A truce opens a way out of occupied Oleshky
Under a six-day local truce, the most significant since Russia's full-scale invasion, evacuees from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky reached Ukrainian-held territory on Oct. 31 by a long route through Belarus. The roughly 2,000 people still in the town were offered three choices: leave for Ukrainian-held territory, leave for Russia, or stay, with food and medical supplies replenished. Read at AP News →
The Romans leave Noricum
What happened then
Odoacer, the ruler of Italy, ordered the Roman population of Noricum, roughly modern Austria south of the Danube, to leave their towns and resettle in Italy. Odoacer's brother Onoulf led the withdrawal.
What caused it
Roman authority on the upper Danube had collapsed. Garrisons were unpaid or gone, and the towns lived under raids and the overlordship of the Rugians across the river. For years the monk Severinus had organized food relief, ransomed captives and negotiated with the Rugian kings. After Odoacer destroyed the Rugian kingdom in 487, the province could no longer be held.
How it was resolved
The evacuation was organized rather than a rout. According to the Life of Severinus, written by his disciple Eugippius in 511, the refugees took their saint's body with them. It was eventually laid to rest at Castellum Lucullanum near Naples.
How it turned out
Roman town life in Noricum largely came to an end, though some people stayed behind, and over the next centuries the land became Bavarian and Slavic. Eugippius's book is one of our best eyewitness-era accounts of how the Western Empire wound down at the edges: not in one great battle, but in hard choices about who stays and who goes.