1. The Western Roman Empire Section 5
Collapsed in 476 A.D.
A Germanic group leader named Odoacer (Odovacar) revolted that year. He overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustus and ended the Western Roman Empire for good.
Not The Fictional Character From Romulus And Remus!

2. Emperor Romulus Augustus
Also called Romulus Augustulus.
Roman emperor of the West Empire ( ).
He was a usurper and was not recognized by Zeno, the Eastern Roman emperor. Zeno was emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ( ), born in Isauria, Asia Minor (now Turkey).
Romulus's father was the Roman general Orestes, who lived from 442 to 476.

3. Because of his youth, Romulus was called Augustulus rather than Augustus. Orestes, Augustulus’s father, ruled in his son's name for about a year, until the Germanic troops that had assisted him revolted under their leader Odoacer. Orestes was killed, but his son was spared and exiled to a villa near Naples. Odoacer was proclaimed king of Italy by his troops, and his accession marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.

4. Odoacer
Gothic chieftain who received his military training in the Roman army and became the first Germanic ruler of Italy. When Romulus Augustulus became emperor of the western Roman Empire in AD 475, Odoacer led an uprising of the German troops in the Roman army and deposed the new emperor. This event is usually said to have marked the end of the Roman Empire in the west. Odoacer, as king of Italy, made Ravenna his capital and conquered the historical region of Dalmatia in AD 482. Eleven years later, when besieged at Ravenna by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, Odoacer surrendered on the condition that he be allowed to retain half of his kingdom. However, he was slain by Theodoric, who then became sole ruler of Italy.

5. Eastern Roman Empire Section 6
The Eastern Roman Empire, or
the Byzantine Empire, lived on
for nearly another thousand
years.

6. Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) was built in Constantinople (now Ýstanbul, right picture) between 532 and 537 under the auspices of Emperor Justinian I. Hagia Sophia is renowned for its interior dome.

7. Upon the emergence of the Ottoman Turks, however, the Byzantine Empire began counting its final hours. Its last ruler, Constantine XI, did his best to fend off the Ottoman Turks' advances, but he failed. On May 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople (the capital), killed Constantine XI, and closed the last chapter of the Byzantine Empire.
Constantine XI Palaeologus ( ), last of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, emperors (reigned ). Constantine was despot of Morea (Pelopónnisos) before succeeding his brother John VIII to the throne. He inherited an "empire" that the Ottoman Turks had reduced to the city of Constantinople (present-day Ýstanbul) and the area immediately around it. In April 1453 a great Turkish army under Sultan Muhammad II laid siege to the city, which was defended only by a few hundred Greeks and Genoese. Constantine was killed in the fighting during the final Turkish assault (May 29-30, 1453) that ended the Byzantine Empire.

8. The Byzantine Empire evolved from the Roman Empire’s eastern territories after the Roman Empire’s western regions fell in the 5th century. Initial harmony between church and state fortified the early empire (4th-6th centuries). The empire eventually declined and ended when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453.