Romulus Augustulus

About Romulus Augustulus

Romulus Augustulus holds a unique, if tragic, place in history as the last Western Roman Emperor, reigning briefly from 475 to 476 CE. While his tenure was short, his deposition by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer in 476 CE is conventionally used by historians to mark the definitive end of the Western Roman Empire, a civilization of immense historical importance. This event signals the transition from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe, securing his high historical ranking at #985 in the Pantheon project’s assessment of global influence.

Despite this monumental historical significance, the internet's current attention skews elsewhere. Romulus Augustulus registered 361K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025, resulting in an attention gap of only about ~1x relative to his historical importance—a relatively balanced score compared to other major figures. However, the context sharpens when compared to figures like Brutus the Younger (#392 importance), who garners only 10K views, or Louis XVII of France (#646 importance), receiving just 42K views. This suggests that while Romulus Augustulus is recognized proportionally, the sheer volume of attention given to the final Western Emperor is modest, especially considering the foundational importance of the event he was involved in.

His modern digital momentum shows slight interest, with a Year-over-Year Change of +3.1%, yet the recent trend is cooling: his 2025 Momentum (Q1 vs Q3) shows a decline of -16%, indicating that any recent interest spike has begun to fade.