When did the Roman Empire fall?
The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus. However, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire continued until 1453 CE. Many historians prefer to describe the Western Empire's end as a gradual transformation rather than a sudden collapse.
The traditional date for the fall of Rome is September 4, 476 CE — the day the Germanic chieftain Odoacer forced the abdication of Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor. This date is convenient but somewhat misleading, as it suggests a sudden catastrophic event rather than the gradual process of transformation that actually occurred.
By 476, the Western Empire had been declining for over a century. Rome itself had been sacked by the Visigoths in 410 CE and by the Vandals in 455 CE. The Western emperors had become figureheads, with real power held by barbarian military commanders. The administrative capital had moved from Rome to Ravenna decades earlier. Odoacer's deposition of Romulus Augustulus was less a dramatic conquest than a formalization of the existing reality.
It's worth noting that many contemporaries didn't view 476 as particularly significant. The Eastern emperor in Constantinople still claimed sovereignty over the Western territories. Odoacer initially ruled as a nominal representative of the Eastern emperor. Many Roman institutions — the Senate, the church, Roman law, the Latin language — continued to function under the new Germanic rulers.
The Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, survived and thrived for another thousand years. The Byzantines maintained Roman legal traditions, administrative structures, Greek learning, and Christian theology. Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks on May 29, 1453 — giving the Roman Empire, in its various forms, a total lifespan of nearly two thousand years.