476

Year 476 (CDLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus (or, less frequently, year 1229 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 476 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Millennium: 1st millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
476 by topic
Leaders
  • Political entities
  • State leaders
  • Religious leaders
Categories
  • Births
  • Deaths
  • Establishments
  • Disestablishments
476 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar476
CDLXXVI
Ab urbe condita1229
Assyrian calendar5226
Balinese saka calendar397–398
Bengali calendar−117
Berber calendar1426
Buddhist calendar1020
Burmese calendar−162
Byzantine calendar5984–5985
Chinese calendar乙卯年 (Wood Rabbit)
3172 or 3112
    — to —
丙辰年 (Fire Dragon)
3173 or 3113
Coptic calendar192–193
Discordian calendar1642
Ethiopian calendar468–469
Hebrew calendar4236–4237
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat532–533
 - Shaka Samvat397–398
 - Kali Yuga3576–3577
Holocene calendar10476
Iranian calendar146 BP – 145 BP
Islamic calendar151 BH – 150 BH
Javanese calendar361–362
Julian calendar476
CDLXXVI
Korean calendar2809
Minguo calendar1436 before ROC
民前1436年
Nanakshahi calendar−992
Seleucid era787/788 AG
Thai solar calendar1018–1019
Tibetan calendar阴木兔年
(female Wood-Rabbit)
602 or 221 or −551
    — to —
阳火龙年
(male Fire-Dragon)
603 or 222 or −550
Romulus Augustus resigns the Crown
Castel dell'Ovo (Gulf of Naples)

Because the fall of the Western Roman Empire occurred in 476, many historians consider it the last year of ancient history and the first year of the Middle Ages in Europe.[1][2]

Events

Roman Empire
  • Summer – Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic/Scirian foederati), visits the imperial palace at Ravenna. He petitions Orestes (magister militum) to reward his mercenaries for their services and their support of his rebellion a year earlier, by making good on his promise to grant them lands to settle permanently in Italy. Orestes refuses this proposal and Odoacer leads his tribesmen in a revolt.
  • August – Basiliscus, Roman usurper, is deposed and Zeno is restored as emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. With the support of his adviser Illus, he besieges Constantinople, but the Senate opens the gates, allowing him to resume the throne. Basiliscus flees to sanctuary in a church, but surrenders himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood. Basiliscus is sent to a fortress in Cappadocia, where he later dies from starvation.
  • August 23 – Odoacer, age 43, is proclaimed rex Italiae ("king of Italy") by his troops. He leads his Ostrogoth army into the Po Valley, and advances to Ravenna while plundering the countryside.
  • August 28 – Orestes is arrested by Odoacer near Piacenza, and swiftly executed.
  • September 4 – Romulus Augustulus, Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer at Ravenna. Odoacer spares the boy's life and gives him a pension of 6,000 solidi, but exiles him to the "Castellum Lucullanum" (Castel dell'Ovo), on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples. This event will later be romanticized in Western literature and history as the Fall of Rome, and is traditionally used by historians to mark the beginning of the European Middle Ages.[3][4]
  • Julius Nepos, de jure ruler, becomes legally the last "Western Roman Emperor." He governs Dalmatia (Balkans), Morocco, and Northwest Gaul until his death in 480, but has no effective power on the Italian Peninsula.
  • Odoacer crosses the Maritime Alps with a Gothic army and invades Provence (Southern Gaul). He conquers the cities of Arles and Marseilles, after a victorious battle against the Burgundians.
  • The Visigoths under King Euric march into Italy, and suffer defeat against the forces of Odoacer. Emperor Zeno concludes a peace treaty between the Goths and Odoacer surrenders the newly conquered territory in Gaul. Euric pledges himself to undertake no further hostilities.
  • The Roman Senate petitions Zeno to recognize Nepos as deposed and take the sole emperorship himself, abolishing the 81 year-long east/west division of the empire and recognizing Odoacer's authority in Italy. Zeno declines the first request, but names Odoacer Patricius, investing his rule with Imperial legitimacy.
  • Winter – Zeno recognizes the full extent of the Vandal Kingdom, including all of western Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. King Gaiseric gives Sicily, with the exception of the city of Lilybaeum, to Odoacer in return for tribute.

India

China
  • Xian Wen Di, Retired Emperor of Northern Wei, is murdered by Empress Feng. She assumes regency over the young Xiao Wen Di.

Religion
  • Peter the Fuller is restored as patriarch of Antioch.

Births

Deaths

References
  1. Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. Page 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire; [...])
  2. United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]. Page 43. (cf. ... in the history of Europe, which marks both the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western Roman Empire.)
  3. "Middle Ages". Dictionary.com.
  4. Bruni, Leonardo (2001) [1442]. Hankins, James (ed.). History of the Florentine People. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-674-00506-8.
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