurpers began to use them as pawns in civil wars. The barbarian realms only transitioned into proper territorial kingdoms after
11745-430: The barbarian kingdoms were ruled by non-Romans, no one in late antiquity would have doubted that they belonged to the greater late Roman political system. The kingdoms were in some cases rooted in barbarian traditions but were also linked to high Roman imperial magistracies and their rulers held formal and recognized vice-imperial powers. In the early sixth century, the most powerful kings in Western Europe were Theodoric
11890-414: The barbarian kings took on certain functions and prerogatives previously ascribed to the Roman emperors is not entirely clear. It is believed to have been a highly drawn-out process. History generally recognizes Alaric I as the first 'king of the Visigoths', though this title is applied to him only retroactively. Contemporary sources refer to Alaric only as dux or at times hegemon , and he did not rule
12035-486: The barbarian rulers. Some rulers even took steps to restore parts of the administration. In 510, the Ostrogothic king of Italy, Theodoric the Great, restored the Praetorian prefecture of Gaul on territory he conquered from the Visigoths and appointed as praetorian prefect the Roman aristocrat Liberius . A large number of Roman political and bureaucratic offices survived the end of the Western Roman Empire, attested in
12180-433: The central Turkic languages, while the Northeastern and Khalaj languages are the so-called peripheral languages. Hruschka, et al. (2014) use computational phylogenetic methods to calculate a tree of Turkic based on phonological sound changes . The following isoglosses are traditionally used in the classification of the Turkic languages: Additional isoglosses include: *In the standard Istanbul dialect of Turkish,
12325-584: The climate, topography, flora, fauna, people's modes of subsistence, Turkologist Peter Benjamin Golden locates the Proto-Turkic Urheimat in the southern, taiga-steppe zone of the Sayan - Altay region. Extensive contact took place between Proto-Turks and Proto-Mongols approximately during the first millennium BC; the shared cultural tradition between the two Eurasian nomadic groups is called
12470-431: The collapse of effective Western Roman central authority. Barbarian kings established legitimacy through connecting themselves to the Roman Empire. Virtually all barbarian rulers assumed the style dominus noster ("our lord"), previously used by Roman emperors, and many assumed the praenomen Flavius , borne by nearly all Roman emperors in late antiquity. Most rulers also assumed a subordinate position in diplomacy with
12615-419: The conclusion of the Gothic war made the Visigoths semi-independent foederati under their own leaders, able to be called upon and drafted into the Roman army. Unlike previous settlements, the Visigoths were not dispersed and instead given cohesive lands in the provinces of Scythia , Moesia , and perhaps Macedonia . Although the defeat at Adrianople was disastrous, several modern historians have criticized
12760-464: The content of that plate is considered nothing more than a legend. In spite of that, the plate has become a popular "source" for several theorists that try to connect Odoacer with ancient Celtic Ruthenes , and also with later Slavic Ruthenians . Historian Paul R. Magocsi argues such theories should be regarded as "inventive tales" of "creative" writers and nothing more. Finally, a passage from Eugippius's Life of Saint Severinus indicated that Odoacer
12905-612: The course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia , from Siberia to the Mediterranean . Various terminologies from the Turkic languages have passed into Persian , Urdu , Ukrainian , Russian , Chinese , Mongolian , Hungarian and to a lesser extent, Arabic . The geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia since the Ottoman era ranges from the North-East of Siberia to Turkey in
13050-450: The diversity of the new kingdoms in favor of a homogenous non-Roman barbarism and ignores any analysis in which the empire could be seen as complicit in its own collapse. Despite being divided into several smaller realms, the populace of the barbarian kingdoms maintained strong cultural and religious connections with each other, and continued to speak Latin. The barbarian kings adopted both Christianity (at this point firmly established as
13195-403: The early Turkic language. According to him, words related to nature, earth and ruling but especially to the sky and stars seem to be cognates. The linguist Choi suggested already in 1996 a close relationship between Turkic and Korean regardless of any Altaic connections: In addition, the fact that the morphological elements are not easily borrowed between languages, added to the fact that
13340-671: The emperor's downfall", since he switched sides to join with Ricimer. Procopius describes him as one of the Emperor's bodyguards, only agreeing to this position if placed in charge of them. When Orestes was in 475 appointed Magister militum and patrician by the Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos , Odoacer became head of the barbarian foederati military forces of Italy. Under the command of Orestes were significant contingents of Germanic peoples made up mostly of Rugii and Heruli tribesmen. Before
13485-692: The end of that year Orestes had rebelled and driven Nepos from Italy. Orestes then proclaimed his young son Romulus the new emperor as Romulus Augustus, called "Augustulus" (31 October). At this time, Odoacer was a soldier rising through the ranks. However, Nepos reorganized his court in Salona in Dalmatia, and received homage and affirmation from the remaining fragments of the Western Empire beyond Italy and, most importantly, from Constantinople, which refused to accept Augustulus, Zeno having branded him and his father as traitors and usurpers. About this time
13630-412: The existence of semi-autonomous barbarian-controlled territories as desirable, but began to tolerate them through the 420s and 430s. Neither the Romans nor the various barbarian groups sought to establish new and lasting territorial kingdoms that replaced the imperial government. The rise of the barbarian kingdoms derived not from barbarian interest in creating them but from failures in Roman governance and
13775-591: The family. The Compendium is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Turkic languages and also includes the first known map of the Turkic speakers' geographical distribution. It mainly pertains to the Southwestern branch of the family. The Codex Cumanicus (12th–13th centuries AD) concerning the Northwestern branch is another early linguistic manual, between the Kipchak language and Latin , used by
13920-589: The fifth and sixth centuries. Several barbarian kings showed interest in legal matters and issued their own law codes, developed based on Roman law. Towns and cities had been the main building blocks of the old empire and initially remained as such in the barbarian kingdoms as well. The disappearance of the old Roman imperial framework was a gradual and slow process, spanning centuries and at times accelerated due to political upheaval. The old Roman administrative system of provinces , dioceses , and praetorian prefectures remained partially functional in some places under
14065-509: The former western empire, though his reconquest was incomplete and established the idea that any lands outside of the eastern empire's direct control were no longer part of the Roman Empire, also causing Roman identity to decline dramatically in Western Europe. The coinage of the Visigothic Kingdom continued to depict the eastern emperors until the 580s, when the Visigothic kings began to mint coins in their own name. The rise of
14210-513: The historian Procopius as "Gothic peoples". They both appear to have come to the Danubian area from the direction of what is now Ukraine , as do the Goths, Huns, and Alans . The Rugii, who apparently originated on the south Baltic coast, are known from other sources for their post-Attila kingdom on the Danube. These groups fought on the same side as the Scirii in the battle of Bolia in 468, defeating
14355-429: The idea of "barbarian invasions" bringing a sudden and violent end to the world of antiquity, once also the widely accepted narrative among modern historians, does not accurately describe the period. Out of the many barbarian kingdoms, the only realm more or less entirely created through military conquest was the Vandal Kingdom in Africa. Ascribing the end of the Western Roman Empire to "barbarian invasions" also ignores
14500-481: The idea that it was a decisive step in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Other than the Visigoths remaining a cohesive group, their eventual settlement was not much different from previous groups and they had been effectively pacified and contained by the early 380s. Roman civil wars in the late 4th century, as well as periods of cold war between the imperial courts of the Western and Eastern Roman empires, allowed
14645-504: The imperial government effectively abandoned Britannia and northern Gaul around 410. In Britannia, this led to fragmentation into numerous local kingdoms. In northern Gaul, dominion was taken over by peoples such as the Franks and Burgundians , who had formerly lived beyond the imperial frontier. The second stage in the formation of the barbarian kingdoms was the imperial acceptance of the status quo . The Roman government at no point saw
14790-418: The imperial government of the increasingly unstable Western Roman Empire that it was no longer able to effectively administer its own territories. This led the empire to cede effective control of more lands to the barbarian rulers, whose realms now formed a permanent part of the landscape. These territorial changes did not mean that lands within the former imperial borders ceased to be part of the Roman Empire on
14935-747: The kingdoms established in Western Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . The term has been criticized by some scholars on account of " barbarian " being a pejorative term. Some historians also consider "barbarian kingdoms" to be a misnomer since the kingdoms were supported and to a large degree staffed by former Roman elites. Alternate terms that have been proposed and used by some historians include "post-Roman kingdoms", "Roman-barbarian kingdoms", "Latin-Germanic kingdoms", "Latin-barbarian kingdoms", "western kingdoms", and "early medieval kingdoms". "Barbarian kingdom"
15080-645: The late fourth century were disastrous for the defense of the Western Roman Empire. In 388, the eastern emperor Theodosius I ( r. 379–395) defeated the western usurper-emperor Magnus Maximus ( r. 383–388). In 394, Theodosius's troops again defeated a western rival, Eugenius ( r. 392–394). Both conflicts meant large slaughters of Western Roman regiments. After Magnus Maximus, no significant western emperor ever traveled north of Lyon and there appears to have been very little real imperial activity in Britannia or northern Gaul. In many ways,
15225-427: The local barbarian ruling class and Roman populations merging ethnically. The fading connectivity to the Roman Empire and the political division of the west led to a gradual fragmentation of culture and language, eventually giving rise to the modern Romance peoples and Romance languages . The barbarian kingdoms proved to be extremely fragile states. Out of the three most powerful and long-lasting kingdoms—those of
15370-605: The majority of Odoacer's army, including his chief general Tufa , surrendered to the Ostrogothic king. Theodoric had no reason to doubt Tufa's loyalty and dispatched his new general to Ravenna with a band of elite soldiers. Herwig Wolfram observes, "[b]ut Tufa changed sides, the Gothic elite force entrusted to his command was destroyed, and Theodoric suffered his first serious defeat on Italian soil." Theodoric recoiled by seeking safety in Ticinum . Odoacer emerged from Ravenna and started to besiege his rival. While both were fully engaged,
15515-975: The meaning from one language to another, and so the "Common meaning" given is only approximate. In some cases, the form given is found only in some dialects of the language, or a loanword is much more common (e.g. in Turkish, the preferred word for "fire" is the Persian-derived ateş , whereas the native od is dead). Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted. (to press with one's knees) Azerbaijani "ǝ" and "ä": IPA /æ/ Azerbaijani "q": IPA /g/, word-final "q": IPA /x/ Turkish and Azerbaijani "ı", Karakhanid "ɨ", Turkmen "y", and Sakha "ï": IPA /ɯ/ Turkmen "ň", Karakhanid "ŋ": IPA /ŋ/ Turkish and Azerbaijani "y",Turkmen "ý" and "j" in other languages: IPA /j/ All "ş" and "š" letters: IPA /ʃ/ All "ç" and "č" letters: IPA /t͡ʃ/ Kyrgyz "c": IPA /d͡ʒ/ Kazakh "j": IPA /ʒ/ The Turkic language family
15660-509: The migrations of large numbers of barbarian (i.e. non-Roman ) peoples into the territory of the Roman Empire. Although the Migration Period ( c. 300–600) is often referred to as the "Barbarian Invasions", migrations were spurred not only by invasions but also by invitations. Inviting peoples from beyond the imperial frontier to settle Roman territory was not a new policy, and something that had been done several times by emperors in
15805-459: The military forces that he is most famous for leading throughout his later life. On that basis, he is likely at least partly of Germanic descent. Early medieval sources such as Theophanes called him a Goth . Likewise, the 6th century chronicler Marcellinus Comes called him a "king of the Goths" ( Odoacer rex Gothorum ). One of the most important sources for this topic has been the 6th-century writer Jordanes , who associated him with several of
15950-430: The most tangible example of this renewed prestige, for the first time since the mid-3rd century copper coins were issued with the legend S(enatus) C(onsulto) . Jones describes these coins as "fine big copper pieces", which were "a great improvement on the miserable little nummi hitherto current", and not only were they copied by the Vandals in Africa, but they formed the basis of the currency reform by Anastasius in
16095-967: The nearby Tungusic and Mongolic families, as well as the Korean and Japonic families has in more recent years been instead attributed to prehistoric contact amongst the group, sometimes referred to as the Northeast Asian sprachbund . A more recent (circa first millennium BC) contact between "core Altaic" (Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic) is distinguished from this, due to the existence of definitive common words that appear to have been mostly borrowed from Turkic into Mongolic, and later from Mongolic into Tungusic, as Turkic borrowings into Mongolic significantly outnumber Mongolic borrowings into Turkic, and Turkic and Tungusic do not share any words that do not also exist in Mongolic. Turkic languages also show some Chinese loanwords that point to early contact during
16240-486: The night of 9/10 July 491 ended in failure, during which his commander-in-chief, Livilia, along with the best of his Herulian soldiers, was killed. On 29 August 492, the Goths were about to assemble enough ships at Rimini to set up an effective blockade of Ravenna. Despite these decisive losses, the war dragged on until 25 February 493 when John, bishop of Ravenna, was able to negotiate a treaty between Theodoric and Odoacer to occupy Ravenna together and share joint rule. After
16385-434: The notable exception of Uzbek due to strong Persian-Tajik influence), converbs , extensive agglutination by means of suffixes and postpositions , and lack of grammatical articles , noun classes , and grammatical gender . Subject–object–verb word order is universal within the family. In terms of the level of vowel harmony in the Turkic language family, Tuvan is characterized as almost fully harmonic whereas Uzbek
16530-529: The old kingdoms, the Frankish Kingdom provided the model of early medieval kingship that would later inspire Western European monarchs throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. Though the Frankish rulers remembered Roman ideals and often aspired to vague ideas of imperial restoration, the centuries of their rule had transformed the governance of their kingdom into something that bore very little resemblance to
16675-641: The once vast and diverse network of kingdoms. Alfred the Great unified the Anglo-Saxons in 886, forming what would eventually be known as the Kingdom of England . Ostrogoths who migrated to the Crimean Peninsula , later known as Crimean Goths , maintained a distinct culture until roughly the 18th century , but little is definitively known about them. "The barbarian kingdoms" is the collective term commonly used by modern historians to designate
16820-627: The past, mostly for economic, agricultural or military purposes. Because of the size and power of the Roman Empire, its capacity for immigration was nearly infinite. Several events through the fourth and fifth centuries complicated the situation. In 376, the Visigoths were allowed to cross the Danube river and settle in the Balkans by the government of the Eastern Roman Empire . The Visigoths, numbering perhaps 50,000 (out of which 10,000 were warriors), were refugees, fleeing from
16965-446: The remaining Eastern Roman Empire . Many aspects of the late Roman administration survived under barbarian rule, though the old system gradually dissolved and disappeared, a process accelerated by periods of political turmoil. The barbarian kingdoms of Western Europe were for the most part fragile and ephemeral. By the time of Charlemagne's coronation in 800, only his Frankish Kingdom and a few small Anglo-Saxon realms remained out of
17110-404: The remaining Eastern Roman Empire. Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire , a predecessor of France and Germany, was in reality more similar to a collection of kingdoms united only by Charlemagne's authority than a realm with a meaningful connection to the old Western Roman Empire. Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by
17255-579: The remaining Romans and resettled them in Italy. The remaining Rugians fled and took refuge with the Ostrogoths; the abandoned province was settled by the Lombards by 493. As Odoacer's position improved, Zeno , the Eastern Emperor, increasingly saw him as a rival. Odoacer exchanged messages with Illus , who had been in open revolt against Zeno since 484. Switching allegiances, Zeno subsequently sought to destroy Odoacer and then promised Theodoric
17400-441: The rest of its history. In the sixth century, Eastern Roman historians began to describe the west as "lost" to barbarian invasions, rather than the fact that many barbarian kings had been settled by the Romans themselves. This development has been termed the "Justinianic ideological offensive" by modern historians. Though the rise of the barbarian kingdoms in the place of the western empire was far from an entirely peaceful process,
17545-522: The result of a sprachbund . The possibility of a genetic relation between Turkic and Korean , independently from Altaic, is suggested by some linguists. The linguist Kabak (2004) of the University of Würzburg states that Turkic and Korean share similar phonology as well as morphology . Li Yong-Sŏng (2014) suggest that there are several cognates between Turkic and Old Korean . He states that these supposed cognates can be useful to reconstruct
17690-408: The seventh through ninth centuries that represented a new order, largely disconnected from the old Roman world. The Umayyad Caliphate, which conquered Hispania from the Visigoths and North Africa from the Eastern Roman Empire, made no pretenses of Roman continuity. The Lombard Kingdom, though often counted among the other barbarian kingdoms, ruled an Italy destroyed by conflict between the Ostrogoths and
17835-522: The situation erupted into a full-scale rebellion, later known as the Gothic War (376–382) . In 378, the Visigoths inflicted a crippling defeat on the Eastern Roman field army in the Battle of Adrianople , in which Emperor Valens was also killed. The defeat at Adrianople was a shock for the Romans, and forced them to negotiate with, and settle, the Visigoths within the imperial borders. The treaties at
17980-484: The sixth century. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the barbarian rulers in Western Europe made an effort to strengthen legitimacy by adopting certain elements of the former empire. The title most widely used by the kings was rex , which formed a basis of authority which they could use in diplomacy with other kingdoms and the surviving imperial court in Constantinople. Although some Eastern Roman authors, such as Procopius , described rex as
18125-819: The time of Proto-Turkic . The first established records of the Turkic languages are the eighth century AD Orkhon inscriptions by the Göktürks , recording the Old Turkic language, which were discovered in 1889 in the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia. The Compendium of the Turkic Dialects ( Divânü Lügati't-Türk ), written during the 11th century AD by Kaşgarlı Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid Khanate , constitutes an early linguistic treatment of
18270-411: The time of Honorius had worked to curb the influence and power of the barbarian rulers, the number of civil wars that followed Honorius's death made the status of the barbarians a secondary concern. Instead of suppressing the barbarian kings, emperors and usurpers in the fifth century viewed them as useful internal players. The third stage of the formation of the barbarian kingdoms was the recognition by
18415-430: The title rex , being careful not to insult the emperor. After the Franks defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé in 507, Clovis was recognised by Anastasius as honorary consul, a patrician and a client king. Like Theoderic, some of the subjects of Clovis also referred to him as an emperor, rather than king, though he never adopted that title himself. Theodoric and Clovis came close to war several times and it
18560-440: The upheavals after Attila's death, and "the ruling class of Attila's empire continued to influence tribal politics even after its collapse". In a fragment from a history of Priscus , reproduced in the 7th century by John of Antioch , Odoacer is described as a man of the Sciri, the son of Edeco ("Idiko"), and brother of Hunulf who killed Armatus in the eastern Roman empire. The Anonymus Valesianus agrees that his father's name
18705-473: The various law codes issued by the barbarian kings. There are numerous documents that demonstrate that Romans continued to be active in such offices within the kingdoms. The establishment of the barbarian kingdoms did thus not bring an end to Roman society. Per the Irish historian Peter Brown , they can instead be seen as "on the contrary [having] brought law and order to regions that had suffered for decades from
18850-420: The very late fifth century or even later. The final stage in the formation of the barbarian kingdoms occurred as the barbarian rulers slowly lost the habit of waiting for the Western Roman Empire to again function properly. Left to their own devices, barbarian rulers instead began to take on the roles formerly held by the emperors, transitioning into proper territorial kings. This process was only possible through
18995-530: Was Edeko ("Aediko"), and refers to him leading Sciri and Heruli. Another record of an Edica—apparently the same person—is found in Jordanes , who identified him as a leader of the Sciri along with a person named Hunuulf (presumably his son), after the fall of Attila. They were defeated by the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Bolia in Pannonia about 469. An earlier Edeco ("Edekon") was described by Priscus as
19140-410: Was a military leader in Italy who led the revolt of Herulian , Rugian , and Scirian soldiers that deposed Romulus Augustulus on 4 September AD 476. Eleven-year-old Augustulus had been declared Western Roman Emperor by his father Orestes , the rebellious general of the army in Italy, less than a year before, but had been unable to gain allegiance or recognition beyond central Italy. With the backing of
19285-567: Was also used by the consul Basilius . He had the support of the Roman Senate 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 Trinitarian state church of the Roman Empire . Before becoming king, Odoacer
19430-417: Was associated first with the Huns under Attila, and then with a group called Sciri, an ethnographic name that appears intermittently in fifth-century sources." This line of reasoning is also picked up on by historian Erik Jensen, who avows that Odoacer was born to a Gothic mother and that his father Edeco was a Hun . There are two recorded incidents involving military leaders with the name Odoacer preserved in
19575-475: Was careful with such terms, and sees this as evidence that Edeco cannot be the Scirian father of Odoacer. Except for the fact that he was not considered Roman , Odoacer's precise ethnic origins are not known. His origins probably lie in the multi-ethnic empire of Attila , a generation earlier, which included several groups referred to in this period as "Gothic peoples"—the same polyethnic complex which dominated
19720-490: Was clear: the West no longer required a separate Emperor, for "one monarch sufficed [to rule] the world". In response, Zeno accepted their gifts and this essentially brought to an end any puppet emperors in the West, with Nepos banished and Anthemius dead. The Eastern Emperor then conferred upon Odoacer the title of Patrician and granted him legal authority to govern Italy in the name of Rome, as dux Italiae . Zeno also suggested that Odoacer should receive Nepos back as Emperor in
19865-648: Was killed at Placentia along with his brother Paulus outside Ravenna . The Germanic foederati, the Scirians and the Heruli, as well as a large segment of the Italic Roman army, then proclaimed Odoacer rex ("king") on 23 August 476. Odoacer then advanced to Ravenna and captured the city, compelling the young emperor Romulus to abdicate on 4 September. According to the Anonymus Valesianus , Odoacer
20010-538: Was killed by archers while seeking refuge in a church. Theodoric exiled Odoacer's son Thela to Gaul , but when he attempted to return to Italy Theodoric had him killed. Despite the tragic ending of his domain, followers, and family, Odoacer left an important legacy, in that he had laid the foundations of a great kingdom in Italy for Theodoric to exploit. Barbarian kingdoms The barbarian kingdoms were states founded by various non-Roman, primarily Germanic , peoples in Western Europe and North Africa following
20155-642: Was killed while waiting in Dalmatia, Zeno became sole Emperor. Bury, however, disagrees that Odoacer's assumption of power marked the fall of the Western Roman Empire: It stands out prominently as an important stage in the process of the dismemberment of the Empire. It belongs to the same catalogue of chronological dates which includes A.D. 418, when Honorius settled the Goths in Aquitaine , and A.D. 435, when Valentinian ceded African lands to
20300-619: Was made senior imperial general for life. Within a year, Zeno had him assassinated." In 489, Theodoric led the Ostrogoths across the Julian Alps and into Italy. On 28 August, Odoacer met him at the Isonzo , only to be defeated. He withdrew to Verona , reaching its outskirts on 27 September, where he immediately set up a fortified camp. Theodoric followed him and three days later defeated him again. While Odoacer took refuge in Ravenna , Theodoric continued across Italy to Mediolanum , where
20445-598: Was most likely written by the contemporary historian Malchus , who was a near contemporary and likely to be well-informed. Much later, a memorial plate from 1521 found in the catacombe Chapel of St Maximus in Petersfriedhof —the burial site of St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg (Austria)—mentions Odoacer as King of "Rhutenes" or "Rhutenians" ( Latin : Rex Rhvtenorvm ), who invaded Noricum in 477. Due to its very late date of 1521 and several anachronistic elements,
20590-476: Was moved by Romulus's youth and his beauty to not only spare his life but give him a pension of 6,000 solidi and sent him to Campania to live with his relatives. Following Romulus Augustus's deposition, according to the historian Malchus, upon hearing of the accession of Zeno to the throne, the Senate in Rome sent an embassy to the Eastern Emperor and bestowed upon him the Western imperial insignia. The message
20735-464: Was not a contemporary term and was not used by the populace of the kingdoms to designate their own states. Early medieval writers in the kingdoms sometimes used "barbarian" in reference to denizens of other kingdoms, though never in reference to their own. The rise of the barbarian kingdoms in the territory previously governed by the Western Roman Empire was a gradual, complex, and largely unintentional process. Their origin can ultimately be traced to
20880-429: Was so tall that he had to bend down to pass through the doorway, which historian Bruce Macbain considers another strong argument that he was unlikely to have been a Hun, as ancient sources describe the Huns as shorter than Romans. Historians such as Penny MacGeorge and Macbain avow that Odoacer was likely half-Scirian and half-Thuringian. Macbain's sees this as evidence of Odoacer's Germanic heritage arguing that "whatever
21025-403: Was truncated and that the opportunities of personal advancement and careers that had existed in the old empire were no longer possible. This breakdown in Roman order had the side effect of leading to a marked decline in living standards, as well as a collapse in economic and social complexity. This development was not universal and many places, such as Gaul, came to experience economic upswings in
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