14-5. The Rise of Ataulf, the Gothic Heir to Alaric
In 412 Gaul was beginning to emerge from a state of whirling chaos. The usurper within, and the barbarian from without, had divided the country since 406. There had been two swarms of invaders, and two different "tyrants.'' In 406 the Vandals, Alans, and Sueves had poured into Gaul, surged to the feet of the Pyrenees, and falling back for a while had then, with the aid of treachery, poured over the mountains and vanished into Spain, which henceforth became the prey of "four plagues — the sword, and famine, and pestilence, and the noisome beast" (409). In the wake of this tide had followed an influx of Pranks, Alemanni, and Burgundians; and in 411 these three peoples were still encamped in Gaul, along the western bank of the Rhine, preparing for a permanent settlement. The usurpation of Constantine in 406 had synchronised with the invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, Alans, and Sueves; and indeed, the invasion was probably the result of the usurpation, for Stilicho would seem to have invited these people into Gaul, in the hope of barring the usurper's way into Italy. In 409 a second tyrant had arisen in Spain: Gerontius, one of Constantine's own officers, had created a rival emperor, called Maximus; and it was this usurpation which had caused the invasion of Spain by the Vandals and their allies, Gerontius having invited them into Spain, as Stilicho had before invited them into Gaul, in order to gain their alliance in his struggle with Constantine. In 411 Gerontius had advanced into Gaul, and was besieging Constantine in Aries, while Constantine was hoping for the arrival of an army of relief from the barbarians on the Rhine.
At this moment Constantius, the new master of the troops, arrived in Gaul to defend the cause of the legitimate emperor, Honorius. He met with instant success. Gerontius was overwhelmed and perished: Constantine's barbarian reinforcements were attacked and defeated; Constantine himself was captured, and sent to Italy for execution. By the end of 411 Gaul was clear of both usurpers; and the Roman general stood face to face with the Franks, Alemanni, and Burgundians, who had meanwhile, during the operations round Aries, created a new emperor, Jovinus, to give a colour of legality to their position in Gaul. Without attacking Jovinus, however, Constantius seems to have left Gaul at the .end of the year, perhaps because the northward march of Ataulf was already causing unrest at Ravenna.
When Ataulf s march finally conducted him over Mont Genevre into Gaul, somewhere near Valence, in the spring of 412, it seemed probable that he would throw himself on the side of Jovinus, now encamped in Auvergne, and acquire from the usurper a settlement in southern Gaul. It was his natural policy: it was the course which was advised by the ex-Emperor Attains, who still followed in the train of the Goths. But Jovinus and Ataulf failed to agree. Ataulf seems to have occupied Bordeaux in the course of 412, and Jovinus regarded him as an intruder, whose presence in Gaul threatened himself and his barbarian allies; while on his side Ataulf attacked and killed one of Jovinus' supporters, with whom he had an ancient feud. Dardanus, the loyal praefect of the Gauls, was able to win Ataulf over to the side of his master, and some sort of treaty was made (413), by which Ataulf engaged to send to Honorius the heads of Jovinus and his brother Sebastian, in return for regular supplies of provisions, and the recognition, of his position in Bordeaux and the whole of Aquitanica Secunda.
Ataulf fulfilled his promise with regard to Jovinus and Sebastian; but by the autumn of 413 he had already quarrelled with Honorius, and the Goths and the Romans were once more at war. Two causes were responsible for the struggle. In the first place the government of Honorius had failed to provide the Goths with the promised supplies. The failure is evidently connected with the revolt of Heraclian, the Count of Africa, in the course of the year 413.
Heraclian, influenced by the example of the many usurpations in Gaul, and finding a basis in the anti-imperial sentiment of the persecuted Donatists of Africa, had prepared for revolt in 412; and in 413 he prohibited the export of corn from his province, the great granary of Rome, and had sailed for Italy with an armada which contained, according to Orosius, the almost incredible number of 3,700 ships. He was beaten at Otricoli in Umbria with great slaughter, and flying back to Africa perished at Carthage; but his revolt, however unsuccessful in its issue, exercised during its course a considerable effect on the policy of Honorius. On the one hand, it must have been largely responsible for the treaty with Ataulf in 413: the imperial Government needed Constantius in Italy to meet Heraclian, and, destitute of troops of its own in Gaul, it had to induce the Goths to crush the usurper Jovinus on its behalf. At the same time, however, the revolt had also exercised an opposite effect; it had prevented the imperial Government from furnishing the Goths with supplies, and had made it inevitable that Ataulf should seek by war what he could not get by peace.
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"for Italy with an armada which contained, according to Orosius, the almost incredible number of 3,700 ships"
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