When did the Roman Empire fall?

The traditional date for the fall of the Western Roman Empire is 476 CE, when the Germanic leader Odoacer deposed the last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus. The decline was gradual, driven by economic strain, military overreach, political instability, and waves of invasions. Crucially, only the western half collapsed: the eastern portion, centered on Constantinople and known as the Byzantine Empire, continued for nearly another thousand years until the city fell to the Ottomans in 1453. Roman law, language, and engineering profoundly shaped the civilizations that followed.