ODOACER or ODOVACAR (c. the first barbarian ruler of Italy, son of Aedico or Idico, was born in the district bor dering on the middle Danube about the year 434. He was probably one of the tribe of Scyrri who had invaded Pannonia about 43o. It is said that as a tall young recruit for the Roman armies, dressed in a sordid vesture of skins, on his way to Italy, he entered the cell of St. Severinus, to ask his blessing. The saint had an inward premonition of his future greatness, and in bless ing him said, "Fare onward into Italy. Thou who art now clothed in vile raiment wilt soon give precious gifts unto many." Odoacer was probably about thirty years of age when he thus entered the imperial service. By the year 472 he had risen to some eminence. In the year 475 the emperor Nepos was driven into exile, and the successful rebel Orestes was enabled to array in the purple his son, a handsome boy of fourteen or fifteen, who was named Romulus after his grandfather, and nicknamed Augustulus, from his inability to play the part of the great Augustus. Before this puppet emperor had been a year on the throne the barbarian mercenaries rose in mutiny, demanding to be made proprietors of one-third of the soil of Italy. To this request Orestes returned a peremptory negative. Odoacer now offered his fellow-soldiers to obtain for them all that they desired if they would seat him on the throne. On Aug. 23, 476, he was pro claimed king; five days later Orestes was made prisoner at Pla centia and beheaded. Augustulus was compelled to descend from the throne, but his life was spared.
Odoacer was forty-two years of age when he thus became chief ruler of Italy, and he reigned thirteen years with undisputed sway. The administration was conducted as much as possible on the lines of the old imperial government. The settlement of the barbarian soldiers on the lands of Italy probably affected the great landowners rather than the labouring class. To the herd or coloni and servi it probably made little difference whether the master whom they served called himself Roman or Rugian.
In 477 or 478 the dethroned emperor Nepos sent ambassadors to Zeno, emperor of the East, begging his aid in the reconquest of Italy. These ambassadors met a deputation from the Roman senate, sent nominally by the command of Augustulus, really no doubt by that of Odoacer, to declare that they did not need a separate emperor. The senate had chosen Odoacer, and they there
fore prayed Zeno to confer upon him the dignity of patrician, and entrust the "diocese" of Italy to his care. Zeno returned a harsh answer to the senate, requiring them to return to their allegiance to Nepos. In fact, however, he did nothing for the fallen emperor, but accepted the new order of things, and even addressed Odoacer as patrician. On the other hand, the latter sent the ornaments of empire to Constantinople as an acknowledgment of the fact that he did not claim supreme power. Our information as to the actual title assumed by the new ruler is somewhat confused. He does not appear to have called himself king of Italy, but only king of the tribes of barbarians that followed him. By the Roman inhabi tants of Italy he was addressed as "dominus noster," but his right to exercise power would in their eyes rest, in theory, on his recog nition as patricius by the Byzantine Augustus. At the same time he marked i his own high pretensions by assuming the prefix Flavius. His internal administration was probably, upon the whole, wise and moderate, and he may be looked upon as a not alto gether unworthy predecessor of Theodoric.
In the history of the papacy Odoacer figures as the author of a decree promulgated at the election of Felix II. in 483, forbidding the pope to alienate any of the lands or ornaments of the Roman Church, and threatening any pope who should infringe this edict with anathema.
The chief events in the foreign policy of Odoacer were his Dalmatian and Rugian wars. in the year 48o the ex-emperor Nepos, who ruled Dalmatia, was traitorously assassinated in Diocletian's palace at Spalato by the counts Viator and Ovida. In the following year Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, slew the mur derer Ovida, and reannexed Dalmatia to the Western state. In he appeared as an invader in his own native Danubian lands. War broke out between him and Feletheus, king of the Rugians. Odoacer entered the Rugian territory, and defeated and captured Feletheus. In the following year Frederick, son of the captive king, endeavoured to raise again the fallen fortunes of his house, but was defeated by Onulf, brother of Odoacer, and took refuge at the court of Theodoric the Ostrogoth.