ACT III
Dramatis Personae
Odoacer, the Scirii who would call himself King of Italy
SCENE 1
Ravenna. The Walls of the City.
The barbarians had come to sack Ravenna. The boy emperor Romulus Augustus would die. Radagaisus, Fritigern and Saphrax quickly found themselves under the command of Odoacer, the Scirii who would call himself King of Italy.
"I don't want him dead, you fools!" exclaimed Odoacer before the three who had fallen under his command. "He is only a boy of fifteen! I shall give him an annual pension of six thousand solidi before sending him to live with his relatives in Campania."
"Exile?" asked Radagaisus, in a most confused manner. "But why?"
"Because he deserves life, you invincible dolt!" Odoacer threw a rock at Radagaisus' head and Radagaisus' fell dead. "Hmm, how anti-climatic. I was expecting something a bit more like Achilles! An arrow in his one weak spot!"
Fritigern stared at Radagaisus' body for a moment. Then he looked back up at Odoacer. "Yes, well. Once we've sent Romulus into exile what then. Do we turn to Constantinople after that and crush the Byzantines?"
"Zeno is my ally, Fritigern." Stated Odoacer. "I have his fully support to be King of Italy and I shall be it in his name."
"You'd bow down to a Roman dog?" exclaimed Fritigern angrily.
"Zeno is no dog! He is my friend! The Western Roman Empire has been crumbling for the past seventy-four years. The Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire it is properly called you know full well, is in full agreement that it needs replacing. Besides, Zeno is only my friend so long as I am not equal to him in power…"
Fritigern nodded, understanding was Odoacer was saying. "Yes, and the would-be ruler of all Rome, Valens… What of him?"
"I care not about him." Answered Odoacer. "My concerns lay with Romulus and after him Zeno someway down the line and of course that Ostrogoth upstart Theoderic!"