452.  Attila, after withdrawing from Gaul, ravages Italy; he besieges and destroys Aquileia; its inhabitants flee to the marshes; Rome is saved by its Bishop, Leo the Great.  Venice is founded.  See “FOUNDATION OF VENICE,” iv, 95.

453.  Death of Attila; dissolution of his empire.  Death of the empress Pulcheria.

454.  Hengist founds the kingdom of Kent.

455.  Maximus murders Valentinian III and usurps the throne of the Western Empire; at the end of three months Maximus is killed by the people.

The Vandals pillage Rome.  Avitus is proclaimed emperor of the West.

456.  Ricimer, commander of the Barbarian mercenaries in the West, destroys a Vandal fleet near Corsica; he declares against Avitus, who abdicates.

457.  Majorian placed on the throne of the West by Ricimer and the senate.

Leo I ascends the throne in the East.

460.  Genseric destroys Majorian’s fleet at Carthagena.  Peace is made between them.

461.  Majorian is assassinated by Ricimer, who places his puppet Severus on the throne, exercising the Imperial power himself.

465.  Death of Severus; Ricimer still wields the supreme power in Rome.

467.  Anthemius made emperor of the West.

The Vandals ravage the coasts of Italy and Sicily.

468.  Leo I, Emperor of the East, aided by the Western Empire, makes an earnest but ineffectual effort against the Vandals under Genseric.

472.  Ricimer besieges and storms Rome; death of Ricimer and of Anthemius; Olybrius and Glycerius are emperors successively.

473.  Invasion of Italy by the Ostrogoths diverted to Gaul.  Glycerius emperor of the West.

474.  Julius Nepos becomes emperor of the West.  Zeno rules the Eastern Empire.

475.  Romulus Augustulus emperor of the West.  Zeno and his wife flee to Isauria.

476.  Odoacer, a leader of German mercenaries, dethrones Augustulus and puts an end to the Western Empire for three centuries.  The title of king of Italy assumed by Odoacer.

486.  Clovis founds the kingdom of the Franks.  He defeats Syagrius at Soissons, and thus puts an end to Roman dominion in Gaul.  See “CLOVIS FOUNDS THE KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS,” iv, 113.

488.  The Eastern Emperor commissions Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, to invade Italy.

489.  Theodoric defeats Odoacer at Verona.

490.  Odoacer is again defeated; he retires to Ravenna.

491.  Anastasius becomes emperor of the East by marrying the widow of Zeno, who had recently died.

The South Saxons capture Anderida.

492.  Anastasius grants liberty of conscience and remits oppressive taxes.

493.  Theodoric besieges Odoacer in Ravenna; he is captured and murdered; Theodoric becomes king of the whole of Italy.

494.  An earthquake overthrows the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Tripolis.