The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK II 99
After the slaughter of Anthemius, who was in his ¢fth year as emperor of
Rome, Olybrius was proclaimed emperor by Ricimer, and after him
Glycerius was appointed emperor. Nepos expelled him after his ¢fth
year and controlled the Roman realm, while he appointed Glycerius as
bishop in Salona, a city in Dalmatia; 150 he was expelled by Orestes, and
after him that man’s son Romulus surnamed Augustulus, who was the
last to be emperor of Rome, 1303 [67] years after the kingship of
Romulus. After him Odoacer took Roman a¡airs in hand, rejecting for
himself the imperial appellation but calling himself king. 151
17 At this time Leo the emperor in Byzantium put aside imperial power,
after steering this for seventeen years and having appointed as emperor
Patricius (PLRE II. 842^3, s.v. Patricius 15) was appointed Caesar in 470, and married to
Leo’s daughter, Leontia, in 471; Candidus records that he was wounded but survived his
injuries.
150 Anthemius was killed on 11 July 472, after a con£ict with his son-in-law Ricimer.
Olybrius, husband of Valentinian III’s younger daughter, Placidia, had been sent from Constantinople
in 472 to make peace between Ricimer and Anthemius, but instead was proclaimed
emperor himself in April; he died on 2 November 472.
Glycerius (PLRE II. 514) in fact reigned for 15 months (March 473 to June 474): in Theophanes
he is credited with ¢ve months (119:14^15; but eight in John of Antioch fr. 209), so
that Evagrius may have mistaken months for years in his source; alternatively, the text may
be corrupt. The MSS describe Glycerius as bishop of Romans at Salona, but, like Festugie' re
(273 n. 95), I have accepted the suggestion of Valesius (cited with favour in Bidez^Parmentier’s
apparatus) that ‘Romans’ should be advanced to qualify ‘realm’. Cf. ii.7, p. 55:4^8, for
confusion about the western succession.
Nepos (PLRE II. 777^8,s.v. Nepos 3) was sent by Leo in 474 to depose Glycerius, and was
proclaimed emperor in June; he retired to Dalmatia in August 475.
151 Orestes (PLRE II. 811^12, s.v. Orestes 2) was commander of the Italian army, but
rebelled against Nepos and proclaimed his son Romulus as emperor (PLRE II. 949^50,
s.v. Romulus 4); Augustulus, ‘little Augustus’, referred to Romulus’ youth. Orestes was
killed on 28 August 476 by the Scirian Odoacer (PLRE II. 791^3), who commanded the
tribal contingents in the western army; he had already been proclaimed rex (‘king’) by his
troops on 23 August.
The calculation gives the date of 828 BC for the kingship of Romulus, i.e. considerably
too early for the traditional date of Rome’s foundation in 753 BC. For discussion of
Byzantine views on the fall of the western empire, see Croke ‘A.D. 476’, especially at
117^18, who accepts the attribution of Evagrius’ date to Eustathius. Evagrius credits
Eustathius with a di¡erent computation, associated with the proclamation of Anastasius
in 491 (iii.29 with n. 92 below); this records the years from Romulus as 1052, much lower
than the ¢gure here which has probably been miscopied by Evagrius or corrupted in
transmission.