“Although I know their names well, I won’t mention them at all…they
only lived a short while…and as a result accomplished nothing worth
mentioning.” So wrote the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea of
the last emperors of Rome. His opinion has been shared by many people
ever since, and as a result, the last decade of the Western Empire has
been largely ignored outside of academic circles. It is therefore a
breath of fresh air to come across a title like ‘The Last Roman’. For
in this book, Adrian Murdoch has attempted to write the first popular
history of Romulus Augustulus – a difficult job considering, as Murdoch
tells us:
“It is not known when he was born ; it is not known when he died; it
is not known where he was buried. No speeches, pronouncements or
epigrams have survived.
There is no hint of his likes or dislikes; there is not hint of
sexuality, conventional or otherwise, to add a frision of historical
excitement; there is not even any particularly gory violence.”
Some might ask how on earth can this be a biography if we know so
little of the man? While others might be put off in the belief that a
biography of this type would be dull and lacking in substance. The
truth is different. For this is not strictly a biography of one
character rather than a kaleidoscope view of the lives of the last
western emperors and their generalissimos.
Murdoch starts his work by giving us a short overview of events from
the Battle of Adrianople in AD 378 to the arrival of Attila the Hun’s
horde on Gallic soil in AD 450. Many characters and events are briefly
covered in this section, including Honorius, his general Stilicho and
the Gothic leader Alaric. Murdoch believes it’s important to show the
failures of the Roman state and the break-up of the empire before he
moves on to the crux of his work. Following in the vein of Heather and
Ward-Perkins, he dismisses Peter Brown’s ideas on late antiquity and
shows the ruin brought on the empire by barbarian tribes. He uses
Britain as an example of this, combining the works of Gildas with the
latest archaeological excavations to show the extent of the damage
caused by rampaging Saxon pirates.
We then move forward to the court of Attila the Hun to meet two
people, Attila’s Roman secretary – Orestes and his trusted Scirian
lieutenant - Edeco. These two men will play an important part in the
tale. We follow their dealings with a Roman embassy through the eyes of
Priscus, a Greek diplomat from Constantinople. Priscus writings are
among the most interesting of the late Roman period, as they give us an
intimate portrayal of the workings of the Hun court, and how the
emperor Theodosius II planned on assassinating Attila.
The plan was thwarted after Edeco – the would be assassin – revealed
the Roman treachery to the Hun king. Attila then sent Orestes to the
eastern emperor with a threatening message. An event that would give
the secretary an understanding of power and authority - knowledge that
would come useful in his later life.
Orestes and Edeco followed Attila as he rampaged through the western
empire and after his death, Edeco became the leader of his people, the
Scirians, while Orestes disappeared for many years. When he does
reappear he has a son: Romulus Augustulus. Although we can never truly
be sure what Orestes was up to in these years, Murdoch presents us with
some compelling ideas about his whereabouts.
Murdoch turns his attention away from Orestes to the events
unfolding in Italy. Ricimer and his successor Gundobad were two
powerful figures who overshadowed the rulers of Ravenna; these emperors
were in effect puppets to their generals. The author does a good job of
explaining the Byzantine politics as the generalissimos try to balance
the power between themselves, the puppet emperors and the eastern Roman
emperor’s attempt to get Anthemius, his own puppet ruler, on to the
Roman throne.
It is through these machinations that Orestes is finally able to
place his son in power, thanks largely to his connections to Julius
Nepos. Romulus Augustulus, Murdoch tells us, managed to do good works
the short while he was emperor. Yet his reign was not to last.
Odovacer, head of the palace bodyguard attempted to petition the
emperor to give the German foederati farm land in Italy. When the
emperor sent an embassy to Pavia to deal with foederati, they reacted
violently, plundering the town and setting off a civil war. Within a
week Odovacer had subdued Italy and declared himself king. Orestes was
executed and Romulus was deposed. Odovacar spared his life as he took
pity on the boy. It is one of the ironies of history that Odovacer was
the son of Edeco, Orestes old companion.
What became of Romulus? This is where the author attempts some
detective work. He comes across some mention of a ‘Romulus’ in a text
from North Africa - correspondence between a bishop and his friend.
This text was sent to Lucullanum, the place where Romulus was exiled.
Could it be him? The author is not convinced, and any other text that
mentions men called Romulus from this period almost certainly do not
refer to the emperor. Despite these disappointments the author likes to
believe that Romulus outlived his enemies, perhaps dying during the
reign of Theoderic the Amal – a man whose intriguing reign is given
much attention in the last few chapters of the book, along with the
contempory events of his reign; namely his restoration of Roman civitas
and the later decline in relations between Italians and Goths.
The book’s closing chapter ‘Imitation of Life’ looks at this period
in popular culture. As such we are given overviews of German poems,
Wagnerian operas, television shows and ‘The Last Legion’, both the
Valerio Massimo Manfredi novel and the upcoming film. This chapter is
an interesting addition on the themes followed in the book, and it
might encourage some readers to seek out the material that’s discussed.
The Last Roman is easily the most readable book on the last years of
the Western empire, and it stands as a great introduction to this
obscure period. Murdoch’s prose is lucid and, his descriptions are
vivid. It is one of the most well written works I’ve read on the Roman
Empire in recent times; the author manages to successfully turn what
could otherwise be an impenetrable academic work into something that
could be easily understood by the layman. The book is well researched,
and the addition of excerpts from rare late Roman sources, such as
Ennodius’ description of the sack of Pavia in 476, are great additions
that will interest those whose main primary sources for the later Roman
empire consist of the works of Ammianus Marcellinus.
I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about this period of
Roman history, or would like to learn more about the declining years of
the Western Roman Empire.
