Editing Romulus Augustulus (section)

=== Ancestry and family ===
[[File:Pannonia SPQR.png|thumb|300px|Romulus Augustus' family originated in [[Pannonia]]]]
There is little surviving concrete evidence in regards to Romulus' ancestry beyond Orestes being known to have been a Roman citizen from [[Pannonia]] and sparse information on his immediate family. Orestes' father was a Pannonian Roman officer by the name of Tatulus,{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=445}} and Tatulus had at least one other son, Paulus, who served as a ''[[comes]]''.{{Sfn|Jones et al|1980|p=950}} The name of Romulus' mother is not known,{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}} but it might have been Barbaria.{{Sfn|Nathan|1997}}{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=446}}{{Efn|Romulus' mother's name being Barbaria derives from two speculative assumptions concerning his life in exile after 476: that a "Romulus" with his mother mentioned in a 507/511 letter is the same person as Romulus Augustulus (indicating he lived alongside his mother in exile) and that a Roman noblewoman named Barbaria who is mentioned as founding a monastery at the location he was exiled to is his mother.{{Sfn|Nathan|1997|p=}} The identification is not without merit: Barbaria was a wealthy noblewoman, who lived in the building Romulus had been exiled to and was knowledgeable about affairs in Noricum (having venerated [[Severinus of Noricum]]), the province bordering Pannonia. In the past almost accepted as fact, recent research has emphasized that Barbaria being Romulus' mother is only a hypothesis.{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=446}}}} The name Barbaria, otherwise rarely attested, may derive either from the ''[[gens]]'' (family) Barbii, attested in Roman Pannonia, or it may simply be the feminine version of the name ''Barbarius'', attested from a few Roman individuals in southern Gaul.{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=|pp=446–447}} Another hypothesis identifies Romulus' mother as Flavia Serena.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRR3AAAACAAJ |title=Gli imperatori romani: storia e segreti : grandezza militare e debolezze umane, "vizi privati e pubbliche virtù" degli uomini che ressero le sorti della Roma imperiale |date=2000 |publisher=Newton Compton |isbn=978-88-8289-400-9 |pages=421 |language=it}}</ref> Romulus' maternal grandfather was a ''comes'', also by the name of Romulus, attested as alive in 449, when he was sent on an embassy to Attila by the general [[Flavius Aetius|Aetius]].{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}} Orestes and Romulus Augustus' mother married at some point before 449.{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}} It is believed that Romulus' mother, and thus perhaps her immediate family, were, like Orestes, from Roman Pannonia.{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}} 

It is possible that Romulus Augustus had older siblings,{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}} especially given that Romulus was born several years after the marriage of his parents. In ancient Rome, it was customary for the eldest son to be named after his grandfather. That Romulus was not named Tatulus thus indicates that he was not the firstborn boy.{{Sfn|Kos|2008|p=442}}