Romulus Augustus, the Last Legion and Excalibur

"The Last Legion", a movie by Dino de Laurentiis, is set in the 5th century. It revolves around Romulus Augustus and a very special sword. The taglines are: "Before King Arthur there was Excalibur". "The end of an empire, the beginning of a legend".

In the movie, The Last Legion, Romulus Augustus, who ruled the Western Roman Empire for a short time while he was very young, is imprisoned on Capri with his teacher and one of his soldiers after losing his empire. There he acquires the "Legendary Sword of Caesar" (Excalibur). They escape and travel to Britain to find the last loyal legion called the "Dragon Legion" or the 9th Legion. They fight and, with the help of the Last Legion, he eventually becomes the leader of the Britains. The movie makers have used this time of mystery, magic and the fall of the Roman Empire and turned it into something to entertain us.

The historians can tell us more.

By 475 A.D. the Roman Empire had shrunk to include only Italy and a small portion of Gaul. It was split into the Eastern and Western parts and each was ruled by an Emperor.

In early 475, the Gaul, Ecdicius, was ruler of the Western Empire. Leo, the Eastern Emperor, appointed Julius Nepos to take over the rule of the Western Empire. This did not sit well.

Orestes, a Patrician and leader of the Western armies, decided he should rule. He had once been dispatched to serve as secretary to Attila the Hun which served as his claim to fame. He and the armies of the West marched on Ravenna where Nepos was ruling from. After chasing Nepos out of Italy, he waited several months to see if the Eastern Emperor would march against him.

After the death of Leo, Zeno took over as Emperor of the Eastern Empire. It is supposedly during this time that the change of Western Emperors occurred. Neither Leo nor Zeno decided to take action, although Nepos was still considered an Emperor in exile.

Orestes decided to name his son as Emperor but still hold the reins of power in his own hands. His son was between 12 and 14 years of age. His name was Romulus Augustulus. Romulus was crowned on October 31, 475 A.D.

The young ruler was called Romulus by his family. His last name of Augustulus, meaning "little Augustus", was changed to Augustus when he became Emperor.

Orestes started having trouble with the armies so he decided to have coins called "solidi" minted with the name of his son on them. The coins were minted in gold, silver and possibly bronze although none have been found. The coin makers had problems getting the full name of the young emperor on the coins. The coins were used to pay the armies.

In 476, Orestes again had trouble with the armies. They were demanding land grants as well as payment. Orestes refused. The army leaders went to the Barbarian chieftain, Odocavar, who promised to give the land grants if he was named king. The leaders of the armies agreed and they named him king on August 23, 476 A.D.. Together they marched against Orestes and the young Emperor Romulus.

On August 28, 476, Odocavar captured and killed Orestes near Piacenza. Odocavar then marched to Ravenna and sometime between August 31st and September 4th he killed Orestes brother Paulus. Romulus Augustus had been Emperor for only 10 months.

Here the story starts getting hazy.

Because Romulus was both young and handsome, Odocavar pitied him, granted him an income of 6,000 solidi and allowed him to live out his life with his relatives on Campania. According to another historian, Count Marcellinus, after his capture Romulus was required to write a letter to Zeno. Romulus stated that he believed there should only be one Emperor and that the Roman Empire should be ruled from Constantinople. This was for the good of the entire empire. He was also required to send to Zeno all of the Imperial regalia. Romulus was then sent to Campania, to the castle of the Roman Republican, Lucullus, for imprisonment. After this Romulus, considered to be the last Western Roman Emperor disappears from history. Although, there might be one more reference to him sometime between 507 and 511 A.D. The Ostrogothic King Theodoric might have written to him concerning a bequest to him and his mother.

Sources:

Merlin by Robert de Boron
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory
History of the Kings of Britain byGeoffrey of Monmouth
Excalibur by Sallie Bridges
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Brittanica

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