ODOACRE (Odoacer, Odoacar). — First barbarian king of Italy, born in 434, died at Ravenna on 15 March 493. A Scirian by origin, he soon came to Italy, enlisting in the army among the palace guards. On 23 August 476 he was acclaimed king by the barbarian soldiers who demanded a third of the lands of the peninsula; after occupying Pavia, he marched on Ravenna, where he deposed the last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus (4 September).
To legalize his power, he sent ambassadors to the Eastern emperor Zeno, requesting the title of Roman patrician. A shrewd and prudent politician, he governed wisely and moderately. In 476 he obtained the eastern part of Sicily from the Vandals, undertaking to pay them an annual tribute; but in 486 he conquered the entire island. In 481–82 he occupied Dalmatia, and in 487–88 he fought victoriously against the Rugians, whom Emperor Zeno had incited against him. In 489 Theodoric, in agreement with the Byzantine court, set out to march on Italy with his Ostrogoths; O. was successively defeated near the Isonzo and at Verona, and the following year near the Adda. He then shut himself up in Ravenna, which was soon besieged by Theodoric; after two years O. surrendered on the promise that his life would be spared and that he would have a certain share in the government of Italy (5 March 493), but ten days later he was killed by Theodoric himself, together with his entire family and all those who had remained loyal to him.
Toward the Catholic Church, although he was an Arian, O. showed himself rather tolerant and accommodating, respecting the bishops; through his prefect of Rome he intervened in the election of Pope Felix III, so that disturbances would not arise, and he also had the clergy promulgate a decree against the alienation of ecclesiastical property.