Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
Romulus Augustulus was the emperor at the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He was the last Roman emperor of the West. For historians, the date 476 signifies the end of the Roman Empire in western Europe and the beginning of the Dark Ages. [Furtado: 1001 Days] "Between 478 and 488, the Ostrogoths under Theoderic advanced steadily towards Constantinople . . . Zeno decided to solve the two problems simultaneously: he offered to recognize Theoderic the Ostrogoth as king of Italy and give him the peninsula, as long as Theoderic would go west and get rid of Odovacer. . . . The fight over Italy went on for three years. . . . Finally, in 491, Odovacer suggested a compromise. He would sign a treaty making the two of them co-rulers of Italy if Theoderic would lift the siege. . . . He agreed to the compromise, but in 493 he ended their joint rule by killing his colleague. . . . He was now Theoderic the Great, king of Italy, and as king he had no duty to pay the eastern Roman emperor. . . . Roman culture made inroads into Gothic practice; the Goths increasingly spoke Latin, adopted Roman names, married Roman women, and cultivated Roman estates. . . . But Ravenna, dominated by Goths, was the power center of the kingdom." [Bauer: Medieval World, p. 146-7]