The FALL of the WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE is traditionally dated to which year?
A410 CE (sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric).
B395 CE (division of the empire under Theodosius I).
C284 CE (Diocletian assumes imperial power).
D476 CE (deposition of Emperor Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer).
Explanation
The fall of the Western Roman Empire is traditionally dated to 476 CE, when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposed the young emperor Romulus Augustulus (whose name ironically combined the founder of Rome and the first emperor). Odoacer became King of Italy under nominal Byzantine suzerainty. This date is a scholarly convention rather than a sharp rupture — Roman institutions, culture, and identity persisted in various forms in the West well after 476 (in the successor kingdoms of Ostrogoths, Franks, Visigoths, and others) and continued in the East as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. 27 BCE is when Augustus established the Empire. 1453 is when Constantinople fell to Ottoman forces. 1000 CE is a millennium marker without direct Western Roman significance.
