9-10. The Invasion of Gaul by the Vandals
In the following year (405) the Ostrogoths and Vandals, the Alani and the Quadi under the leadership of Radagaisus left their homes, crossed the Alps, and descended into Italy. Their number, though much exaggerated by contemporary historians, must have been considerable; for the hostile army marched through the North of the peninsula in several divisions. Stilicho seems to have collected his troops at Pavia; the invasion happened at a very inopportune moment, as he was about to carry out his designs on Eastern Illyria. This time, however, he quickly succeeded in ridding himself of the enemy. He surrounded Radagaisus who had attacked Florence, in the narrow valleys of the Apennines near Faesulae, and destroyed a large part of his army. Radagaisus himself was captured with his sons whilst trying to escape, and was shortly afterwards executed. For this victory Stilicho's thanks were chiefly due to two foreign generals, Sarus the Goth and Uldin the Hun. In this manner Italy had indeed been speedily saved from great danger, but at the end of the next year (406) hostile hordes broke into Gaul with so much the greater violence. It is very probable that this invasion, which was undertaken by the Vandals, had some connexion with that of Radagaisus.
In conjunction with the Vandals were the Alani, who had recently formed an alliance with them, and the Suevi, by whom we must understand the Quadi, who had formerly dwelt north of the Vandals. This great tribal migration, following the road along the Roman frontier, reached the river Main, where they met the Silingi, a Vandal tribe which had gone westward with the Burgundians in the third century. These now helped to swell the Vandal hordes, whilst a part of the Alani under the leadership of Goar enlisted in the Roman army on the Rhine. Near this river the Vandals were attacked by some Prankish tribes, who were keeping guard on the frontier, in accordance with their treaty with Stilicho. In the ensuing fight the Vandals suffered severe losses, their king Godigisel being among the slain. On receiving this news the Alani immediately turned about, and, led by their king Respendial, they completely routed the Franks. On the last day of 406 this mass of people crossed the Rhine at Mainz, which they invested and destroyed.
The march was continued by Treves to Rheims, where the bishop Nicasius was slain in his own church; thence to Tournai, Terouenne, Arras, and Amiens. From this point the journey proceeded through Gallia Lugdunensis to Paris, Orleans, and Tours, and, passing through Aquitania into Novempopulana, by Bordeaux to Toulouse, which the bishop Exuperius saved from falling into the enemies' hands. But the fortified passes of the Pyrenees put a step to their further advance. Thus Spain remained unconquered for the present, and the Vandals now made their way into the rich province of Narbonensis. The devastation of the extensive provinces and the conquered cities of Gaul was terrible; contemporary writers of prose and verse alike complain bitterly of the atrocities committed by the barbarians in this unhappy country. The oldest people could not remember so disastrous an invasion., The weakness of the Empire is revealed by the absence of a Roman army to oppose the Germans, Stilicho's policy was at that time directed towards Illyria, and for this reason he probably found it impossible to come to the assistance of Gaul.
This first great danger was soon followed by a second. The migration of the Vandals had very likely caused the Burgundians along the middle course of the Main to become restless; they now began to bear down upon the Alemanni on the lower Main. A part of the Burgundians had perhaps intended to join the great migration of 406, for shortly after we meet with them on the west side of the Rhine. The most important result, however, was, that the Alemanni now entered on a campaign against Roman Upper Germany, and conquered Worms, Speier, and Strassburg. Here again the Empire failed to send help, and the allied Franks remained quiet. Stilicho meanwhile collected an army in 406 and arranged a plan with Alaric, by which he could carry out his Illyrian projects from Epirus. Already a Praefectus Praetorio for Illyria had been nominated in the person of Jovius, when in the year 407 an event occurred which threw everything else into the background. A new emperor appeared on the scene.
When a rumour had spread, that Alaric was dead, the legions in Britain after two unsuccessful attempts proclaimed Constantine emperor. According to Orosius, he was a common soldier, but his name excited hopes for better times. The new Emperor crossed over to Gaul without delay, where he was recognised by the Roman troops throughout the country. He immediately pushed forward into the districts along the Rhone, where, though he probably concluded treaties with the Alemanni, Burgundians, and Franks, he made but little impression on the Teutons who had invaded the land. But Stilicho had already sent the experienced general Sarus with an army against him. In the neighbourhood of Valence, which Constantine had made his temporary abode, his general Justinian was defeated and killed in battle by Sarus. Another of the usurper's generals met his death soon afterwards during an interview with the crafty Goth. When, however, Constantine sent against him his newly-appointed generals, the Frank Edobic and the Briton Gerontius, Sarus abandoned the siege of Valence and effected a passage into Italy by paying a sum of money to the fugitive peasants called Bagaudae, who at that time held the passes of the Western Alps. Stilicho joined Honorius at Rome to discuss the serious situation. Constantine, however, directed his attention towards Spain, evidently with a view to protect his rear before attacking Italy.
At the passes across the Pyrenees he met with energetic resistance from Didymus, Verenianus, Theodosius, and Logadius, all relatives of the Emperor. But Constantino's son Constans soon overcame the enemy; he captured Verenianus and Didymus, whilst Theodosius and Logadius fled, the former to Italy, the latter to the East. After this, when Constans had returned to Gaul in triumph, he entrusted the passes to Gerontius, who was in command of the Honorians, a troop of barbarian foederati. These, it appears, fulfilled their duty but indifferently, for during the quarrels which ensued in the borderlands the Vandals, Alani and Suevi, who had pushed on as far as southern Gaul, saw an opportunity of executing their design on Spain.
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