Rome Didn’t Fall in 476

We’re taught that the Roman Empire collapsed in the year 476—but that story is wrong.

In 476 AD, a Germanic commander named Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last Western

Roman emperor. Textbooks call this “the Fall of Rome.” But Rome didn’t suddenly collapse.

It had been weakening for centuries. The empire was split in 395 into Eastern and Western halves.

The Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, kept going. It had Roman law,

Roman emperors, and Roman armies. Historians later called it the Byzantine Empire.

It survived for nearly 1,000 more years. Even in the West, Roman institutions

didn’t vanish overnight. Roman laws, roads, taxes, and officials continued