Odoacer

**Odoacer**, or **Flavius Odoacer**, is an Heruli Barbarian who finally ended the Western Roman Empire after taking over Rome and Italian Peninsula as "Barbarian King of Italy".

## In "Unbiased History"

### "The Fall of Rome"

Odoacer was among Attila the Hun's greatest and most powerful followers and was present when Orestes reported to their master about the manipulation of Roman history.

Many years after the Defeat of Attila, Odoacer was in the service of Ricimer and helped him with the massacre of the last of the Romans (He was reponsable for killing Pope Leo with his Goths, possibly because Leo was the one who made the Hunnic leader stop the destruction of civilization). The Heruli leader continued serving Recimer until the latter died.

When Orestes usurped power and imposed Romulus Augustulus as a puppet to be able to rule from the shadows, the barbarians who helped him demanded land as reward of their services - but Orestis refused and quietly claimed that only Attila or one of his closest servants could challenge him (and ironically signed his own death warrant).

With that said, the Foederati deserted and put themselves at the service of the closest barbarian officer: Odoacer, who brutally defeated his former ally and cut off his head, being proclaimed "the Barbarian King of Italy" by his warriors.

Together with his army he crossed the swamps of Ravenna and upon entering the city he did not find the all powerful emperor of the civilized world, not the 2 consuls of the republic protecting it, not even a king who led his kingdom to prosperity: What he saw was a frightened and trembling child who could not defend himself, least of all the people he was supposed to rule.

Later Odoacer sent the western imperial regalia to the east and a letter to Zeno saying that the proclamation of a Roman emperor in the west region was no longer necessary since Romulus Augutulus was deposted, and took Italy and the Balkans as his kingdom.

### **"Byzantium I - The Eastern Empire"**

Several years after overthrowing the western empire, Odoacer was still the king of Italy. This would however change due to Zeno, the emperor of the eastern empire having bribed Theodoric to be the problem of the barbarians in western Europe (and consequently the problem of Odoacer) instead.

Lacking the power that Attila had granted him so long ago, he tried to make peace with Theodoric to create a barbarian alliance ... Theodoric then killed him and all his followers, transforming the domain of the dead into the Ostrogothic Kingdom.

### "Byzantium II - Justinian The Great"

Odoacer's skull is held in the hands of General Belisarius after taking the Italian peninsula and the city of Rome a few years after his death.

## "Trivia"

* In reality, Odoacer handed the title of Roman Emperor to Zeno while he ruled it as autonomous leader, with this tensions began as he claimed himself as "Rex Romanorum" in defiance to Eastern Emperor, who responded by sending the Ostrogoths to take over italy
* Odoacer had popularity with Romans despite his Germanic heritage as he empowered the Senate and reinstated grain-dole system with Orestes being executed as a usurper and his annexation of Dalmatia being a response to avenge Julius Nepos' murder.
* His design is based on The Lich from Adventure Time.
* He had a family who were later assassinated by Theodoric the Great shortly after he took over Italy, which is not shown in Unbiased History for some reason.
* When the barbarians hail him as the king of Italy, instead of saying "AVE" as happens with the Roman emperors throughout the series, they say "Heil".