The Last Legion from the publication of British historian Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the late 18th Century. At the time of his proclamation as Emperor, Romulus Augustus was 16, older than portrayed in the film. Upon being captured by Odoacer, the boy usurper was seen to be a victim of his father. He was spared and sent to live in comfortable retirement in southern Italy. There was a struggle for control of the Eastern Roman Empire at the time but the Emperor alluded to would probably have been Zeno (explicit in the novel). In
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (French: "Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence") is an 18th-century book written by French political philosopher Montesquieu. First published in 1734, it is widely considered by scholars to be among Montesquieu's best known works and was an inspiration to Gibbon's more extensive "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". In 1734, the book was first published anonymously as an octavo by Jacques Desbordes