The last Roman Emperor of the West was a child, called, as if in
derision, Romulus Augustulus, the one name being that of the city’s
mythical founder, the other (“Augustus the little”) a parody of the
style of him who organized the empire. Augustulus became nominal ruler
in A.D. 475, and in 476 was overthrown by the invasion of some German
tribes, of which the chief were the Heruli. Their leader, Odoácer, took
the title of “King of Italy,” and the Western Empire came thus ignobly
to an end.