Odoacer

When Hildebrand followed his master, Theodoric the Great, who was fleeing eastwards before Odoacer, he left his young wife and an infant child behind him.

In 476 the last Emperor was deposed by Odoacer, the king of the Heruli, a tribe which, issuing from the shores of the Baltic, made successful inroads into Italy and occupied much of the country.

Towards the close of the fifth century, a tribe of Goths, called Heruli, led by their king Odoacer, put an end to the Western Empire, a.d.

By 493 Ravenna was taken; Odoacer was killed by Theodoric’s own hand; and the East Gothic power was fully established over Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia and the lands to the north of Italy.

Odoacer refused, and proclaimed himself king in Italy, while still affecting—against Zeno's own will—to recognize the Constantinopolitan emperor as his suzerain.