<P> Odoacer began to negotiate with the East Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Zeno, who was busy dealing with unrest in the East . Zeno eventually granted Odoacer the status of patrician and accepted him as his own viceroy of Italy . Zeno, however, insisted that Odoacer had to pay homage to Julius Nepos as the Emperor of the Western Empire . Odoacer never returned any territory or real power, but he did issue coins in the name of Julius Nepos throughout Italy . The murder of Julius Nepos in 480 (Glycerius may have been among the conspirators) prompted Odoacer to invade Dalmatia, annexing it to his Kingdom of Italy . In 488 the Eastern emperor authorized a troublesome Goth, Theoderic (later known as "the Great") to take Italy . After several indecisive campaigns, in 493 Theoderic and Odoacer agreed to rule jointly . They celebrated their agreement with a banquet of reconciliation, at which Theoderic's men murdered Odoacer's, and Theoderic personally cut Odoacer in half . </P> <P> The Roman Empire was not only a political unity enforced by violence . It was also the combined and elaborated civilization of the Mediterranean basin and beyond . It included manufacture, trade, and architecture, widespread secular literacy, written law, and an international language of science and literature . The Western barbarians lost much of these higher cultural practices, but their redevelopment in the Middle Ages by polities aware of the Roman achievement formed the basis for the later development of Europe . </P> <P> Observing the cultural and archaeological continuities through and beyond the period of lost political control, the process has been described as a complex cultural transformation, rather than a fall . </P>

Who ruled europe after the fall of rome