The 470s decade ran from January 1, 470, to December 31, 479.
Year 474 (CDLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Leo without colleague. The denomination 474 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Glycerius was Roman emperor of the West from 473 to 474. He served as comes domesticorum during the reign of Olybrius, until Olybrius died in November 472. After a four-month interregnum, Glycerius was proclaimed as emperor in March 473 by Gundobad, the magister militum and power behind the throne. Very few of the events of his reign are known other than that an attempted invasion of Italy by the Visigoths was repelled by local commanders, diverting them to Gaul. Glycerius also prevented an invasion by the Ostrogoths through diplomacy, including a gift of 2,000 solidi.
Julius Nepos, or simply Nepos, ruled as Roman emperor of the West from 24 June 474 to 28 August 475. After losing power in Italy, Nepos retreated to his home province of Dalmatia, from which he continued to claim the western imperial title, with recognition from the Eastern Roman Empire, until he was murdered in 480. Though Nepos' successor in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, is traditionally deemed the last western Roman emperor, Nepos is regarded by some historians as the true last emperor of the west, being the last widely recognised claimant to the position.
Gundobad was King of the Burgundians (473–516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472–473, three years before its collapse, succeeding his uncle Ricimer. He is perhaps best known today as the probable issuer of the Lex Burgundionum legal codes, which synthesized Roman law with ancient Germanic customs. He was the husband of Caretene.
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from AD 395 to 476, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Justinian's Gothic War.
Ovida or Odiva was a late Western Roman general and warlord of likely Gothic origin and the last Roman ruler of Dalmatia. Ovida initially served Julius Nepos, ruler of Roman Dalmatia and later western Roman emperor in Italy from 474 to 475. After being usurped in 475, Nepos continued to claim the imperial title in exile in Dalmatia, supported by the Eastern Roman Empire, but he was murdered by Ovida and another general, Viator, in 480. Upon his death, Ovida became the ruler of Dalmatia, a position he held until he was defeated and killed by Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy, in 481 or 482.
Marolus was Archbishop of Milan from 408 to 423. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is April 23.
Maternus was Archbishop of Milan from c. 316 to c. 328. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is on July 18.
Castritian was Bishop of Milan in mid 3rd-century. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is on December 1.
Glycerius was a Western Roman Emperor reigning from 473 to 474.
Senator of Milan or Senator of Settala was Bishop of Milan from 472 to 475. He is honoured as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church and his feast day is 28 May.
Venerius was Archbishop of Milan from 400 to 408. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is May 6.
Martinianus was Archbishop of Milan from 423 to 435. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. His feast day is 2 January.
Protasius was Archbishop of Milan. He is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church, with his feast day celebrated on 24 November, the day of his death.
Mirocles was Bishop of Milan from before 313 to c. 316. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is on December 3.
Caius was Bishop of Milan in early 3rd-century. He is considered by the Orthodox tradition the first Bishop of Milan in the 1st century. He is honoured as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church and his feast day is on 27 September.
Anathalon was the first recorded Bishop of Milan and lived at the end 2nd-century or early 3rd-century. A later tradition made him the also the first bishop of Brescia. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, which celebrate his feast day on 24 September. In Milan, however, this is commemorated on 25 September.
Basiliscus was the only son of the Eastern Roman military commander Armatus and was briefly caesar of the Eastern Roman Empire in 476–477/478. After the death of Eastern Roman Emperor Leo in 474, his grandson Leo II took the throne. Leo II died in the same year and his father, Zeno, ascended the throne. Soon after Zeno's ascension, Basiliscus' great-uncle, similarly named Basiliscus, forced Zeno into exile and took the throne himself. However, Basiliscus soon lost support with Armatus, who betrayed him by arranging a deal with Zeno: Armatus would hold the rank of magister militum praesentalis for life, and the younger Basiliscus would be made caesar. Caesar was a senior imperial title, and implied that the holder was the heir to the throne. Although Basiliscus was crowned in late 476, Zeno soon moved against Basiliscus's father, executing Armatus and exiling Basiliscus to Blachernae on the Golden Horn as a church lector. Later in his life, Basiliscus became a priest and the bishop of Cyzicus. He may have survived into the reign of Justinian.
Mansuetus was Archbishop of Milan from 676 to 685. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic Church.
