The Last Roman Emperor

What happened to the Roman Empire?

The Romans used to rule dozens of other countries. They were the most powerful people in the world.

But then the empire was divided, and the barbarians came.

The Western Roman Empire still existed. But barbarians took over most of its land. And although the Western Roman Empire still had an emperor, he didn’t live in Rome, because Rome had been destroyed. He lived in a small, swampy city, hiding from the barbarians.

Finally one of the invaders, named Orestes, decided to drive the Roman emperor out of hiding. He collected an army and marched towards the small, swampy city where the emperor lived. When the emperor heard that Orestes and his men were coming, he ran away. By the time Orestes arrived, the emperor was long gone.

Orestes decided to make his son emperor. There was only one problem—his son was six years old!

But that didn’t stop Orestes. He ordered all his men to obey the six-year-old emperor. And he gave his son a new name, Romulus Augustus. He called him Romulus, because an old legend said that a man named Romulus was the first king of Rome, long, long ago. And he called him Augustus after Caesar Augustus, Rome’s most famous emperor.

That was a big name for a little boy! And when the people who were left in the Western Roman Empire heard it, they laughed. “Romulus Augustus!” they said. “What a silly name for a child! We won’t call him Romulus—we’ll call him Momyllus!”

Momyllus meant “Little disgrace.” The Romans felt insulted, because they were expected to obey the child of a barbarian. But Momyllus didn’t get to be emperor very long.

And that was the end of the Western Roman Empire. It was full of barbarian kings, each one ruling his own little kingdom. The lands that used to belong to Rome now belonged to them.

The new settlers still used the wide, beautiful Roman roads. Rome’s huge buildings still stood, although many were beginning to crumble away. Many people still spoke Latin, the language of the Romans. And the barbarians had begun to learn Roman ways and Roman customs. But the Roman Empire itself was gone forever.

Over in the Eastern Roman Empire (now called the Byzantine Empire), people mourned. Rome had been a great and beautiful city, but now it was in ruins. As long as an emperor still ruled, there was hope that Rome might be great again. But now the last Roman emperor, a little boy just your age, had lost his throne. Rome would never again rule the world.