article: "In 470, Odoacer was appointed leader of a band of foederati  [essentially allies of Rome, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foederati  for more information about this], In 475, Orestes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Orestes) was appointed Magister militum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magister_militum) and patrician (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrician) by the Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Nepos); he was therefore made head of the Germanic