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Flavius Odoacer (433〔''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', Vol. 2, ''s.v. Odovacer'', pp. 791–793〕–493), also known as Flavius Odovacer ((イタリア語:Odoacre), (ラテン語:Odoacerus〔Louis Maimbourg, ''The History of Arianism, Volume 2'', 1729〕) (ドイツ語:Odoaker)), was a soldier, who in 476 became the first King of Italy (476–493). His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.〔"Odoacer was the first barbarian who reigned over Italy, over a people who had once asserted their just superiority above the rest of mankind." Edward Gibbon, ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', Chapter XXXVI〕 Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in 480, of the Emperor in Constantinople. Odoacer generally used the Roman honorific ''patrician,'' granted by the Emperor Zeno, but is referred to as a king (Latin ''rex'') in many documents and he himself used it at least once and on another occasion it was used by the consul Basilius.〔Marcellinus, Cassiodorus, and some Papal documents, which come the closest to implying official use of the title, all refer to him as ''rex'' (or one of its declensions). Jordanes at one point refers to him as ''Gothorum Romanorumque regnator'': ruler of the Goths and the Romans. He is called an ''autokrator'' (autocrat) and a ''tyrannos'' (usurper, tyrant) in Procopius' ''Bellum Gothicum''. The only reference to Odoacer as "King of Italy" is in Victor Vitensis: ''Odouacro Italiae regi''.〕 Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to distribute land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the later period of his reign. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he rarely intervened in the affairs of the orthodox and trinitarian state church of the Roman Empire. Probably of Scirian descent, Odoacer was a military leader in Italy who led the revolt of Herulian, Rugian, and Scirian soldiers that deposed Romulus Augustulus on 4 September AD 476. Augustulus had been declared Western Roman Emperor by his father, the rebellious general of the army in Italy, less than a year before, but had been unable to gain allegiance or recognition beyond central Italy. With the backing of the Roman Senate, Odoacer thenceforth ruled Italy autonomously, paying lip service to the authority of Julius Nepos, the last Western emperor and Zeno the emperor of the East. Upon Nepos' murder in 480 Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, to punish the murderers. He did so, executing the conspirators, but within two years also conquered the region and incorporated it into his domain. When Illus, master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer’s help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, Odoacer invaded Zeno’s westernmost provinces. The emperor responded first by inciting the Rugi of present day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488 Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugi in their own territory. Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome, nominal vassal against another. Theoderic invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, forcing Odoacer to take refuge in Ravenna. The city surrendered on March 5, 493; Theoderic invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation and there killed him. Odoacer is the earliest ruler of Italy for whom an autograph of any of his legal acts has survived to the current day. The larger portion of a record of Odoacer granting properties in Sicily and the island of Melita on the Adriatic coast to Pierius and issued in 488, was written in his reign. ==Ethnic affiliation== Except for the fact that he was not considered ''Roman'', Odoacer's ethnic origins are not completely known.〔A more recent discussion of this question is part of Stefan Krautschick, ("Zwei Aspekte des Jahres 476", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' ), 35 (1986), pp. 344–371〕 Both the ''Anonymus Valesianus'' and John of Antioch state his father's name was Edeko. However, it is unclear whether this Edeko is identical to one—or both—men of the same name who lived at this time: one was an ambassador of Attila to the court in Constantinople, and escorted Priscus and other Imperial dignitaries back to Attila's camp; the other, according to Jordanes, is mentioned with Hunulfus as chieftains of the Scirii, who were soundly defeated by the Ostrogoths at the river Bolia in Pannonia sometime in the late 460s.〔Priscus, fragments 7 and 8, translated by C.D. Gordon, ''The Age of Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1966), pp. 70–93. Jordanes, ''Getica'', ch. 277〕 Since Sebastian Tillemont in the 17th century, all three have been considered to be the same person. Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi (''Turc-ilingi or Torcilingorum rex'').〔Jordanes, ''Getica'' 242〕 However, in his ''Romana'' Jordanes also describes him as a member of the Rugii (''Odoacer genere Rogus'').〔Jordanes, ''Romana'' 344〕 The ''Consularia Italica'' calls him king of the Heruli, while Theophanes appears to be guessing when he calls him a Goth. Marcellinus Comes calls him "the king of the Goths" (''Odoacer rex Gothorum'').〔Marcellinus Comes, ''Chronicon'', s. a. 476〕 More recently Reynolds and Lopez explored the possibility that Odoacer was ''not'' Germanic in their 1946 paper published by ''The American Historical Review'', making several convincing arguments that his ethnic background might lie elsewhere. One of these is that his name, "Odoacer", for which an etymology in Germanic languages had not been convincingly found, could be a form of the Turkish "Ot-toghar" ("grass-born" or "fire-born"), or the shorter form "Ot-ghar" ("herder"). "If Ratchis could become Radagaisus, why could Ot-toghar or Ot-ghar not have become Odoacer or Odovacer?" they ask.〔Robert L. Reynolds and Robert S. Lopez, ("Odoacer: German or Hun?" ''American Historical Review'' ), 52 (1946), p. 45〕 Other sources believe the name Odoacer is derived from the Germanic ''Audawakrs'', from ''aud-'' "wealth" and ''wakr-'' "vigilant". This form finds a cognate in another Germanic language, the titular ''Eadwacer'' of the Old English poem ''Wulf and Eadwacer'' (where Old English renders the earlier Germanic sound ''au-'' as ''ea-''). Odoacer's identity as a Hun was then accepted by a number of authorities, such as E. A. Thompson and J. M. Wallace-Hadrill—despite Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen's reasonable objection that personal names were not an infallible guide to ethnicity.〔("Communications", ''American Historical Review'' ), 53 (1947), p. 836. Reynolds and Lopez in the same issue point out Maenchen-Helfen restated "so patently the position of the unflinching Germanizer, to whom it appears self-evident that every barbarian who distinguished himself must have been a German in his inner being, no matter how deeply influenced by Huns or Alans as to children's heads and weapon" (p. 841), then carefully respond to his other objections.〕 Subsequently, while reviewing the primary sources in 1983, Bruce Macbain pointed out several uncomfortable silences in the primary sources, and proposed that while his mother might have been Scirian and his father Thuringian, in any case he was not a Hun.〔Bruce Macbain, ("Odovacer the Hun?," ''Classical Philology'' ), 78 (1983), pp. 323–327〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Odoacer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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