f
awe of the title of Caesar Augustus, the Emperor, for he forbore to use
it himself, and gave it to one poor weak wretch after another until his
death in 472. His nephew went on in the same course; but at last a
soldier named Orestes, of Roman birth, gained the chief power, and set
up as Emperor his own little son, whose Christian name was Romulus
Augustus, making him wear the purple and the crown, and calling him by
all the titles; but the Romans made his name into Augustulus, or Little
Augustus. At the end of a year, a Teutonic chief named Odoacer crossed
the Alps at the head of a great mixture of different German tribes, and
Orestes could make no stand against him, but was taken and put to death.
His little boy was spared, and was placed at Sorrento; but Odoacer sent
the crown and robes of the West to Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, saying
that one Emperor was enough. So fell the Roman power in 476, exactly
twelve centuries after the date of the founding of Rome. It was thought
that this was meant by the twelve vultures seen by Romulus, and that the
seven which Remus saw denoted the seven centuries that the Republic
stood. It was curious, too, that it should be with the two names of
Romulus and Augustus that Rome and her empire fell.

Odoacer called himself king, and, indeed, the Western Empire had been
nearly all seized by different kings--the Vandal kings in Africa, the
Gothic kings in Spain and Southern Gaul, the Burgundian kings and Frank
kings in Northern Gaul, the Saxon kings in Britain. The Ostro or Eastern
Goths, who had since the time of Valens dwelt on the banks of the
Danube, had been subdued by Attila, but recovered their freedom after
his death. One of their young chiefs, named Theodoric, was sent as a
hostage to Constantinople, and there learned much. He became king of the
Eastern Goths in 470, and showed himself such a dangerous neighbor to
the Eastern Empire that, to be rid of him the Emperor Zeno advised him
to go and attack Odoacer in Italy. The Ostrogoths marched seven hundred
miles, and came over the Alps into the plains of Northern Italy, where
Odoacer fought with them bravely, but was beaten. They besieged him even
in Ravenna, till after three years he was obliged to surrender and was
put to death.

[Illustration: ROMULUS AUGUSTUS RESIGNS THE CROWN.]

Rome could make no defence, and fell into Theodoric's hands with the
rest of Italy; but he was by far the best of the conquerors--he did not
hurt o