Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Who was the last emperor of Rome?
Flavius Romulus Augustus (c. AD 460 – after AD 476; possibly still alive as late as AD 507),[3] known derisively and historiographically as Romulus Augustulus, was the Roman emperor who ruled the Western Roman Empire from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. He is often described as the "last Western Roman emperor", though some historians consider this to be Julius Nepos. His deposition by Odoacer traditionally marks the end of the Roman Empire in the West, the end of Ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Western Europe.
The Emperor meets the Goodies and tells them that he wants them to take over the entertainment. When the Emperor later complains about his life, Tim comments that "he" would like to be Emperor — so the Emperor hands over the position to Tim (who immediately sets up vacation areas all over Rome and intends to invite people from all over to come to Rome). Graeme, who is in charge of entertainment, arranges it, including sending out invitations to people from other lands to come to Rome.
Justinian I, who became emperor in Constantinople in 527, recognized the patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem as the top leadership of the Church (see Pentarchy). However, Justinian claimed "the right and duty of regulating by his laws the minutest details of worship and discipline, and also of dictating the theological opinions to be held in the Church". In Justinian's day, the Oriental Orthodox churches who refused to accept the Council of Chalcedon finally seceded from the adherents to Chalcedon, whom they called 'Melkites', from Syriac "malkâniya" 'imperial'", while in the west Christianity was mostly subject to the laws and customs of nations that owed no allegiance to the emperor in Constantinople. While eastern-born popes who were appointed or at least confirmed by the Eastern Emperor continued to be loyal to him as their political lord, they refused to accept his authority in religious matters, or the authority of such a council as the imperially convoked Council of Hieria of 754. Pope Gregory III (731-741) became the last Bishop of Rome to ask the Byzantine ruler to ratify his election. In the East, only the largest fragment of the Christian church was under the Emperor's control, and with the crowning of Charlemagne on 25 December 800 AD as "Imperator Romanorum" by the latter's ally, Pope Leo III, the political split between east and west became irrevocable. Spiritually, Chalcedonian Christianity persisted as a unified entity, at least in theory, until the Great Schism and its formal division with the mutual excommunication in 1054 of Rome and Constantinople. The Eastern Roman Empire finally collapsed with the Fall of Constantinople to the Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Titus is only about eight years old. He became emperor after his mother died in child birth, and his father committed suicide. After Oskan's sacrifice Thirrin looks after him. He is perceived as Romulus Augustus, last emperor of Rome, who ruled the Roman Empire as a child.
In 1450, Nicholas held a Jubilee at Rome, and the offerings of the numerous pilgrims who thronged to Rome gave him the means of furthering the cause of culture in Italy, which he had so much at heart. In March 1452 he crowned Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor in St. Peter's, in what was the last imperial coronation held in Rome.
Short of funds for his various schemes he relied heavily on banking families such as the Fugger's, and it was these bankers that bribed the prince electors to choose Maximilian's grandson Charles as his successor. One tradition he did away with was the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope in Rome. Unable to reach Rome, due to Venetian hostility, in 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title "Erwählter Römischer Kaiser" ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Thus his father Frederick was the last emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome.
Soldiers of the II "Parthica" killed Maximinus in his tent, along with his son Maximus (who had been appointed deputy emperor in 236), and surrendered to Pupienus at the end of June. Maximinus' and his son's corpses were decapitated and their heads carried to Rome. For saving Rome from a public enemy, the soldiers were pardoned and sent back to their provinces.
The co-emperor then returned to Rome, only to find the city in riot. Balbinus had not managed to control the situation, and the city had burned in a fire, resulting in mutiny. With both emperors present, the situation calmed down, but the unease remained.
To solve this problem, Augustus managed to have the emperor be given the right to hold two types of imperium. The first being "consular imperium" while he was in Rome, and "imperium maius" outside of Rome. While inside the walls of Rome, the reigning consuls and the emperor held equal authority, each being able to veto each other's proposals and acts, with the emperor holding all of the consul's powers. But outside of Rome, the emperor outranked the consuls and could veto them without the same effects on himself. Imperium Maius also granted the emperor authority over all the provincial governors, making him the ultimate authority in provincial matters and gave him the supreme command of all of Rome's legions. With Imperium Maius, the emperor was also granted the power to appoint governors of imperial provinces without the interference of the Senate. Also, Imperium Maius granted the emperor the right to veto the governors of the provinces and even the reigning consul while in the provinces.
Diocletian divided the empire into four regions, each ruled by a separate Emperor (the Tetrarchy). Confident that he fixed the disorders plaguing Rome, he abdicated along with his co-emperor, and the Tetrarchy soon collapsed. Order was eventually restored by Constantine, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an east–west axis, with dual power centers in Constantinople and Rome. The reign of Julian, who under the influence of his adviser Mardonius attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official religion of the Empire.
The best documented portion of his life was his last months, during the Year of Four Emperors. Suetonius records that he celebrated the entrance of his brother Aulus into Rome with a feast that included 2,000 choice fish and 7,000 game birds. Tacitus records that he denounced Junius Blaesus to his brother, who had just returned to Rome from his governorship of Gallia Lugdunensis: Caecina Tuscus had thrown a banquet in Blaesus' honor, and when his brother the emperor noticed the mansion lit up, he compelled his brother to have Blaesus killed, claiming he was courting both the army and the urban mob. The emperor Vitellius eliminated Blaesus by poisoning.
Justinian I (527–565), who succeeded Justin and was the last Latin speaking emperor, is generally regarded as the greatest of the Byzantine emperors and another Emperor-Saint. Justinian brought the empire to its greatest years of power and glory before the long decline that set in during the second half of the first millennium as western civilization moved from Late Antiquity into the High Middle Ages.
Justinian's foreign policy centred around trying to recapture the lost territories of the western empire after half century of Barbarian occupation, recapturing Rome in 536. However the western operations were hampered by competing wars in the east (see below) and the outbreak of plague in 541 (see below). Rome and Italy changed hands frequently after 541 but by 554 the Byzantines were firmly in control again.
When the last Latin emperor Baldwin II fled from Constantinople he was well received in Rome by Pope Urban IV who promised him support to regain the throne. This threat of continued support prompted the new Greek emperor to seek out a reunion. Understanding the situation of 1204 helps with the context of the reunion council.
Andreas was the son of Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of Morea, and Catherine Zaccaria, the daughter of Centurione II Zaccaria the last Prince of Achaea. After his uncle Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Emperor of Constantinople died defending the capital of the Byzantine Empire on May 29, 1453, Andreas' family continued to live in Morea as vassals of the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II. But constant bickering between Thomas Palaiologos and his brother Demetrios led to the Sultan invading the Morea in 1460; Andreas and his father escaped to Corfu. His father Thomas then left the rest of the family to go to Rome, where he made a ceremonial entrance as Byzantine Emperor 7 March 1461. Andreas' mother died in August 1462, but he and his younger brother Manuel did not rejoin his father until a few days before the man died in 1465. After his father's death, Andreas stayed in the Papal States by consent of the Pope. He lived in Rome, styling himself "Imperator Constantinopolitanus" ("Emperor of Constantinople"). Andreas was considered by his contemporaries, most prominently the Cardinal Bessarion the rightful heir to the Roman (Byzantine) throne who, curiously, lived in Rome years after the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Seeking more glory, Arthur and his knights then go to the war against (fictitious) Emperor Lucius of Rome who demanded Britain to resume paying tribute. After defeating the Romans and killing Lucius, Arthur is crowned the last Western Emperor but instead returns to Britain, which had been meanwhile left in care of Sir Constantine. 
Benedict VIII was an ally of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor; he called upon the emperor to visit Rome, which he did in late 1013 (spending Christmas in Pavia). A synod convoked by the emperor deposed the archbishop of Ravenna, who was replaced with Arnulf, a half-brother. Benedict VIII and the emperor met in Ravenna, and then proceeded to Rome (with the emperor arriving later).
The Roman Empire, at its height (c. 117 CE), was the most extensive political and social structure in western civilization. By 285 CE the empire had grown too vast to be ruled from the central government at Rome and so was divided by Emperor Diocletian into a Western and an Eastern Empire. The Roman Empire began when Augustus Caesar became the first emperor of Rome (31 BCE) and ended, in the west, when the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer (476 CE). In the east, it continued as the Byzantine Empire until the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE. The influence of the Roman Empire on western civilization was profound in its lasting contributions to virtually every aspect of western culture.
The Romans soon fell away from their allegiance to the pope. Recalled to the city, Henry entered Rome in March 1084, after which Gregory was declared deposed and Antipope Clement III was elected by the Romans. On 31 March 1084 Henry was crowned emperor by Clement and received the patrician authority. His next step was to attack the fortresses still in the hands of Gregory. The pope was saved by the advance of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, who left the siege of Durazzo and marched towards Rome: Henry left the city and Gregory was freed. Gregory soon died at Salerno, in 1085, but not before a last letter in which he exhorted the whole of Christianity to a crusade against the Emperor.
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the West after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim recognized by the Eastern Empire to the title until his death in 480. Following Nepos' death, the Eastern Emperor Zeno abolished the division of the position and proclaimed himself as the sole Emperor of a reunited Roman Empire. The Eastern imperial lineage continued to rule from Constantinople ("New Rome"); they continued to style themselves as Emperor of the Romans (later βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων in Greek), but are often referred to in modern scholarship as Byzantine emperors. Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453.
Vitellius was a Roman general who became the third emperor in the so-called Year of the Four Emperors in AD 69. He succeeded Otho upon his suicide on April 16, but lived to be emperor for only eight months. When his armies were defeated by those of Vespasian, he agreed to surrender but the Praetorian Guard refused to let him leave the city. On the entrance of Vespasian's troops into Rome he was dragged out of his hiding-place, driven to the Gemonian stairs and struck down. His last words were "Yet I was once your Emperor".
The wealthy senator Petronius Maximus, who succeeded Valentinian III, had attempted to secure his position by marrying Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia. The final collapse of the Empire in the West was marked by increasingly ineffectual puppet Emperors dominated by their Germanic masters of the soldiers. The most pointed example of this is the Suebian general Ricimer, who became a "Shadow Emperor" by deposing Avitus, installing and subsequently deposing (and murdering) Majorian, installing (and possibly subsequently murdering) Libius Severus, ruling the Empire himself during an eighteen-month interregnum, deposing and killing Anthemius, and installing Olybrius. His position as "Shadow Emperor" was in turn held by his nephew Gundobad and Orestes; Odoacer simply overthrew Orestes's puppet Emperor, Romulus Augustus, in 476 and ruled Italy as nominal subordinate of the Emperor-in-exile, Julius Nepos, who continued to reign in Dalmatia until 480.Petronius Maximus was killed trying to flee Rome – presently under imminent threat of attack by Geiseric's Vandals – eleven weeks after donning the purple; Rome was plundered ("Vandalised") but spared a full-fledged sacking due in large part to the intervention of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo I, who had previously averted an attack on Rome by Attila the Hun in 452. Petronius Maximus was succeeded by his master of the soldiers, Avitus, who was acclaimed at Tolosa with the backing of the Visigothic king, Theodoric II. 
Rome's population declined after its peak in the 2nd century. At the end of that century, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Antonine Plague killed 2,000 people a day. Marcus Aurelius died in 180, his reign being the last of the "Five Good Emperors" and Pax Romana. His son Commodus, who had been co-emperor since AD 177, assumed full imperial power, which is most generally associated with the gradual decline of the Western Roman Empire. Rome's population was only a fraction of its peak when the Aurelian Wall was completed in the year 273 (in that year its population was only around 500,000).
Romulus' father Orestes was a Roman citizen, originally from Pannonia, who had served as a secretary and diplomat for Attila the Hun and later rose through the ranks of the Roman army.[7] The future emperor was named Romulus after his maternal grandfather, a nobleman from Poetovio in Noricum. Many historians have noted the coincidence that the last western emperor bore the names of both Romulus, the legendary founder and first king of Rome, and Augustus, the first emperor.[8]
The power of the Bishop of Rome increased as the imperial power of the Emperor declined. Edicts of Emperor Theodosius II and Valentinian III proclaimed the Roman bishop "as Rector of the whole Church." The Emperor Justinian, who was living in the East in Constantinople, in the 6th century published a similar decree. These proclamations did not create the office of the pope but from the 6th century onward the Bishop of Rome's power and prestige increased so dramatically that the title of "pope" began to fit the Bishop of Rome best.
After the murder of Emperor Pertinax (193), a struggle began for the succession to the throne, the so-called Year of the Five Emperors. The new self-proclaimed Emperor in Rome, Didius Julianus, had to face the commander of the Pannonian legions, Septimius Severus. Before moving on Rome, Severus made an alliance with the powerful commander of the legions in Britannia, Clodius Albinus, recognizing him as Caesar. After eliminating Didius (193) and then defeating the governor of Syria, Pescennius Niger (194), Severus launched a successful campaign in the East in 195. Severus then tried to legitimize his power, connecting himself with Marcus Aurelius, and raising his own son to the rank of Caesar. This last act broke Severus' alliance with Albinus, who was declared a public enemy by the Senate.
The Emperor was crowned in a special ceremony, traditionally performed by the Pope in Rome. Without that coronation, no king, despite exercising all powers, could call himself Emperor. In 1508, Pope Julius II allowed Maximilian I to use the title of Emperor without coronation in Rome, though the title was qualified as Electus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans"). Maximilian's successors adopted the same titulature, usually when they became the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.[13] Maximilian's first successor Charles V was the last to be crowned Emperor.