Western Roman Empire: A Visual History

The Western Roman Empire is the term for the western half of the Roman world after Theodosius I's death divided the empire between his sons in 395. Ruled from Milan and then Ravenna, it faced the Visigothic sack of Rome (410), the loss of Britain, Spain, Africa and most of Gaul to Vandals, Goths, Franks and Burgundians, Attila's invasions, and a succession of puppet emperors made and unmade by Germanic generals. In 476 Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople; the last recognised western emperor, Julius Nepos, died in 480.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Western Roman Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Territory under western imperial control

Timeline of the Western Roman Empire

1. 395
   Theodosius dies; empire divided
2. 406
   Rhine crossingVandals, Alans and Sueves invade Gaul.
3. 410
   Alaric sacks Rome
4. 439
   Vandals take Carthage
5. 451
   Catalaunian PlainsAttila checked.
6. 455
   Vandal sack of Rome
7. 468
   Expedition against the Vandals destroyed
8. 476
   Romulus Augustulus deposed

Stilicho and the sack of Rome

The child emperor Honorius was guided by the half-Vandal general Stilicho, who fought off Alaric's Visigoths and Radagaisus's invasion but could not stop the barbarian crossing of the frozen Rhine on 31 December 406, which brought Vandals, Alans and Sueves into Gaul and Spain. Britain was abandoned around 410. Honorius had Stilicho executed in 408; Alaric, unpaid and unaccommodated, sacked Rome for three days in August 410.

Aetius and Attila

Galla Placidia ruled for her son Valentinian III while the general Aetius used Hunnic allies to contain the Visigoths in Aquitaine and the Burgundians. The Vandals under Gaiseric crossed to Africa in 429 and took Carthage in 439, cutting off Rome's grain and tax base. Aetius, with Visigothic help, halted Attila at the Catalaunian Plains in 451; Valentinian murdered him in 454 and was himself killed in 455, after which Gaiseric sacked Rome again.

Puppets and the end

The barbarian generalissimo Ricimer made and destroyed emperors for 16 years. Majorian's attempt to retake Africa failed in 460, and the great joint expedition of 468 was destroyed by Vandal fire ships. By 475 the empire was reduced to Italy. Orestes made his son Romulus emperor; the Germanic soldiers demanded land, Odoacer led them, killed Orestes and deposed Romulus on 4 September 476, ruling Italy as king under nominal eastern authority.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Roman Empire (27 BC to 476)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Hunnic Empire (370 to 469)
• Huns (370 to 469)
• Visigothic Kingdom (418 to 720)
• Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)

Wars of the same era and region

• Roman-Germanic wars (113 BC to 476)

8 surprising things about the Western Roman Empire

1. The last western emperor's name combined Rome's founder (Romulus) and first emperor (Augustus), and he was a teenager nicknamed 'little Augustus'.
2. Odoacer did not kill Romulus but pensioned him off to a villa near Naples.
3. Ravenna became capital because its marshes made it hard to attack; it is now full of Roman-era mosaics.
4. The Vandal sack of 455 gave English the word 'vandalism', though the Vandals were relatively orderly looters.
5. St Jerome, hearing of Rome's fall in 410, wrote that 'the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken'.
6. Some historians reject 476 as an end date; the eastern emperor still claimed the West, and Julius Nepos in Dalmatia lived until 480.
7. The Western Empire's last great general Aetius was murdered by the emperor's own hand, prompting the remark that he had cut off his right hand with his left.
8. The 468 armada against the Vandals reportedly cost 64,000 pounds of gold and left the eastern treasury empty.

Sources

• Western Roman Empire Wikipedia
• Ancient Rome: The end of the empire in the West Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Fall of the Western Roman Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire (2005) Macmillan

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