The Role of Treachery in and after the Fall of the Roman Empire

Where would history be without betrayal and murder?

Illustrations of Odoacer and Theodoric the Great in the Nuremberg Chronicles (Wikimedia Commons)

The so-called fall of the Roman Empire is a milestone in western history. Yet the betrayals that often marked Rome’s transfer of power didn’t disappear. Treachery gave rise to the last western Roman emperor in 475 and, on March 15, 493, the Ostrogothic rule of Italy that…