The gates of Ravenna were open, Romulus
Augustulus, the last emperor in the West, was forced to abdicate and
was sent by Odoacer to the famous villa that Lucullus had built for
himself long and long ago in Campania, and was granted a pension of
six thousand _soldi_, and Odoacer reigned as the first king of Italy;
the western empire, as such, was at an end.
And the senate addressed, by unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno in
Constantinople an epistle, in which they disclaimed "the necessity, or
even the wish, of continuing any longer the imperial succession in
Italy, since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is
sufficient to pervade and protect at the same time both East and West.
In their own name and in the name of the people they consent to the
seat of universal empire being transferred from Rome to
Constantinople, and they renounce the right of choosing their master.
They further state that the republic (they repeat that name without a
blush) might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of
Odoacer; and they humbly request that the emperor would invest him
with the title of patrician and the administration of the _diocese_ of
Italy.
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