Julius Nepos

A Dalmatian governor who inherited his uncle's army, Nepos sailed to Italy in 474 with eastern backing, deposed a rival emperor, and was crowned in Rome - the last to be crowned there for three centuries. He tried to contain the Visigoths in Gaul and shore up imperial authority, but within a year his own general Orestes turned on him and chased him back across the Adriatic. From Dalmatia he kept claiming the throne, recognized by Constantinople even after Orestes's son fell and a barbarian king took Italy. Odoacer minted coins in his name but ignored his appeals. On 9 May 480, two of his own generals murdered him, possibly in Diocletian's old palace, ending the pretense that the Western Roman Empire still had an emperor.