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56 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap.xxxvi barian was not unwilling to remove from the sight of the people. 138 Augustuius In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian, is banished • i__j 1 j - 3 -1 .1 /> to the nine emperors had successively disappeared; and the son of viiia 1 a Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign, which was marked by the extinction of the Koman empire in the West, did not leave a memorable sera in the history of mankind. 134 The patrician Orestes had married the daughter of Count Romu- lus, of Petovio, in Noricum ; the name of Augustus, notwith- standing the jealousy of power, was known at Aquileia as a familiar surname ; and the appellations of the two great founders, of the city and of the monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their successors. 135 The son of Orestes assumed and disgraced the names of Eomulus Augustus ; but the first was corrupted into Momyllus by the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the Latins into the contemptible diminutive Augustuius. The life of this inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer; who dismissed him, with his whole family, from the Imperial palace, fixed his [£3600] annual allowance at six thousand pieces of gold, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in Campania, for the place of his exile or retirement. 136 As soon as the Eomans breathed from the 133 Malchus, whose loss exoites our regret, has preserved (in Excerpt. Legat. 93 [fr. 10]) this extraordinary embassy from the senate to Zeno. The anonymous fragment (p. 717) and the extract from Candidus (apud Phot. p. 176 [F. H. G. iv. p. 136]) are likewise of some use. 134 The preoise year in which the Western empire was extinguished is not positively ascertained. The vulgar asra of a.d. 476 appears to have the sanction of authentic chronicles. But the two dates assigned by Jornandes (c. 46, p. 680) would delay that great event to the year 479 ; and, though M. de Buat has over- looked his evidence, he produces (torn. viii. p. 261-288) many collateral circum- stances in support of the same opinion. [There is no doubt about the date, a.d. 476. Odoacer entered Ravenna on Sept. 4 in that year. Fasti Vind. priores sub ann. Chron. Min. i. p. 310.] 135 See his medals in Ducange (Fam. Byzantin. p. 81) [see Eckhel, Doct. Num. 8, p. 203], Prisous (Exoerpt. Legat. p. 56 [F. H. G. 4, p. 84]), Maffei (Osservazioni Letterarie, torn. ii. p. 314). We may allege a famous and similar case. The meanest subjects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of Patricius, whioh, by the conversion of Ireland, has been communicated to a whole nation. [Martroye thinks that Augustuius was a nickname given to Romulus after he had been oreated Augustus, either in derision or on account of his youth (Genseric, p. 253).] 136 Ingrediens autem Ravennam deposuit Augustulum de regno, cujus infantiam misertus concessit ei sanguinem ; et quia pulcher erat, tamen donavit ei reditum sex millia solidos, et misit eum intra Campaniam cum parentibus suis libere vivere. Anonym. Vales, p. 716 [8, § 38]. Jornandes says (0. 46, p. 680), in Lucullano Campaniee oastello exilii poena damnavit.