According to the late fourth-century author Vegetius, troops wore armor up to the reign of Gratian, when they began to complain about how heavy it was and asked the emperor to forbid them from wearing it. Although historians debate this, Egypt, which was a part of the more prosperous Eastern Roman Empire, is the only location where Roman armor from the fifth century has been discovered.
After the division of the empire in 395, the West fared poorly. Prior East-West partitions had given the West the important province of Illyricum (modern Yugoslavia more or less). According to records, Gaul and Illyricum accounted for 56% of military recruitment between 284 and 476. In fact, helping to reclaim Illyricum to use for military recruiting was one of the reasons the Roman commander Stillicho attempted to form an alliance with the Gothic king Alaric. It was difficult to raise enough taxes to support a sizable military army due to the loss of wealthier provinces like Egypt to the Eastern empire and the fact that Gaul's economy had not yet recovered from the devastation of its towns during the Crisis of the Third Century.
When Theodosius' East Roman forces beat the Western army, it was still reeling from the disastrous loss at the Battle of Frigidus River.
Barbarian tribes with conflicted allegiance made up the majority of the army in the fifth century. The Suevic king Rechiar and a Gothic princess had a son named Ricimer. He killed the emperor when Majorian returned home from his expedition in North Africa against the Vandals. Perhaps he had grudges against Majorian for retaking Spain from the Sueves and the Goths (which collapsed against after his death). With the brief exception of Anthemius, who was imposed on the West by an Eastern Roman army, Ricimer governed through puppet emperors until his death in 472. After Anthemius killed himself by killing a follower of his named Romanus, Ricimer and Anthemius engaged in a civil war. Before the Eastern empire launched another expedition, Gundobad—the subsequent military leader and Ricimer's nephew—appointed Glycerius as the western emperor and departed Italy to become the Burgundians' king. During his brief reign as emperor in 475, Julius Nepos named Roman Orestes as Magister Militum (commander in chief of the army) and appointed him to rule over what was left of Roman Gaul (Provence). However, he abandoned Gaul and struck a deal with the barbarians in which he asked them to support him as emperor in exchange for one-third of Italy. After being expelled from Italy, Julius Nepos went to Dalmatia, where he was killed in 480. The western kingdom was toppled in 476 when Orestes betrayed his pledges to the barbarians. Odovocar, the barbarian ruler of Italy (perhaps from the Heruli tribe), put an end to the empire in the west.
