The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne.  After suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in 475, to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the command of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna.  The troops would have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they consented to acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.

The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries.  The soldiers demanded a third part of the land of Italy.  Orestes rejected the audacious demand, and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to associate under his command they might extort the justice that had been denied to their dutiful petition.  Orestes was executed, and Odoacer, resolving to abolish the useless and expensive office of the emperor of the West, compelled the unfortunate Augustulus to resign.

So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the promontory of Misenum.

* * * * *

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire—­III

I.—­The Growth of the Christian Church

The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects.  The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; by the magistrate as equally useful.  Under this spirit of toleration the Christian church grew with great rapidity.  Five main causes effectually favoured and assisted this development.

1.  The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.

2.  The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important theory.

3.  The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.

4.  The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.

5.  The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire.