In 476, the Roman army commander Odoacer captured and executed the emperor's father and uncle—then a child—Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. This was a fatal blow to the Western Roman Empire. Peter Heather, professor of medieval history, talks about three claimants to the throne who tried to revive the Roman legacy in Western Europe - Theodoric, Justinian and Charlemagne. The author shows that the old Roman Empire, created by conquest, could not be preserved in the new Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages. And only when clergy from the barbarian north renewed the institution of the papacy did a real restoration of imperial power become possible. This new Roman Empire, created by barbarians, is over a thousand years old.