Odoacer

Odoacer rose through the Roman army as an officer from the Middle Danube, leading Herulian, Rugian, and Scirian troops in revolt against the boy-emperor Romulus Augustulus on 4 September 476 - the boy elevated less than a year earlier by his father Orestes, never commanding beyond central Italy. With Senate backing he ruled autonomously while styling himself client of Eastern emperor Zeno, taking the title rex and distributing land with little resistance, though soldier unrest brought violence in 477-478. After the murder of rival claimant Julius Nepos in 480, he invaded Dalmatia, executed the conspirators, and annexed the region within two years. When he crushed the Rugii north of the Danube in 487-488, Zeno sent Theodoric the Great and his Ostrogoths, who seized most of Italy by 490 and trapped Odoacer in Ravenna. The city surrendered 5 March 493; Theodoric invited him to a reconciliation banquet and murdered him there.