Odoacer takes Rome and exiles Augustulus
The Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes records under the consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus (OCR 'ARMATL') (AD 476) that Odoacer, whom it calls king of the Goths, obtained Rome, killed Orestes and condemned Augustulus, son of Orestes, to exile in the castle of Lucullanum in Campania, and states that the western empire of the Roman people, which Octavian Augustus had begun to hold in the 709th year from the founding of the city, perished with this Augustulus, the kings of the Goths thereafter holding Rome.
What this does and does not establish
A Latin chronicle written at Constantinople c. 518-534, used through Mommsen's 1894 edition (MGH AA 11) as Internet Archive OCR text (page images not checked); the English is an AI working translation. The designation 'king of the Goths' and the year-reckonings are Marcellinus's own; manuscript S reads 'octauo' (708th) for 'nono', the OCR 'septiugentesimo' is read as septingentesimo, and the span omits the merged margin note '/uii. 47';.' (Mommsen's reference to the Italian annals, Ital. 476). Mommsen's foot note gives '476 = Iordanes R. 342' and '476, 2 = Beda', which depend on Marcellinus (dependence, not confirmation).
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- Europe
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- Indiction/consul heading (OCR line 7734): '1.5 XIIIL BASILISCI ET ARMATL'
- How we use it
- Placed in the consular year under which Marcellinus enters it (as numbered by the editor). The listing uses year precision. Any finer dating belongs to the quoted passage; the chronicle can misplace events.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Consular year to AD 476 per the heading index marcellinus-headings.json (one indiction/consul heading per year in order, indiction expected 14, read 14), matching the AD years Mommsen prints in the margin.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (Latin), ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 11 (Chronica minora II), 1894
Marcellinus Comes (6th-century, Constantinople); critical edition by Theodor Mommsen (1894)
Quoted text (Latin)
2 Odoacar rex Gothorum Romam optinuit. Orestem Odoacer ilico trucidavit.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Odoacer, king of the Goths, obtained Rome. Odoacer at once slaughtered Orestes.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR text. English renderings are AI working translations from the Latin.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Source 2 · Supports the statement
Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (Latin), ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 11 (Chronica minora II), 1894
Marcellinus Comes (6th-century, Constantinople); critical edition by Theodor Mommsen (1894)
Quoted text (Latin)
stulum filium Orestis Odoacer in Lucullano Campaniae castello exilii poena damnavit.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
[Augu]stulus, the son of Orestes, Odoacer condemned to the penalty of exile in the castle of Lucullanum in Campania.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR text. English renderings are AI working translations from the Latin.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Source 3 · Supports the statement
Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (Latin), ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 11 (Chronica minora II), 1894
Marcellinus Comes (6th-century, Constantinople); critical edition by Theodor Mommsen (1894)
Quoted text (Latin)
Hesperium Romanae gentis imperium, quod septiugentesimo nono urbis conditae anno
primus Augustorum Octavianus Augustus tenere coepit, cum hoc Augustulo periit, anno
25 decessorum regni imperatorum quingentesimo vigesimo secundo, Gothorum dehinc regi-
bus Romam tenentibus.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
The western empire of the Roman people, which Octavian Augustus, first of the Augusti, began to hold in the seven hundred and ninth year from the founding of the city, perished with this Augustulus, in the five hundred and twenty-second year of the reign of the emperors his predecessors, the kings of the Goths thereafter holding Rome.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR text. English renderings are AI working translations from the Latin.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-05. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
No correction has been made to this record’s statement or limits.
Revision s1h_476_marc_1
Exact revision fingerprint
1cf149ab634845f65a17fe3dab94dc1a7d0870d42e8564b38ac3001b77a3264b