Changes

== The actual "Fall" ==

== The actual "Fall" ==

Occurred on September 4th, 476 A.D. when [[Odoacer]], a barbarian part hun general led a mutiny by most of the barbarian mercenaries in Orestes' army (the master general in Italy, and father of the Emperor who he had placed on the throne the previous year after a coup).  Orestes was defeated at the [[Battle of Pavia]] on August 23rd and captured and killed after a brief siege.  Odoacer deposed [[Romulus Augustulus]] and seized control of Italy.  He did not take the title of Emperor, thus ending 500 years of Roman rule.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy and Dupuy, p. 171</ref>

The actual "fall" of the Roman Empire is said to have occurred on September 4th, 476 A.D. when [[Odoacer]], a barbarian part hun general led a mutiny by most of the barbarian mercenaries in Orestes' army (the master general in Italy, and father of the Emperor who he had placed on the throne the previous year after a coup).  Orestes was defeated at the [[Battle of Pavia]] on August 23rd and captured and killed after a brief siege.  Odoacer deposed [[Romulus Augustulus]] and seized control of Italy.  He did not take the title of Emperor, thus ending 500 years of Roman rule.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy and Dupuy, p. 171</ref>

 

== After "the Fall" ==

== After "the Fall" ==

Accounts of the Roman world's immediate descent into poverty have been greatly exaggerated.  Rather, rulers such as [[Theoderic the Ostrogoth]] and his followers (the [[Amal]] clan) ruled from [[Ravenna]] in the Roman style, maintaining much of Roman life and infrastructure.<ref>Peter Wolfram, ''The Goths''</ref>  Theoderic even employed Romans to ensure this continuity and sense of Roman stability.  Indeed, in the eyes of the people of Italy, the formal pronouncement of the end of the Roman empire wasn't apparent; that is only a label that was put on in retrospect due to the One example was [[Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator]] (or just Cassiodorus), who, writing as Theoderic, famously urged all Romans to "clothe themselves with the morals of the [[toga]]" - i.e., retain your Roman ways, in spite of the "barbarian" rule.

Accounts of the Roman world's immediate descent into poverty have been greatly exaggerated.  Rather, rulers such as [[Theoderic the Ostrogoth]] and his followers (the [[Amal]] clan) ruled from [[Ravenna]] in the Roman style, maintaining much of Roman life and infrastructure.<ref>Peter Wolfram, ''The Goths''</ref>  Theoderic even employed Romans to ensure this continuity and sense of Roman stability.  Indeed, in the eyes of the people of Italy, the formal pronouncement of the end of the Roman empire wasn't apparent; that is only a label that was put on in retrospect due to the One example was [[Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator]] (or just Cassiodorus), who, writing as Theoderic, famously urged all Romans to "clothe themselves with the morals of the [[toga]]" - i.e., retain your Roman ways, in spite of the "barbarian" rule.