alternatehistory.com

I've been on this site for months now, learning things left and right. I thought the logical step would be to write my own TL in order to expand my knowledge of an era rarely touched on, let alone focused upon, the state of Rome following 476. My aim is to go as far as I can with the TL and learn while I'm at it. Please feel free to give advice, feedback or criticisms.



Impugnatio Romae


“Go to Italy, go, it is now covered with mean hide, there you will make rich the land for the many”
-The Prophetic words of Severinus of Noricum

AD 476


Weary of war, as all men tend to be at one time or another, Odovacer welcomed the surrender of the little Augustus before him. After campaigning in Italy, peace was welcome and in the good mood derived from this peace the boy was sent off to Campania. With the Roman West in his hands and loyal men at his back the decision of Odovacer came as a surprise, rather than claiming the Imperial Regalia Odovacer went to Rome in humble attire and called for a convention of the Senate. There in the Curia Iulia, the course of action was charted. The Imperial insignia was to be sent to Iulius Nepos in Dalmatia to the chagrin of the senators who would have the insignia sent to the much more powerful person of Emperor Zeno in the Roman East.The stance of Odovacer was pushed by way of the armed soldiers outside the Senate hall and was wisely accepted without too much protest. From there Odovacer accepted the title of Magister Militum in the case of the title's previous holder, Orestes being dead at the hands of Odovacer himself no less. With that single session Odovacer had managed to curtail the influence of the East in his Rome while appeasing his nominal sovereign in sad, little Dalmatia.
From there the drafting of the letters to be sent were taken over personally by Odovacer himself. Odovacer was learned man, able to write and read. Perhaps this was the fondness the man held for scripture was the product of his meetings with St. Severinus, Apostle to Noricum, or possibly just the child of an inner bookishness vulnerable to warring times. The letter read as such:


It is a sadness I feel for you, my Augustus, that traitors and usurpers have rested your lands and dignities from you. To make right the wrongs committed, to you, I send the ornaments of your most prestigious and honored office of the Emperor of the Romans, and sovereign of the Roman West.​


With these sweet words came the symbols of power taken by the usurping boy emperor, and the excuse for the East to let alone her decrepit sister.
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