Who was Romulus Augustus?
He was the last Roman emperor of the Western Empire. At the time of his reign, the Roman Empire had split into an Eastern and Western empire. The Eastern Empire went on to become the Byzantine Empire but the Western portion was an “empire” in name only whose territory ended at the city walls. Romulus Augustus took the names of the mythical founder of Rome, Romulus, and the first emperor, Augustus, in a vain attempt to resurrect Rome’s former glory. It didn’t work. He was deposed by the barbarians who had invaded Italy, after which he faded from history.
