Julius Nepos
Augustus (Western Roman Empire)  AD 474 - 475; 480

Flavius Julius Nepos.

Paralel rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire:
Leo II (AD 474)
Zeno (AD 474 - 491)
Basiliscus (AD 475 - 476)
Marcus (AD 475 - 476)

Julius Nepos began his rise to power in 468, when he took the governorship of Dalmatia, a province formerly in the eastern part of the Empire but in practice independent. Family connections endeared him to Leo I and in 474 Leo dispatched him west to depose Glycerius and take over the western throne. Perhaps the most significant event of his reign was the secession of a good part of Gaul and Spain, which under the Visigoth Euric were declared an independent kingdom. During his second year, however, the Master of Soldiers Orestes proclaimed his son Romulus emperor and forced Nepos to escape in his province of Dalmatia. Nepos then made a bid for the throne by requesting succor from the new eastern emperor Zeno, but Zeno preferred the better offer of Odoacer. The latter seem to have recognized Nepos even as he deposed Romulus, and Nepos should be counted the last titular emperor of the West until 480, when he was murdered by two henchmen of Glycerius in his country house near Salona.

Mints: Arelate, Mediolanum, Ravenna, Rome.

List all Julius Nepos coins in the Catalog.

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