GERMANY FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD

 

PART III

THE MIGRATION

 

L.Revolt of the whole German Nation against Rome

 

The conquest of Dacia turned the scale in the great struggle between the two nations, and victory quitted the standards of Rome for those of Germany. A whole century had passed since the destruction of Velleda, marked, on the western frontier, by no occurrences of more importance than a few inconsiderable incursions. The Dacian war had scarcely affected the southern frontier. In the far interior of Germany no Roman army had again pen­etrated, and the Germans, rapidly increasing in number, quickly regained their diminished strength. Rome, meanwhile, was fast falling to decay. The mighty empire tottered beneath its own weight. The union of the numerous and various countries and nations of which it was composed could only be effected by the despotic extirpation of their national characteristics, their courage and their worth. Enslaved by luxury, and demoralized by a despotism based on the degradation of the people, these degenerate nations henceforward supplied weak and worthless troops, who, although superior in numbers and discipline, vainly sought to cope with the personal strength of their intrepid opponents, or to protect the sinking empire.

To the increasing population of Germany, and the growing corruption of Rome, may be ascribed the great events which took place during the second century after Christ, when a sudden and terrific irruption burst like a torrent from the interior of Germany, drawing after it fresh and countless hordes, before whose irresistible might Rome was at length forced to yield. This sudden irruption of the German nations was undoubtedly, like that of the Cimbri and Teutones, caused by movements in the north. The first impulse was apparently given by the Goths on the Baltic, whose descendants, at a later period, boasted of having gone, under the command of Berig, from the island of Skanzia (Schonen, the southern promontory of Sweden) to the south. But these northern Goths could not have been very numerous, and the enormous masses that poured in every direction across the Danube and the Rhine into the Roman provinces must have issued from the whole breadth and width of Germany, while a very small portion could have come from the north.

It is a circumstance of much greater importance, that from this period the countless minor tribes disappear, and are replaced by the great German nations, the Franks, Alemanni, Saxons, and Goths, which could as easily have sprung from the air, as from the cold and impoverished north, and are the identical nations which, a century earlier, inhabited the countries already mentioned. During the long peace, they had increased in numbers, and had become more civilized in their form of government, their laws, and their religion; and, after, a long silence, are again mentioned in history as the same, but a more polished, people. All the tribes of the Lower Rhine were gradually known only as the Catti and the Sicambri; all those on the Northern Ocean, as the Frisii, Chauci, and Angli; all those of Southern Germany, as the Alemanni and Bojoarii; all those of Central Germany, as the Hermunduri, Longobardi, and Burgundians; all those of Eastern Germany, as the Goths, Gepidae, and Vandali. The Franks and Saxons soon afterward appear in the place of the Sicambri and Chauci; and all these changes prove, that the small districts, formerly separate from and independent of each other, had everywhere united, and had formed into large communities. For instance, it would not have been possible for the great nation of the Franks to have sprung from the Sicambri alone. A union of all the numerous minor tribes in the neighbourhood, mentioned at an earlier period, but whose names have since disappeared, must first have taken place. The cause of this alliance is extremely obscure, but may have been induced by several circumstances, such as common origin, the superiority of a powerful tribe over its weaker neighbours, and finally, the necessity of leaguing together on account of the renewal of the war with Rome.

 

LI. The War of the Marcomanni

 

It is a remarkable fact that the Roman empire was simultaneously attacked, on the Rhine and Danube by the Germans, and in Asia by the Parthi or Persians, AD 162. The Rhenish tribes first rose. The Catti, formerly so inconsiderable, suddenly invaded Rhaetia in immense numbers, and advanced as far as the Alps, where they were opposed, and, after an obstinate battle (several women being found among the slain), defeated by Pertinax. About this time, the Chauci appeared on the Northern Ocean, and, landing from their pirate vessels, devastated the coasts of Gaul and Britain. Shortly after these events, the Germans rushed in enormous masses across the Danube, headed by the Marcomanni, whose name was given to the war, accompanied or followed by the Quadi, Bastarnae, and Hermunduri; the Vandali and Goths, with numerous minor tribes, the Astingi, Farisci, Burii, etc.; and probably also the Slavonian Jazyges, and Roxolani. These countless hordes first besieged Aquileia, AD 166, a large fortified town on the Adriatic. The brave defense of this place, and the sudden appearance of Marcus Aurelius, the wise and spirited emperor of Rome, returning at the head of his victorious legions from the Parthian war, induced the Germans to retire across the Danube, whence they soon returned, and again laid waste the Roman provinces. A dreadful plague at the same time ravaged the interior of the empire.

The emperor, undismayed by these calamities, collected indiscriminately all who were capable of bearing arms, even slaves and thieves, and marched to the Danube. It had been foretold to him, that if he caused two lions to swim across that river the enemy would flee; and he accordingly did so, when the Germans, mistaking them for a couple of dogs, killed them with their clubs. Two migrating Vandal tribes were afterward persuaded by the emperor to assist him against the other Germans, and after a desperate contest he was victorious over the Marcomanni and Jazyges. The battle with the latter took place in the middle of the frozen Danube. They were completely routed, and from this single nation were regained no less than 100,000 Roman prisoners; a circumstance calculated to give an idea of the magnitude of the war. The emperor followed up his victory by an attack upon the Quadi, who, retreating far into the interior, drew him gradually further into the vast wilderness, where his army was threatened with starvation from thirst, the long heats having dried up all the springs, and their fate seemed inevitable, when their fainting strength was revived by a sudden storm. A Christian legion, said to have worked this miracle by their prayers, hence received the name of the fiery legion. The Quadi were afterward forced to make peace, AD 174, and the emperor, taking advantage of the momentary tranquillity, restored the ruined fortresses on the banks of the Danube, built several others, and garrisoned them with 200,000 men. The Romans, pre­suming on their strength, now neglected to fulfil all the conditions of the peace, and began to annoy the Germans, who again revolted, and a battle was found which lasted an entire day. Before the war was concluded Marcus Aurelius died, and was succeeded by his son, Commodus, A.D. 180, a licentious youth, who, anxious only to continue his debaucheries at Rome, instantly concluded a shameful peace with the Germans.

 

LII. The Alemanni

 

This nation belonged to the ancient Suevi, and were the ancestors of the Swabians. The petty tribes dwelling to the south of the Catti and Hermunduri appear to have confederated with them, and early in the third century to have formed a mighty nation, which passed the Heidenmauer, destroyed the Roman cities and colonies, and made their name feared throughout the whole of the Black Forest as far as the Rhine. Although appearing under the name of the Alemanni as one distinct and individual nation, they were held by no firm political bond, and, as in earlier times, were divided into several districts, each completely independent of the other, and governed by its own council, laws, judge, or duke. Even in war time they oftener fought singly than in unison, and only on particular occasions elected a temporary war-chief. They were bounded on the north by the Catti and Hermunduri; on the east by the Cenni (the ancient Senones, who had mingled with the Alemanni when pursued by the Burgundians, who, issuing from Silesia, gradually advanced toward the west) and the Boii—Marcomanni (from whom descended the Bojoarii or Bavarians). In front of them, behind the Rhine, lay Germania Prima, Helvetia, and Rhaetia, against which they always, and with increasing boldness, directed their attacks.

They first appeared in modern Swabia after the great war of the Marcomanni, when peace reigned on the frontiers. Caracalla, the Roman emperor, took them into high favour, wore their dress and a light-coloured wig in order to resemble them the more closely, and is said to have been deprived of his senses by the magical songs of the Alemannic women; often telling the Germans that they ought to come over and destroy the Roman empire, and then putting the interpreters to death, lest the Romans should discover what he had said. This mad emperor, nevertheless, often ill-treated his German friends. On one occasion he sent for a number of the young Alemanni, under pretense of enrolling them in his army, and then, with a scornful laugh, ordered them to be put to death. A general insurrection, in which the Catti joined, was the immediate result. The emperor was victorious, and, after the battle, asking the captured women, which they preferred, death or slavery?, was answered by their murdering their children and then destroying themselves, AD 213.

During the campaign of his successor, Alexander Severus, in Parthia, the Germans again crossed the Rhine, and occasioned such universal terror that the emperor was obliged to hasten his return to Italy, where he was greeted with delight, but expired before the opening of the campaign, AD 234.

The name of the next emperor is traced in German his­tory in characters of blood. Public spirit no longer existed in any part of the empire. The soldiers, numbers of whom were Germans, usurped the chief authority and raised Maximin, a Goth, a man of extraordinary bodily strength, and accounted the bravest in the army, to the imperial throne. In order to prove to his subjects that he had renounced his former kindred, and was a thorough Roman, he instantly continued the Rhenish campaign with unusual vigour, and carried war and desolation into the very heart of his native country. At the head of an innumerable army, which he had himself conducted from the sands of Africa and the steppes of Parthia, he marched triumphantly about four hundred miles in different directions through Germany, burning and destroying all before him. A great battle took place in a now unknown morass or lake, in which the emperor narrowly escaped with his life. He is a proof of the truth of the axiom, "that the renegade is ever his country's bitterest foe". The ingratitude of the Roman fearfully avenged his crimes, and he and his son, who is said to have been the handsomest youth of his time, and who was on the eve of wedding the noblest and most beautiful of the Roman maidens, fell by their hands, AD 335.

 

LIII. Alemannic Warriors

 

The Alemanni invaded Gaul in AD 253. A young warrior inquiring of his mother how glory was to be gained, "There are only two ways," she replied, "one by creating grandeur, the other by destroying it." The latter possessed the higher attraction, and leading a large army across the Rhine, AD 259, he utterly destroyed more than sixty Gallic cities, of which not one stone was left upon the other. He subsequently fell into the hands of the Romans at Aries, and, imprisoned in an iron cage, was carried about the country, a fit object of contumely and scorn. Gallienus, who was then emperor, married Pipara, the beautiful daughter of a king of the Marcomanni. Roman history, the only one that touches upon these events, is neither graphic nor precise in respect to them, and merely speaks of a battle, near the Lake of Garda, where 300,000 of the Alpine Alemanni were defeated by 12,000 Romans; and records that not many years after the same nation again swarmed from the Rhine and the Alps, until checked by the bravery and skill of Probus, the warlike Roman emperor, who even, for a short time, restored the Heidenmauer, and the fortresses of Hadrian, AD 277.

Christianity, meanwhile, progressed. Crocus is said to have found some Christian clergy in Gaul, whom he obliged to sacrifice to the gods. According to the legend, the emperor, Maximian, caused a whole legion, named the Thebaii, with their leader, Mauritius, to be cut to pieces, AD 287, on account of their profession of the Christian faith, with which he feared they might infect the rest of the troops. This event took place at Sitten, or Sion, in Valais, on the spot where the large monastery of St. Moritz now stands. About the same period, at Augsburg, then a Roman city, St. Afra, a dissolute female, who had been suddenly converted to Christianity, which she zealously preached, suffered the death of a martyr, and was afterward canonized. Maximian, unable to stem the torrent that threatened to overwhelm Italy, now shared the imperial throne with Diocletian, who invaded Swabia, while he opposed the Franks and Saxons on the Lower Rhine; but so little was effected that the civil feuds among the Germans alone protected the Romans from destruction, AD 288. The Goths and Vandals pressed forcibly onward, opposed by the Thuringi, Burgundians, and Alemanni. "Holy Jupiter!" exclaimed the Roman, Mamertius, "at length they bathe in their own blood!". But the exultation of the Romans was only momentary; Hel­vetia was before long again invaded by the Alemanni, who, during this irruption, destroyed all the works of the Romans, particularly the magnificent cities of Vindonissa and Aventicum, AD 303, which were so completely razed to the ground that, fifty years later, a forest, known as the Helvetian Wilderness, covered their sites. The Alemanni were in such force on the Upper Rhine that Constantine the Great, the first emperor who professed Christianity, which he established throughout the empire, owed his elevation to the throne to their friendship, and particularly to that of their leader, Crocus. Proclaimed emperor by the troops on the Rhine, AD 306, he defeated his rival by the assistance of the Germans, whose services were afterward requited with ingratitude, as will hereafter be related. After waging a cruel war against the Pranks, he erected a fortress, named after him, Constance, on the Bodensee, with such a hostile intention against the Alemanni that they finally joined the Franks, but were defeated, and for some time after remained in tranquillity.

Constantius, the son and successor of Constantine, being furiously attacked by his father's bitter enemies, the Franks, anxiously sought the alliance of the Alemanni, whose chief, Chnodomar, a gigantic warrior, aided him in subduing them and their leader, Magnentius; but scarcely were they vanquished than the faithless emperor, uniting with a part of them, attacked his allies, AD 353, who revenged his treachery by devastating the Roman frontier. They were victori­ous on the Alps, but were afterward defeated near the Bodensee by Arbetius, the Roman general, AD 355. Shortly after this, the emperor Julian the Apostate, who commanded on the Rhine, and his lieutenant, Barbatius, simultaneously invaded Swabia, from opposite quarters; upon which the Alemanni marched boldly between the invading armies as far as Lyons, destroyed several cities on their route, and then, returning to the Rhine, suddenly attacked Barbatius, over whom they gained a complete victory, and retreated to their own country laden with spoil. Julian raised the fortress of Tres Tabemae, Zabern, as a rendezvous for the troops, and collected a numerous army, which induced the whole nation of the Alemanni to join the standard of Chnodomar, who, mounted on a fiery horse, his helmet adorned with red plumes, and an enormous lance in his right hand, crossed the Alps at their head, and solemnly demanded the cession of Alsace from the emperor, who dismissed his ambassadors, and gave him battle near Strasburg. An immense slaughter ensued. As soon as victory began to side with the Romans, the infantry of the Alemanni obliged their princes and nobles to dismount and to fight on foot, so that none could save themselves by flight. Chnodomar, becoming entangled in a morass, was taken prisoner, and two hundred of his companions in arms, who formed his bodyguard, voluntarily yielded to the conqueror, in order to share his fate. He was carried to Rome, where he died of nostalgia. Julian then sailed up the Maine, wasting the country of the Alemanni on the right bank as far as Spessart, where the natives made a valiant defense behind an impenetrable abatis. The greater part of the nation was however, forced to submit, and to deliver up 20,000 Roman prisoners, besides furnishing wood from their forests for the reconstruction of the cities they had destroyed on the Rhine, AD 357. The Alemanni were now hard pushed by Julian, who, following up his victory, and contriving to render their leaders suspected, and to set them at variance, took some by stratagem, and made the rest submit by force. On their again meeting, as was their custom, for the purpose of planning a conspiracy, during one of their midnight festivals, he attacked them so suddenly that they escaped with great difficulty by flight, AD 359. Vadomar, whom he invited to a banquet and treacherously seized, afterward served in Asia, and distinguished himself as a Roman general in the Parthian war. After the departure of Julian, the Alemanni regained courage, crossed the Rhine on the ice, and devastated Gaul, but were surprised near Chalons, while bathing in the Marne, by Jovinus, who put them to the rout, and hanged their leader, AD 360. The following year they made another incursion under Rhando, and attacked the city of Mayence; upon which the emperor Valentinian, assisted by Jovinus, invaded the Black Forest, AD 361, where he was skilfully opposed by Viticabius, the sickly but energetic son of Vadomar, and by Macrian, the equally sickly, but intelligent leader of the Catti; the former of whom he caused to be murdered. The latter defied his attempts. The Alemanni and Catti made a desperate defense on a high mountain near Sulz AD 368. The emperor, unable to reduce them to submission, now incited the Burgundians against them, and a quarrel, similar to that between the Catti and Hermunduri, arose between them, on account of the salt­works on their frontiers, and the Burgundians marched against them to the number of 80,000 men. Upon this, Macrian prudently made terms with them, and avoided a battle; and the Romans, afraid of their new guests, breaking the treaty, the Burgundians murdered the Roman delegates, AD 370, and returned to their own country. The indefatigable Alemanni, while Macrian, with equal perseverance, sought to confederate the whole of the northern Germans against him. The emperor, discovering some of his letters to Hortar, a conquered Alemannic prince, tortured him to death, and nearly succeeded in capturing Macrian at Wiesbaden, where he was lying sick, AD 371. The repeated and bloody defeats suffered by the Romans on the Danube, in their war with the Goths, now forced them to withdraw from the Rhine, where the faithless Mellobaudes, who favored the Romans, laid wait for Macrian and murdered him. Two years after, AD 375, the Alemanni, under Priarius, invaded Alsace, but were defeated and cut to pieces at Colmar by Mellobaudes. Although the power of Rome was forever annihilated, the Alemanni were forced to quit Gaul, and, wandering southward, peopled the Alps, where their descendants, the Swiss, still dwell. In the fourth century, Ausonius, the Roman poet, whose works are still extant, immortalized the charms of Bissula, an Alemannic maid.

 

LIV. The Franks

 

Among the Low German tribes, who fought under Armin, appear the Catti and the Chauci, who, in the third century, although the names of the individual tribes were not yet entirely lost, were gradually included under the general denomination of Franks and Saxons. Frank signifies free, and the tribes that confederated for the preservation of their freedom were distinguished by this name. The experience gained in the Roman war taught them the value of union, and their ancient book of laws boasts in its preface that the confeder­ated Franks were powerful enough completely to cast off the galling Roman yoke. Their name, although not mentioned by the Roman historians until the third century after Christ, may, with great probability, be ascribed to the time of Civilis, who rouse all the Lower Germans in the name of Freedom, and, according to Tacitus, said expressly to the people of Cologne, "You will be free (frank) among the free" (franken). Kazarius, the panegyrist of Constantine, says that all the Lower German tribes had formed a strong league. The Franks, like the Alemanni, were for a long period a simple federation of independent tribes, composed of the Sicambri, Chamavri, Bructeri, Catti, Cherusci, etc., and all the other petty Low German tribes, which, with the exception of a few that united with the Saxons, were, at a later period, included under two heads, as Salic and Ripuarian Franks. They had also among them many petty leaders or dukes, who were even oftener at feud with one another than those of the Alemanni. They are first mentioned as fighting against the emperor Gallienus, by whom they were defeated, AD 256. They subsequently made a great irruption into Gaul, AD 260, and thence penetrating into Spain (according to Aurelius Victor, who merely mentions the fact), destroyed the great city of Tarragona, and for twelve years maintained their position on the other side of the Pyrenees, whence they were driven by Posthumus. Their ships are said, even at that early period, to have visited Africa. Aurelian repelled a fresh irruption of the Franks into Gaul, AD 265. After his death, AD 273, they again invaded that country, and found a powerful opponent in his successor, Probus, who defeated both them and the Alemanni, AD 277, repaired the old Roman fortresses, walls, and roads, and subdued the Gothic Lygii and Arii, whose prince, Semnus, fell into his hands. He also reduced the Burgundians and Vandals, in the interior of Germany, to submission, took Igillus, the Vandal prince, prisoner, and settled the vanquished tribe in the country of Vandelsburg, in Britain; his policy being to remove the Germans to distant countries, when he engaged them in the Roman service. He valued the Germans at a gold piece a head, and carried on a regular plan of kidnapping. He caused several thousand Frankish men and youths to be transported to Asia, where he settled them on the borders of the Black Sea. He remained for some time on the Rhine, fortifying the banks and adorning them with vineyards. The fortifications were afterward destroyed by the Franks and Alemanni, who carefully preserved the vineyards from injury, and cultivated them with the greatest assiduity. These improvements were fatal to the emperor Probus, who was murdered by his own soldiers, impatient of the hard labour imposed upon them in the cultivation of these vineyards. At the same time, the Franks, who had been transported to Asia, being pressed beyond endurance, suddenly rose, and after murdering all the Romans in their vicinity, seized a considerable fleet, which lay at anchor in the Black Sea, sailed to the Archipelago, plundered the wealthy maritime cities and landed in Sicily, where they took the great city of Syracuse, and returned to their ships laden with booty. Landing in Africa, they battled with the Romans beneath the walls of Carthage, and being worsted, retreated to their ships, sailed unopposed through the Mediterranean, and coasting Spain and Gaul, as far as the Northern Ocean, returned laden with wealth to their native country.

 

LV. Frankish Upstarts and Traitors

 

After the death of Probus, the Franks again crossed the frontier, and attacked the emperor Maximian at Treves, where he held his court, but were repulsed, and compelled to replace their prince, Genobaudes, whom they had driven away, on his throne. In the hope of winning them over, the emperor ceded the waste country lying on the frontiers, and entered into an alliance with them. This narrow-sighted policy produced most important results. The Franks, taking advantage of their central position, aided the Romans against the other Germans, or vice versa, as better suited their own projects of aggrandizement, while they imperceptibly in» creased in power and in political weight.

Constantine the Great, although a Christian, was cruel, false, and treacherous, and the instigator of treason in others. When celebrating his victory over the Franks at Treves, he caused a number of the prisoners, among others two Frankish princes, Ascar and Ragais, to be thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre, where, smiling in scorn, they met their doom with the utmost intrepidity. The whole of the Germans, Franks, and Alemanni, enraged at this act of cruelty and thirsting for revenge, united against the emperor, who, entering their camp in disguise, gave them false information of his departure, and of the place and time when he would be most open to attack. The stratagem succeeded, and the allied Germans were completely beaten, AD 310. He now plotted their entire reduction, and pretending to be on the point of undertaking an expedition against the Alemanni, suddenly changed his course, and marching down the Rhine unexpectedly attacked the Franks, AD 318. The erection of a great bridge near Cologne afforded him for the future free ingress into their country. (This bridge was standing until 955, when it was broken up by order of Archbishop Bruno, and the stones were used in building the monastery of St. Pantaleone.) Notwithstanding this ill treatment, the Franks again befriended the emperor, and flocking beneath his standard, aided in vanquishing Licinius, the competitor for the imperial throne. It was on this occasion that he invoked the God of the Christians to grant him the victory, and in consequence of his success embraced their religion. The importance to which the Frankish nation had already risen is clearly demonstrated by the circumstance of a soldier named Magnentius having set himself up as a candidate for the imperial throne, in opposition to Constantius, the successor of Constantine. He was betrayed by Silvanus, one of his countrymen, who deserted to the emperor with part of his followers at the decisive moment. On the eve of the great battle of Mursa on the Drave, Magnentius entreated the gods for victory, and after sacrificing a maiden on the altar, mixed her blood with wine, which he distributed to the whole army. His defeat was decisive, and he killed himself. His brother, Deventius, who had remained in Gaul, defended himself for some time, but, finding opposition useless, also deprived himself of life, AD 353. Silvanus, after assisting in driving his fellow countrymen back to the frontier, incurred the suspicion of having connived at a fresh and unexpected irruption on their part, in which they destroyed forty cities, and Constantius lending an ear to the insinuations of his secret enemies, he was compelled to seek safety by flight, and rejoined his countrymen, who received him with delight, and solemnly proclaimed him emperor at Cologne. He was murdered by a certain Nosicius, a AD 356, a pretended deserter, employed for that purpose by Constantius. The emperor Julian also combated the Franks, who, for thirty days, fruitlessly besieged him in Sens, when dissension again broke out among them. The ancient Sicambri, who dwelt close to the Roman frontier, were pressed upon by their neighbours the Chamavri. Charietto, the leader of the Sicambri, aided by Julian, defeated the Chamavri, and took their chief, Neliogast, prisoner, AD. 360. The whole frontier of the Netherlands was afterward held by the Sicambri as a Roman fief, and they are henceforward known as the Salic Franks. Charietto became their first prefect, and afforded great assistance to the emperor agains the Alemanni. He was succeeded by Mellobaudes, who was also in alliance with Rome.

Somewhat later, the Franks were governed by three princes, Marcomir, Genobald, and Sunno; and it appears that at that period a reaction took place in the feelings of the people, who once more began to feel ashamed of the treasonable part they enacted by thus affording assistance to the enemies of their country. Their countryman, Arbogastes, the zealous ally of Rome, was their most violent opponent during their heroic struggle for freedom.

The emperor Maximus sent Quintinus at the head of a powerful force into their country, where they lay in wait for him in the forests, as is expressly related, armed with poisoned arrows, and he suffered a discomfiture as complete as that of Varus, but few of the soldiers escaping to bear news of the disaster. The conquerors followed up their victory by the invasion of Gaul, AD 388, when they were at first opposed by Arbogastes, who soon after, changing his plans, arbitrarily set up a new emperor, by name Eugenius, a rhetorician, and negotiated for peace and alliance with the invaders, whom he finally persuaded to lend their aid to Eugenius, upon which a destructive war broke out between them and the rival emperor, Theodosius, who was supported by the Goths. A great battle took place between the two nations at Aquileia, in which the Goths were victorious. Eugenius was executed, and Arbogastes fled to the Alps, where he put an end to his life, AD 394.

The difference between the national character of the Franks and that of the Alemanni is visible even at this early period; and to the close alliance that so long subsisted between the Franks and the Romans may be justly ascribed the traits which, at a later period, distinguished the former, whose upstart warriors have ever been noted for treachery, ambition, and love of luxury. "Choose the Frank for a friend, but not for a neighbor," was even then a proverb. Salvianus says, "The Franks, instead of deeming perjury criminal, call it a mere façon de parler." "They laugh, and break their word," observes Vopiscus. A practice they had probably acquired among other Roman customs, and which was unknwn to the other nations of Germany, who, uncontaminated by an alliance with the enemies of their country, ever retained their love of simplicity and truth.

 

LVI. The Saxons

 

The Saxons dwelt beyond the Franks, and consisted of the Chauci, Frisii, and the remnants of the tribes collected on the coasts of the Northern Ocean and the Baltic. Their name has been variously derived from the ancient Sacae on the Indus, from Sachs, race, or from Sassen, freeholders. According to tradition, they came by sea (from the army of Alexander the Great) to Hadel, where they landed, and buying from the Thuringi, who at that period stretched far down toward the Northern Ocean, a gownful of earth, spread it over a large territory, to which they laid claim, and then inviting the Thuringian chiefs to meet them unarmed for the purpose of negotiating the affair, murdered them during the banquet with knives worn for that purpose, concealed beneath their dresses. According to a legend somewhat similar to that of the Edda, the Saxons and their first king Ascan sprang from the rocks of the Harz Mountains; and the proverb, "There are Saxons wherever pretty girls grow out of the trees," is still in use. The ancient account of this people is very obscure. Odin went from Saxony to Scandinavia, and his descendants at a later period from that country to England. In the beginning of the third century, the Chauci were powerful by sea, and plundered the Roman coasts; and somewhat later, the Saxons were continually at war with the Normans in Denmark and Norway. When the Roman empire was under the joint rule of Diocletian and Maximian, the former of whom defended the Danube, the latter the Rhine, the subjection of the Saxon pirates, who had long and unopposed infested the northern seas, was planned, and toward the close of the third century, Carausius, an experienced sea captain, attacked and overcame them. He subsequently entered into a strict alliance with them, and set himself up as emperor, a title which he, for some time, maintained by their assistance.

The connection between the Saxons and the Vindili, or the Gothic tribes on the Baltic, is also buried in obscurity. When the latter, migrating in a body to the south, left their ancient place of abode completely unoccupied, they were suc­ceeded by the Slavian tribes, who, settling there, became the eastern neighbours of the Saxons. It is only known for cer­tain, that a part of the Saxons accompanied the Longobardi to Italy, but by far the greats number migrated to England. It was customary for the old men to remain at home, while the surplus population, consisting of young and hardy warriors, was annually sent forth to seek a settlement elsewhere, and to win a new country by their swords. Godfrey of Monmouth, the English chronicler, relates that the first Saxons who visited England alleged this custom as the reason of their migration. An annual meeting of all the chiefs of the people was held at Marklo in Saxony, and the young men, chosen by lot, were, according to law, obliged to bid an eternal farewell to their native country.

 

LVII. The Goths

 

Toward the close of the second century, the great nation of the Goths, accompanied by countless other northern tribes, descended from the north to the coasts of the Black Sea. Tradition records that the ancestors of the Goths sailed in three ships, commanded by King Berig, from their ancient home, Gothland in Sweden, to the German side of the Baltic, and landed at Gothiscantzia (Dantzig). One of their ships arriving later than the rest, the men on board of it received the name of Gepidae, from the word gapan, to stare idly, to delay, to gape. Gradually spreading along the coast, they conquered the Ulmerugi and Vandali, but meeting with opposition from the Saxons in their advance toward the west, they turned southward, conquering the tribes or forcing them along with them on their route, and at length reached the Black Sea. Many of the Goths were, however, left in the north, in the part of Sweden that still bears the name of Gothland. The preponderance of the Gothic name over those of the other eastern German tribes perhaps arose from an ancient religious superstition, as well as from their intellectual superiority. The civilized manners of the Greeks and Romans, and, in later times, Christianity, rapidly spread among them, and the regulations they introduced, during the peace consequent on the cessation of migration, were followed by all the other German tribes, and laid the foundation of a new era. In other respects, the Goths had the same form of government with the other Germans. Each tribe was sometimes headed by an independent chief, who was either a judge, a duke, or a king; sometimes several of these tribes obeyed a common head, or it happened that a king, who had gained the upper hand, reigned over several minor and tributary chiefs; but this sort of authority was never of long continuance, and the tribes became once more independent. At length, the chiefs of the most considerable tribes succeeded in retaining during peace the authority intrusted to them during war, and rendered their dignity not only perpetual, but also added to it a power which soon threatened the ancient liberties of the people; the natural result of protracted warfare and of encroaching military rule. In the great Gothic migrations, the Goths seem to have been the most considerable nation, and appear after the Marcomanni, Quadi, Getae, Peucini, and Bastarnae, who must have been gradually incorporated with them, as they also were generally denominated Goths, and were divided into Ostrogoths, of which the Gruthungri formed the most considerable tribe, and Visigoths, the chief tribes of which were the Therwingri and Taiphali. Connected with the Goths were the Gepidae, who are said to have accompanied them; the Longobardi, from Denmark; the Heruli, also from the Scandinavian north; the Vandali, from the Baltic; the Rugii, from the island of Rugen; the Burgundians, from the Oder. The Alani, Hirri, and Scirri, are of dubious origin; and the Jazyges and Roxolani, who joined the Goths in their march, were without doubt Sclavonians.

 

LVIII. Great Irruption against Rome

 

The Goths were already known at the time of the war with the Marcomanni, to whose rear they had been long settled before they made a direct attack upon the Roman empire. During the discussion of this project in the popular assembly; three of their chiefs were struck by lightning, and the unlucky omen caused its renunciation, AD 193. In the commencement of the third century, they had become extremely powerful, and compelled the emperor Caracalla to pay them an annual tribute; and shortly after, Maximin, a Goth by birth, was raised to the imperial throne, who, how­ever, was so devoid of patriotism, as to include his fellow countrymen in the fierce and cruel war carried on by him against the western Germans. After his death, the tribute was again exacted from the Romans, and the Goths invaded Greece under Ostrogotha, Argaith, and Guntherich, AD 245. Ostrogotha subsequently became a powerful monarch. Fastida, the great Vandal king, rendered insolent by his victories over the Burgundians, insisted upon the partition of the kingdom of Ostrogotha, who vainly represented the folly of the demand, and advised him to beware of attacking his brethren, but Fastida, deaf to reason, persisted in his ambi­tious schemes, and was overthrown.

A formidable Gothic army under Cniva now invaded Moesia, AD 350, defeated the Romans in a great battle at Beraea, and took possession of Philippopolis, where 100,000 men were put to the sword. During their march toward Greece, the emperor Decius fell upon their rear and attempted to cut them off; a fierce struggle ensued, in which Cniva proved victorious. The emperor and his son were drowned in a lake, and Gallus, his successor, bribing him to make peace by the payment of a large sum of money, the Gothic chief departed, laden with booty. In 258, several hordes, under different chiefs, crossed the Black Sea, and after plundering and destroying the cities of Asia Minor, returned to their country; and, reappearing the following year, AD 259, stormed and sacked the city of Trapezus by night. The cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia were burned to the ground during a subsequent incursion, AD 260. In 236 they again crossed the Black Sea, under Respa, Veduco, Thuro, and Bato, and overran the whole of Asia Minor, plundering and devastating that rich and fertile country. On their return home, laden with booty, they were attacked in the Euxine and defeated by a Roman fleet. In the following year, 267, a numerous horde, under King Naulobates, undertook a similar expedition, plundered the Asiatic coasts, and afterward landed in Greece, where they destroyed a number of magnificent cities. Athens, the seat of ancient learning, was taken, and the stupendous collection of Greek books contained in that city was on the point of being burned, when an old man, rising up, advised them to leave the Greeks all their books, "for," said he, "so long as they use their pens with so much diligence, they will never understand the use of their swords." The emperor Gallienus, after attacking and defeating them on their return home overland, entered into alliance with them, and since that period the Heruli were almost constantly engaged in the imperial service. Two years later, AD 369, two fresh expeditions were undertaken by the Goths. An enormous horde crossed the Black Sea with 6,000 ships, and landed on the banks of the Danube, whence, being forced to retreat by the Romans, they sailed into the Archipelago, and laid waste the whole of Greece; but, when attempting to return overland to the Danube, they encountered the emperor Claudius, and being defeated at Naissus, took refuge on Mount Haemus, where, hemmed in on every side, they fell victims to hunger and pestilence. Another horde, after coasting along Asia Minor, landed in Cyprus, spreading desolation wherever they appeared, and destroying all the cities. It was by them that the celebrated ancient temple of Diana at Ephesus, reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, was burned. On their return home through Greece they were also cut to pieces. These considerable losses for some time checked the inroads of the Goths and several warlike emperors successively mounting the throne, who personally conducted the war on the Danube, they were compelled to remain within their own limits. Aurelian, whose wars, although probably some of the most remarkable that took place, are only lightly mentioned in history, gained several signal victories over them. While the Goths, as usual, made an incursion into Greece, the Marcomanni and Vandali invaded Italy; the former were defeated with immense slaughter by Aurelian in Hungary; the latter, meanwhile, advanced as far as Milan, and caused such terror in Rome that extraordinary human sacrifices were offered, in order to appease the anger of the gods. Aurelian overtook the enemy at Placentia, where he suffered a defeat; but the Romans, whose courage rose with the danger, fought on subsequent occasions with such intrepidity, that after winning the battles of Fano and Pavia they forced the Marcomanni to retreat. Aurelian's triumph was graced with singular trophies; besides the car of a Gothic king, drawn by six stags, there were several Amazons, who had been captured sword in hand, among whom the youthful Hunilda, celebrated among the Romans for her wit, was particularly distinguished. She afterward became the wife of a man of rank named Bonosus, who, aided by the Goths, aspired to the imperial throne, and, on discovering the inutility of his attempt, deprived himself of life. Aurelian owed his victories over the Goths to his German mercenaries, chiefly Franks, some of whose generals are mentioned by name, Hartmund, Haldegast, Hildomann, Cariovist. The emperor Probus watched the Danube as carefully as the Rhine, refortified the banks of both rivers, and introduced the vine into Hungary. The emperor Galerius valiantly opposed the Goths, and Constantine the Great did not belie the cunning he had practiced on the Rhine, by his conduct toward them. When defeated and forced to seek safety by flight by their king Ararich, he incited the Slavonian Sarmatians against them, AD 331; but his project being foiled by the sudden revolt of the Slavi against their own nobles, whom they had no sooner driven out of the country than they concluded peace with the Germans, he induced the Vandals to attack the Goths, and upon the defeat of their king Vidumar by Geberich, the successor of Ararich, he took them under his protection and employed them in his service. At Constantinople, the new capital of the eastern empire, there were no less than 40,000 Varingians, or mercenaries, in his pay. Among the countless Roman prisoners carried by the Goths into the interior of their country, were several Christians, who succeeded in converting a great part of the people to Christianity. The Goths in the imperial service were also, for the most part Christians; and when, on the conversion of Constantine, that religion was established throughout the empire, a grand convocation of the whole of the Christian clergy was held at Nice, in which the Catholic Church was recognized as the only true one, AD 325.

Several Gothic bishops, present at this assembly, opposed this decision, from a conviction of the incompatibility of Catholicism with the pure doctrine of the Saviour.

 

LIX. The Great Empire of Hermanarich—Origin of the Huns

 

Peace was no sooner established with Rome than internal feuds broke out among the Germans. The Ostrogoths under Ararich and Geberich had already subjugated the Burgundians, Alani, Vandals, and Gepidae. Geberich's successor, Hermanarich (the royal family of the Ostrogoths was called the Amali—the immaculate?), also subdued the Heruli and several Slavonian tribes, besides including the Visigoths beneath his rule, although Athanarich, their prince or judge, was permitted to retain something of his independence, and was a viceroy rather than a subject. The empire of Hermanarich spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and this great king, of whom there unfortunately exists but a very meager account, entered into an alliance with Rome, and carried his victorious arms far to the northeast; the treaty being alone infringed by Athanarich, who waged a three years' war against the emperor Valens, whose rival, Procopius, was supported by the Visigoths. When Hermanarich was very old, his empire was threatened by the Huns, an immense swarm of misshapen barbarians, who gradually advanced from the depths of Asia toward Europe. The Slavonian tribes took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded to free themselves from the Gothic yoke. The prince of the Roxolani went over to the Huns, and his wife Sanieth, being, by Hermanarich's command, torn to pieces by horses, her brothers attempted to revenge her death on the aged king, whom they grievously wounded, but did not succeed in depriving of life, and who, when he beheld his kingdom a prey to discord within, and threatened by the Huns from without, when, helpless from his wounds and the infirmities of old age, he was no longer able to ward off defeat, voluntarily put an end to his existence in his one hundred and tenth year.

The Huns (Monguls, Calmucks, wandering shepherd tribes) were natives of the north of Asia, and inhabited the immense steppes lying between Russia and China. Divided into tribes and families, and unpossessed of either cities or houses, they wandered from place to place, seeking pasturage for their cattle, and dwelt in tents, in which they also stabled their horses. From being constantly on horse­back, their legs were weak and crooked. They were short of stature, extremely broad-shouldered, with strong muscular arms; had coarse protruding lips, small flat noses, yellow complexions, and thick short necks; in a word, they were quite as hideous as the Kalmucks of the present day. Their horrid ugliness, immense numbers, activity on horseback, and skill in archery, struck terror even into the hearts of the brave Goths, who deemed them the descendants of wicked demons; a superstition that greatly conduced to their success. Hermanarich had no sooner taken his seat among his ancestors in Walhalla than his great empire was dissolved. Part of the Ostrogoths remained faithful to his son Hunimund, while the rest raised Winithar to the throne. The pagan Visigoths attached themselves to Athanarich, who belonged to the ancient race of the Balti, but those who had embraced Christianity were ruled by their dukes Fridigern and Alavius (Olaf). Dissension, meanwhile, pre­vailed. Athanarich, accusing the Christian Goths of having abandoned the ancient manners and customs of Germany for those of Rome, fanatically persecuted them, and, on one oc­casion, had an idol carried in procession before their houses, and put all those to death who refused to fall down and worship it.

Balamir, the great prince of the Huns, overcame Hunimund and marched against Winithar, who, after twice defeating him, fell in a third engagement, and the Ostrogoths were constrained to fly. Part of them subsequently submitted to the Hun, who had married the beautiful Waldamara, the widow of Winithar, whose son Widerich, together with Alatheus and Saphrax, two Ostrogothic chiefs, assembled the remnant of the people and fled. The Visigoths, who had beheld the defeat of their brethren unmoved, perceived, when too late, the danger to which their supineness exposed them, but boldly and resolutely taking the field, marched in a body to oppose the passage of the Huns across the Dniester; the enemy, however, crossing the river at an­other point, surrounded and defeated them, and they were driven behind the Pruth, where, for some time, they val­iantly defended themselves behind a long wall which they had hastily thrown up; but, at length, finding opposition futile, they severally dispersed; Fridigern and Alavius seek­ing refuge within the Roman frontier, while Athanarich, who viewed the Romans as the hereditary foes of his coun­try and despised them on account of their being Christians, and who, moreover, had taken a solemn oath to his father never to set his foot on Roman ground, took shelter in the valleys of Transylvania.

 

LX. Migration of the Goths into the Roman Empire

 

On reaching the Danube, Fridigern and Alavius sent Ulphilas (little wolf), the pious and learned Gothic bishop, to entreat the emperor Valens for land on the Roman side of the Danube, as an asylum from the Huns. This bishop was the first translator of the Bible into German. Part of this translation is still extant, and forms a curious record of the ancient Gothic language and state of civilization. He persuaded the emperor to allow the Goths to pass the frontier, on the ground of its being far more dangerous to repel them by force; and his consent was at length gained, on condition of their delivering up their arms, and regularly paying for their provisions. The superintendent, sent for this purpose to the Danube, took advantage of their blind confidence in his honesty to cheat them in every way, and, when their money was spent, deprived them of their beautiful women and children; in his rapacity overlooking the fact that a great number of the Goths had, in their impatience, crossed the river without yielding up their arms. Deceit, ill-treatment, and the scanty allowance of food, ere long forced them, although the greater number were unarmed, to assume a threatening posture, which caused the Romans to concentrate all the forces quartered on the Danube on one point. While the banks were in this defenseless state, the Ostrogoths under Alatheus and Saphrax arrived, and crossed the river unquestioned and unopposed. The Visigoths meanwhile advanced as far as the great city of Marcianople, where the governor, Lupicinus, invited the chiefs to a banquet. Their prolonged absence from the camp caused the people to suspect foul play, and they began to storm the closed gates of the city, upon which the treacherous Roman instantly ordered his guests to be put to death. In this strait, Fridigern, with great bold­ness and presence of mind, calmly represented to him that, if he and his companions were murdered, the city would inevitably be destroyed by their avenging countrymen, but that, if they were set at liberty, they would quickly be appeased. These reasons induced Lupicinus to allow them to quit the city, and Fridigern, true to his word, caused the Goths to retire. But suspicion and enmity had now replaced their former confidence, and they found themselves abandoned to misery and want. The Romans repented of having permitted the entrance of such a numerous horde into their territory. Lupicinus at length resolved to have recourse to arms, and marching with his whole force against them, suffered a complete defeat. This victory placed the country at the mercy of the Goths, who seized the weapons and the produce of the land. The Ostro and Visigoths united in one body, and were joined by the Varingi, or Gothic mercenaries, who had been in the Roman service since the time of Constantine, and were commanded by Sueridus and Colias. They had been quartered at Adrianople, and the Romans, apprehending their desertion, intended to have sent them to Asia Minor, but impolitically refusing the payment of their arrears, they quitted the imperial service and went over to their countrymen. The in­habitants of Mount Hoemus, and the rest of the population who groaned beneath the heavy Roman yoke, hailed the Goths as their deliverers, joyfully guided them through the country, and delivered up to them the concealed treasure and provisions. Their further advance was impeded by the city of Adrianople, which long withstood the attack of assailants ignorant of the mode of besieging fortified places. While they were thus engaged, the emperor Valens returned from the Persian war, at the head of a great army, strengthened by innumerable Frankish auxiliaries under Richomer, Mellobaudes, and Frigeridus. Even at that early period a hatred existed between the Franks and the Saxons, which until very lately remained unabated. Valens and the Franks were at first victorious, but when the defeated Goths entered into an alliance with the Alani and the Huns, who, at that juncture, poured across the Danube, an engagement such as Europe had never before witnessed, in which a million of men strove, took place on the plains of Adrianople. The Roman army was completely annihilated, and Valens, who had been carried wounded into a hut, was there burned to death, 9th August, 378. The Romans, burning to revenge their defeat, now collected their whole force, and simultaneously murdered all the Goths that remained in Asia Minor, whether Varingians or private individuals. Theodosius the Great, the newly-elected emperor, a mighty warrior at the head of a numerous and exasperated army, aided by the Franks under Bauto and Arbogastes, wiped off the disgrace that had befallen the Roman arms in the plains of Adrianople by several brilliant victories, and chased the invading hordes across the Danube, where they fell into the hands of the merciless Huns. In the confusion of the time, the brave Fridigern, who, until then, had kept the Goths united, is lost sight of; and the aged Athanarich was induced to quit his forest abode in order to form a rallying point for his dispersing countrymen. The Huns, whom a part of the Ostrogoths had already joined, appeared to him more dangerous than the Romans, and, forgetful of his oath, he sought an alliance with the latter, and strove to assemble all the Visigoths within their territory; a proposal gladly assented to, as, by this means, the Visigoths became a bulwark against the Huns. Theodosius treated Athanarich with great honour, gave him a magnificent palace at Constantinople, and, at his death, which took place soon after these events, followed the aged warrior to his grave. The greater part of the Visigoths remained in Greece in close alliance with the Romans, and were again formed into a corps of mercenaries or Varingians, commanded by their own chiefs, and governed by their own laws. Capable of a higher degree of cultivation than the other German tribes, they ere long acquired all that was elevated and refined in the Roman manners, without becoming enervated by luxury or losing their natural nobility of character, and were consequently so highly esteemed by the Romans as to be preferred, on account of their capacity, to the highest offices of state. The Roman historians of that time even acknowledge that the Germans were deemed men, and the Romans women. Their influence even extended to dress. The fops of that period wore a light-coloured wig, and the Roman senators did not disdain to adopt the Gothic furs in the place of the ancient toga. Saul, Gainas and Alaric are mentioned as warriors serving in the imperial army, whose prowess gained the important victory over Eugenius, the rival emperor, the traitor Arbogastes, and the Franks. Christianity received a fresh impulse through the alliance of the Goths with Rome. Fritigil, a prince of the Marcomanni, visited Milan, during the reign of Theodosius, in order to see St. Ambrose, the archbishop. The Ostro-Gothic Gruthungri, who had retreated across the Danube under Alatheus and Saphrax, alone refused to come to terms, and again making an incursion for the purpose of plunder, were defeated and driven back by Theodosius. Alatheus fell on the field of battle.

The position of the empire, and the double danger to which it was exposed from the Danube and the Rhine, convinced Theodosius the Great of the expediency of dividing the government, and he accordingly willed that the empire should be divided after his death, which happened in 395, between his sons, Honorius and Arcadius, the former of whom reigned at Rome as Emperor of the West, and the latter at Constantinople as Emperor of the East.

 

LXI. Alaric

 

Many of the Gothic chiefs in the Roman empire raised themselves to high distinction, more particularly Alaric, a descendant of the Balti, who, on being elected king by the majority of the Visigoths, instantly planned the most daring enterprises, and, suddenly invading Greece, plundered and destroyed the most considerable cities, AD 396, sparing Athens alone, owing to a superstitious notion that he beheld Pallas, the patroness of the city, standing before the gates. Arcadius being unable to oppose him, Honorius sent Stilico, a Vandal (who had been raised by Theodosius to the highest dignities of state), to his assistance, who succeeded in inclosing Alaric within the mountains of the Peloponnesus, but afterward allowed him to retreat from a desire of injuring Arcadius. A bitter jealousy had arisen between the eastern and western empires, of which Alaric skilfully took advantage, and fixed himself in Illyria, where, placed between Rome and Constantinople, he lost no opportunity of promoting his own interest in both quarters. At this time another Goth, named Gainas, who had gained considerable power in Constantinople, and was plotting the seizure of the imperial crown, happening to absent himself on a recruiting expedition, the Romans suddenly attacked and murdered all the Goths in the city, and Gainas being discomfited by another Gothic army under Frajuta, that remained faithful to the imperial standard, fled across the Danube, and fell into the hands of Uldes, prince of the Huns, who put him to death. Shortly after this event, Alaric undertook a great invasion of Italy, and at the head of numerous German tribes and of his allies, the Alemanni, fell upon Aquileia, AD 400, while Stilico was engaged in withdrawing all the troops from Gaul in order to oppose him; but, notwithstanding his exertions, Alaric, who continually received encouragement from Constantinople, pressed gradually onward. During the solemnization of Easter festival at Pollentia, the Goths were suddenly attacked by Stilico, and a battle ensued, in which Goth opposed Goth, AD 403, and Saul lost his life fighting on the Roman side at the head of his mercenaries A second and not less bloody engagement took place at Verona, when Alaric, being forced to retreat, was again shut up in the mountains by Stilico, who once more allowed him to make terms.

Radagais, at the head of an enormous horde of pagan Alemanni and other German tribes, now rushed from the Upper Danube over the Alps, AD 405, swearing to offer all the blood of the Romans in one great libation to his gods, and advanced as far as the Apennines, where, hemmed in by the whole army of Stilico (who, by skilful treaties and promises, had succeeded in combining beneath his standard the Huns under Uldes, and a Gothic force under Sarus), he and his followers were destroyed by famine, pestilence, and the sword, near Fiesole in Tuscany. Alaric did not long remain quiet. Stilico, his brave opponent, accused by Honorius of carrying on a secret understanding with him, and even of grasping at the purple, was put to death, together with the wives and children of 30,000 Germans in his service. The payment of the tribute, which had been agreed to at the treaty of peace, was also refused, and Alaric, burning for revenge, quickly seized the favourable moment afforded for the long-planned conquest of Italy, by the destruction of Rome's best general; and being joined by the 30,000 widowers, marched straight upon the imperial city, whose posses­sion he deemed would secure to him that of the whole of Italy, leaving Honorius, to his rear, shut up in Ravenna. Terrorstruck and helpless, the Romans entreated for peace, which was granted by the invader on the payment of 5,000 pounds' weight of gold, 30,000 pounds' weight of silver, and a proportionate quantity of the costly articles of commerce which, at that period, flowed into Rome from every quarter of the known world. Entreaties were unavailing. "What will be left us?" asked they. "Life," was the stem reply. "We are still numerous," they threatened. "Then come out," rejoined the Goth, "the thicker the hay the easier it is to mow!". The terms were enforced; the golden statue of Victory was melted to meet the demand, and the Romans, who still retained their heathen superstitions, foresaw in its destruction the impending ruin of their city. Satisfied with the booty thus gained, Alaric now left Rome in order to attack Ravenna, and conferred the imperial dignity on one Attalus, whom he sent to Africa to prepare for his arrival in that country, and whom he afterward deposed for hav­ing, aided by the Romans by whom he was accompanied, attempted to assert his own independence. Honorius was aided in the defense of Ravenna, which was well fortified, by a part of the Goths under Sarus, the hereditary enemy of the Balti; Alaric, meanwhile, ruled unopposed in the open country, and after annihilating the last Roman army, united his forces with those of Ataulph, his son-in-law, who had brought fresh tribes from Germany; but failing in his attempts against Ravenna, he resolved to wreak full vengeance upon Rome. He is said to have presented three hundred youths to the wealthiest Romans for slaves, who secretly opened the city gates to him; but, however that may be, it is certain that he took Rome by storm during the night of the 24th of August, 409. For the first time since the invasion of Brennus, the capital of the ancient world beheld the enemy, who had so often been led in triumph through her walls, enchained, thrown to the wild beasts in her amphitheatre, or doomed to cruel slavery, now appear as a bloody and inflexible conqueror, armed with the sword of vengeance, repaying all the crimes committed by her against the liberties of nations, which, unatoned by her first punishment, were afterward bitterly visited upon her. Yet, although murder and pillage filled the city, Rome was not destroyed, and the defenseless ones were spared. A Goth, who discovered some valuable golden vessels in the house of a pious maiden, when told that they had been left with her for safety and belonged to the church of St. Peter, left them untouched, and gave information of the discovery to the other Goths, who came in multitudes to the spot, and bore the golden ornaments in a solemn procession, in which the people joined, to St. Peter's: the war-cry ceased; the voices of the conquerors and conquered rose in unison, and the pillage terminated in hymns of devotion. Leaving Rome, Alaric marched into Lower Italy with the intention of visiting Africa, but his fleet was wrecked off Messina, and he died suddenly, in his fifty-fourth year. The river Busentom (Baseno) was diverted from its course by prisoners, and the Gothic monarch was buried with an immense treasure in its bed; after which, the stream was restored to its natural course, and the secret of his burial-place, which remained as unknown as the projects that died with him, was sealed by the murder of the laborers.

 

LXII. The Vandals, Alani, Suevi, and Visigoths in Spain

 

After the destruction of Radagais, the tribes from which his army had been raised, instead of invading Italy, moved toward Gaul, whence the troops had been withdrawn. The Vandals under Godegisel, the Alani under Respendial, and a horde of Suevi under Hermanarich, crossed the Rhine during the last days of the year 407, never to return, and, after plundering Gaul for some time and unsuccessfully combating the Franks, suddenly traversed the Pyrenees and entered Spain, where they were well received. The Basci, a remnant of the ancient Celts, and the Iberi in the mountains, offered no opposition, preferring poverty and freedom beneath the German rule to the splendid tyranny of Rome. The Vandals under Gunderich, the successor of Godegisel, ruled at Hispalis (Seville), and gave name to the province of Andalusia. The Suevi inhabited Castile and Gallicia, and the Alani settled on the Ebro. The departure of these wild tribes from Gaul did not, however, relieve that province from the horrors of war; a new emperor, Constantine, who had set himself up in Britain, crossed the Channel and was supported by the Franks under Edobic, in opposition to Sarus, who, aided by the Alemanni under Goar, and by the Burgundians under Gunthachar, proclaimed Jovinus emperor, AD 412. The dispute was settled by Constantino being deprived of his throne and his life.

Honorius, desirous of freeing Italy from the Visigoths, dexterously seized upon these events as a pretext, and solicited the aid of Ataulph, the successor of Alaric, against Jovinus, flattering him with the possession of Gaul and Spain if he would quit Italy; but the strongest motive for conciliation between the Goth and the emperor was the passion cherished by Ataulph for Placidia, Honorius's beautiful and talented sister, who had been taken prisoner at Rome by Alaric; he accordingly acceded to the emperor's proposal, and abandoning Italy at the head of his whole nation, marched against Jovinus and Sarus, whom he defeated; and, after taking possession of the south of Gaul and of the north of Spain, celebrated his nuptials with Placidia at Narbonne, AD 414; the ceremony being performed by Sisegar, the Gothic bishop, whom the king also appointed preceptor to his children; a proof of the civilization to which the Goths had already attained. A high bed was constructed, around which all the booty gained by Ataulph and his late father-in-law, Alaric, was heaped. Attalus, the deposed emperor, who was in his suite, composed songs for the occasion, in which he pointed out to him the events that might possibly result from the union of the mightiest of the German princes with the sister of the Caesars, and the foundation of a new Gothic-Roman empire on the ruins of the ancient one was consequently projected. But the time had not yet arrived, and it happened as was prophesied by Daniel: "In the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the power of her arm, neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times," chap. xi. 6. A forest known as la selva Gothesca now covers the site of the ancient city of Heraclea, in the south of France, where Ataulph and Placidia held their splendid court. The Goth, Sarus, having been cruelly put to death by Ataulph, Dubios, a servant of the former, probably incited by Sigerich, the brother of Sarus, murdered him at Barcelona, AD 415; Sigerich usurped the Gothic throne, and exterminated the whole race of the Balti. In pursuance of a policy completely contrary to that of his predecessor, he broke with Rome, perhaps with the intention of flattering the national pride of the Goths. The beautiful Placidia was sentenced to run on foot for twelve miles before the car of the usurper, who a few days after fell by the hand of Wallia, whom the Goths had raised to the throne, and who, renewing the alliance with Rome, sent Placidia back to her native country, with 800,000 measures of wheat. He carried on a successful war in Spain, and subdued the Alani, whom he incorporated with the Goths, which gave rise to the Gothic-Alani nation, and to the name of the province of Catalonia. Toulouse became the capital of the Visigothic empire under Wallia, who left an only daughter, the mother of the celebrated Ricimer, who was closely connected with the family of the Caesars (continued by Placidia, who married Constantius, and gave birth to the emperor Valentinian the Third, and to the infamous Honoria). The brave Theodorich, who succeeded Wallia as king of the Goths, greatly extended his dominions, and defeated Rechiar, the king of the Spanish Suevi, but met with a powerful opponent in Aetius the Roman general, who attempted to reconquer Gaul. Arles and Narbonne were vainly besieged by Theodorich, who, after a long war, was finally obliged to league with Rechiar against their common and far more formidable enemy, the Hun.

In the south of Spain, the Vandals bade defiance to the attacks of both Goths and Romans, and rose to considerable importance under Geiserich, the brother of Gunderich. Geiserich had married his son Hunerich to a daughter of Theodorich, whom, on mere suspicion, he deprived of her nose and ears, and, fearing the vengeance of the Visigoths for this act of barbarity, invited the Huns, who were already on their way thither, into Spain. 

 

LXIII. The Alemanni in Switzerland—The Burgundians in Alsace

 

Tranquillity had for a short period once more visited the Alps, and ruins, scattered along the path of the devastating hordes, alone remained to tell the tale of bygone splendour. Helvetia no longer existed; the green forest waved over heaps that were once cities, while the Alemanni, proud of their freedom, fed their flocks, and built their scattered cottages, in the sheltered valleys. Civilization and oppression had disappeared with the Romans, and Christianity was unknown to the savage Swabians, who remained faithful to their ancient religion and customs in the new settlement. The lake into which the Rhine flows from the Alps was probably again called by its ancient name, the Bodensee, from Odin (Wodan, Buddha), to whom a place of worship was erected on the shore. The Thurgau and Frickthal, from their deities Thor and Frigga, lay in its vicinity. The name of the Odenwald, between the Maine and the Neckar, has a similar origin, and the freedom so long preserved in Switzerland is a proof that ancient German liberty co-existed with paganism. Independent war-chiefs or dukes also appear amid the obscurity of those times. The Alpine countries finally received the name of Schweiz (Switzerland), identical with that of Suevi or Swabia, whose inhabitants owned the same origin. The people of Schweiz, Uri, Unterwalden, and Hasli, have a tradition of their having been driven by famine out of Sweden, which agrees with that of the Longobardi, and the migration of the Goths; and it is possible that, at the period of the commingling of different tribes, a Gothic or Longobardic horde, straying among these mountains, mixed with the Alemanni; or perhaps the legend has been clothed in a new form, and originally referred to the earliest immigrations of the Suevi.

The Burgundians (tribe of Bur?) originally dwelt on the Riesengebirge, which was perhaps also; an Asenburg, and connected the Caucasus with the north. Forced along by the advancing Goths, the Burgundians turned toward the west, and appeared to the rear of the Alemanni. At a later period they joined the Vandali (originally Vindili), and invaded Gaul, as has been already related, when Honorius, for the sake of peace, finally bestowed upon them Alsace, as a fief of the empire. Immense sacrificial altars, the remains of which are still to be seen, were erected by them on the Odilienberg, which was doubtless sacred to Odin, whose name was subsequently changed to the Christian one of Ottilia. The name of Worms, which the Burgundians, on reaching the southern Alps, renewed in that of the city of Bormio, has also reference to the ancient deity, Bor. This comparatively small tribe bore a high traditionary fame among the Germans, and holds a prominent place in the songs of the Nibelungen, which is probably owing less to its later history than to the religious veneration with which it was anciently regarded.

 

LXIV. The Salic Law

 

In the beginning of the fifth century, the history of the Franks took a new and important turn; the Roman armies were completely driven out of Gaul by Stilico, and the country fell a prey to the Vandals, Burgundians, Alani, and Suevi. The Franks, in order not to remain behindhand, took possession of the neighbouring lands as far as the Moselle, and divided themselves into the Salii on the Moselle and the Meuse, and the Ripuarii on the Lower Rhine. All the ancient and various names of the tribes disappear in these two, which are evidently derived from the Latin. Salii, leapers, from salire, had long been the appellation of the Frankish mercenaries in the imperial service; a name not at all in unison with the ancient titles and nicknames of the Roman legions and mercenary troops. The Salii were the Franks who dwelt nearest to the Romans, whom they for a long period served, and who, very probably, made use

of this name for the sake of a quibble, which may first of all have been derived from the Saal (Yssel), and the Saal-land (Ober-Yssel) in the Netherlands, where the Franks, tributary to the Romans, formerly dwelt. It has also been deduced from the Wurzburgian Saalgau (the subsequent Ostro-Franci), and even from the Thuringian Saal (on account of the ancient connection between the Thuringians and the Franks), or from the word Saal, a hall (Allod). The name of the Ripuarii is clearly Latin, from ripa, a bank, and was the general appellation of the Franks who dwelt on the banks of the Rhine. The Salii, who affected the Roman party, were long at feud with the Ripuarii, who were more German in their customs, and it is probable that at that period the Bructeri, Chenisci, etc., tribes that dwelt further eastward toward the Weser, and that were formerly accounted Franks, formed a closer connection with the Saxons (with whom they subsequently intermingled), when forced to defend their ancient liberty and religion against the des­potism and zealous Christian proselytism of the Franks. The abandonment of Gaul by the Romans necessarily occasioned a great change in the affairs of that country; the Salii, no longer supported by Rome, became independent, and their newly-acquired possessions, which extended as far as the Moselle, afforded them an opportunity for remodelling their government. Long accustomed to the rule of a war-chief, and well acquainted with the advantages of union, as well as jealous of the splendour and fame of the great king of the Goths, they elected a monarch after the demise of Genobald, Sunno, and Marcomir, instead of continuing to be governed by various petty and independent princes, and raised Faramund, the son of Marcomir, to the throne, AD 420. Before submitting to the authority of the new monarch, they solemnly guaranteed their ancient privileges, by the prescription of certain conditions, whence originated the Salic law, which was drawn up in writing. Up to this period, the laws had been merely traditionary, but when the new settlements within the Roman territory caused a wider extension of the people, ancient customs were endangered by new, their privileges seemed likely to be encroached upon by the monarch, and a written code became necessary. Four elders, chosen by the people, were intrusted with the completion of this important work, as was afterward set forth in the preface of Chlodwig, appended to this celebrated code. “The renowned nation of the Franks, the chosen of God, strong in battle, wise in council, mighty by their union, noble and virtuous, of surpassing stature, bold, vigorous, and firm, caused the Salic law to be drawn up, while they were yet pagans, by the chiefs by whom they were at that period governed. Four men were chosen from among the elders, named Wysogast, Bodogast, Salogast, and Windogast, who came from the countries then called Salagheven, Bodogheven, and Windogheven. These four men met three times in the Malberg, weighed the origin and peculiarities of all the laws, and then laid them down in writing. But when the long-haired, beautiful Chlodwig, the first of the Frankish monarchs who received Catholic baptism, lived, whatever seemed unfitting in this code was expunged. Vivat Christus, who chose the Franks unto himself, for this is the people that, by its bravery and power, cast off the oppressive yoke of Rome." Faramund was succeeded by Chlodis (Louis), whose successor, Merowig, was, according to the legendary account, suckled by a sea-monster, which attacked his mother on the shore. Chlodis introduced the custom of wearing long hair, which afterward became a sign of royalty, and was adopted by his successors, hence named the long-haired kings. The descendants of Merovrig were the Merovingians.

 

LXV. Etzel /Attila

 

About this period a powerful leader arose among the Huns, who was named by the Romans Attila, by the Germans, Etzel; the center of whose kingdom was in Hungary, where his throne stood in an enormous wooden palace. He united beneath his rule not only all the Huns, but also all the Ostro-Germanic tribes. The Ostrogoths, whose history is very obscure at this period, were forced to follow their example. They were governed by several leaders, and were continually at war with the Sarmatians (Slavi). Fidicola, one of their princes, had been defeated by the Sarmatians shortly before the appearance of Etzel, in whose train were Theodomir, the father of the celebrated Diettrich of Bern, Widimir and Walamir, at the head of the Ostrogoths, and Ardarich, king of the Gepidae. Etzel was one of those mighty spirits, who, like Caesar and Napoleon, were born to captivate every heart, to rule millions with a glance, and to use their giant strength in crushing a world. Adored by his followers, whom he led to victory, and a chieftain eagerly hailed by the warlike nations, which, habituated to battle and long estranged from their homes, were inimical to peace, he was the cruel despoiler of all who opposed his despotic rule.

Rome trembled at the approach of the destroyer, rightly termed "The scourge of God," who seemed destined to mete out the reward of the crimes accumulated during the thousand years' reign of the ancient mistress of the world. The Eastern empire first suffered. The whole of Greece was laid waste, and Constantinople was alone delivered from destruction by the policy of Pulcheria, the mother of the helpless emperor, Theodosius, who bribed the Huns, by the payment of an immense ransom, to spare the capital, and to turn their course westward, AD 451. The storm now burst upon Germany. Desolation, rapine, and slaughter marked its advance toward Gaul. Obscure legendary accounts of the horrors of that period are still extant. All the relics and jewels belonging to the Church, still in its infancy, were saved at Andecks, on the mountain, from the rapacity of the invaders. Wimpfen owes its name to Wibpin (Weiherpein, women's pain), all the women of this place having been cruelly murdered by Attila's command, and several Hunnenberge, Hunnengraben (fortifications against the Huns), are still to be met with in Germany, although it is uncertain whether they ought not to be ascribed to the Hungarians of later date, who were also called Huns. History records but one attempt made to oppose the progress of Attila on the right bank of the Rhine, the heroic opposition of 10,000 Burgundians under Gunthachar, who fought and fell like a second Leonidas.

The circumstances attending this brilliant action are unknown, but evidently form the groundwork of one of the songs of the Nibelungen, in which they have received the following poetical embellishment. "Once upon a time there lived a handsome Frankish warrior named Siegfried, or the Horned Knight, on account of his whole body, with the exception of a small spot on his back, being as hard as horn and perfectly invulnerable. This knight came to Worms, and wooed and won the beautiful Chriemhilda, the sister of Gunthachar. His wonderful strength and dauntless courage soon raised the jealousy of all the Burgundian knights, and one of them, Hagen the Grim, secretly encouraged by the king, murdered him (one day when weary with following the chase, as he stooped to quench his thirst at a brook) by running his sword through his back. Chriemhilda, inconsolable for his loss, became hateful to the Burgundians, who refused to restore to her the great treasure won by Siegfried in the Netherlands, and which Hagen sunk in the Rhine, where it still lies. Soon after this, Etzel, king of the Huns, attracted by the fame of her great beauty, dispatched ambassadors to Worms to ask her in marriage, with whom she returned into Hungary, and was made queen. But her heart remained constant to the memory of Siegfried, and demanded vengeance. Gunthachar, his brothers, Hagen the Grim, and a crowd of Burgundian nobles, were invited to the court of Etzel/Attila, where, at the instigation of the queen, they were put to the sword by the Huns and their German allies, headed by the youthful and valiant Dieterich, the Ostrogoth, who afterward filled Europe with his fame.

The Franks under Merowig, and the Alani under Sangipfan, vainly strove to stem the torrent, and all the nations of the West, Germans and Romans, became at length aware that a great general confederacy could alone preserve them from destruction. Placidia, the experienced and strong-minded mother of the weak emperor, Valentinian, governed Rome, and Aetius, the famous warrior, then commander-in-chief of the Roman forces, collected the remaining strength of the empire and entered Gaul, where he was joined by the Visigoths under Theodorich, the Franks under Merowig, and the remnant of the Alani. Claudebald, the brother of Merowig, went over to Etzel with a part of the Franks. The protracted siege of Orleans, which was desperately defended by the Romans, long retarded the advance of the invader. At length, pressed by famine, the garrison resolved to capitulate, if their prayers for succour were unheard; but before the prayer was ended, clouds of dust appeared on the horizon annunciatory of the approach of their allies, the Visigoths, and Etzel was compelled to retreat, in order to draw up his innumerable horse near Chalons, on the broad plains of the Marne, where the nations of the East and West arrayed their forces, and stood in momentary expectation of an action decisive of the fate of Europe. Etzel (Attila) was superior in the numbers, military skill, and confidence of his troops, while those of his opponents were inspired by the memory of their ancient fame, by zeal for the cause of Christianity, and by the danger which threatened their freedom and their homes. In this contest, German opposed German, with the deadliest hate; consequently, whichever side might prove victorious, the German was sure to suffer. The battle at length commenced on both sides, with equal animosity. The death of the brave Theodorich was bloodily avenged by his son, Thorismund, and the Visigoths gained a decisive victory. After losing 200,000 men, Attila retreated and the Western empire was saved. An enormous funeral pile, composed of horses saddles, had been erected, on which Attila had intended to burn himself alive, if unable to escape. Thorismund, raised on his reeking shield, was proclaimed king of the Visigoths amid the shouts of the victors. But prosperity speedily severed those whom adversity had united. Aetius, jealous of the glory and power of Thorismund, drew off his troops, and persuaded him to return to his country, giving him, as indemnity for the anticipated booty, a golden charger, weighing five hundredweight, set with precious jewels, supposed to have been the tablet of Solomon's table, taken by the Romans from the celebrated temple at Jerusalem.

Attila, invited by Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, who, for having offered to marry him, was imprisoned at Rome, crossed the Alps into Italy, AD 452. For three months Aquileia, ever the stumbling-block of the invader, detained him, but was finally taken and destroyed. Many of the Romans fled for refuge to the little marshy islands of the Adriatic, on which they founded the city of Venice. Attila came in sight of Rome, whose destruction appeared inevitable, when an unlooked-for incident averted her fate. Leo, the bishop of Rome, an aged and dignified man, set forth to meet the savage and rapacious Huns, at the head of the Roman clergy, arrayed in priestly attire and chanting devotional hymns. None ventured to oppose the pious priests, and they presented themselves before the king, who, influenced by Leo's aspect and words, promised to spare the city and instantly to retire. According to the legend, the appearance of this saintly man so powerfully affected the mind of the Hun that, in imagination, he beheld an enormous giant tower above the head of the bishop, and, with a threatening gesture, motion to him to retire. Etzel/Attila died on his way out of Italy, according to some accounts, by the bursting of a blood-vessel, according to others, by the hand of a maiden named Ildegunda, who may have been confounded with Chriemhilda; but the whole occurrence is involved in obscurity. He was buried with great pomp; the whole army on horseback encircling his body, which was placed in a golden coffin within a silver one, and the whole inclosed in one of lead. Those who prepared his grave were put to death, in order to render impossible the discovery of the locality. The sons of Attila did not inherit the genius of their father; bitter feuds, in which the Huns joined, arose between them, and the Germans speedily found means to throw off their yoke. Ardarich, king of the Gepidae, was the first who raised the standard of rebellion. He was followed by the Ostrogoths under the Amali, Walamir, Theodomir, and Widomir. A victory was won on the river Netad in Hungary; and another was gained by Walamir at the mouths of the Danube, when the Huns were forced to retreat beyond the Black Sea. The Goths again threatened the Eastern empire. Theodomir bribed by the emperor, sent his son, Theodorich, who was born on the day of the last victory won by Walamir, as a hostage to Constantinople, but still maintained his position on the Danube. Widomir was also persuaded, by means of a large bribe, to turn his course to the west, where his people intermingled with the Visigoths.

 

LXVI. Geiserich

 

Geiserich, or Genserich, had placed himself on the Vandal throne by the murder of his brother Gunderich. Although lame from a fall from horseback, he was noted as being the most active of all the German leaders. Being driven from the Pyrenees by the Visigoths, and invited into Africa by Bonifacius, the faithless Roman governor, he resolved to quit the theatre of war in Europe, and to erect a new and splendid kingdom in the luxurious South. The whole of his subjects, together with some of the Alani and Goths, in all 80,000 men, had already assembled on the shore for the purpose of embarkation, when he was informed that Heringar, the king of the Suevi, was attacking him in the rear, and, instantly returning, drove the enemy into a river, in which the king was drowned. In May, AD 429, Geiserich sailed to Africa, where he conquered the whole of the northern coast, and drove out the Romans who had invited him thither. The large and well-fortified city of Carthage became his capital, and all the other fortresses were demolished, lest they might serve as strongholds for the Romans. The natives were well treated, and public immorality was checked; prostitutes being compelled to marry, and adultery punished by death; morality was, in fact, so strongly enforced by Geiserich that it was commonly said, "The Romans are licentious when compared with the Goths, but they are worse when compared with the Vandals." Landed estates in the vicinity of the capital were bestowed upon the Vandals, with the view of hindering their dispersion during peace, and of facilitating their assembling in case of danger. With political foresight, Geiserich, whose favourite title was that of Sea-king, sought to sway the Mediterranean, named by his subjects the Vendilsee. The plans formed by Alaric, whose early death prevented their completion, were now carried into execution by the Vandal monarch, who, as if by enchantment, created a powerful fleet, and, in 439, besieged Palermo with the intention of conquering Sicily, his vessels at the same time sweeping the Atlantic and plundering the coasts of Spain. Rome, at that period threatened by the Huns, offered little or no opposition to his schemes. The death of the gallant Aetius, her brave defender, who fell a victim to court cabals, hastened her ruin. Valentinian was murdered by Maximus, who forced the widowed Eudoxia to become his wife, and seated himself on the imperial throne. Eudoxia, animated by revenge, secretly invited Geiserich to destroy Rome and to carry her away, and, in 455, he sailed for that purpose with an enormous fleet to Italy, where he landed and took Rome by storm, but spared both the city and the inhabitants, and contented himself with a systematic pillage, which lasted fourteen days. The treasure was appropriated to the maintenance and increase of his fleet; and the splendours of Rome were transported to Africa to adorn her ancient rival, Carthage. The ships were laden with gold and jewels; even the golden roofs were carried away. That the Vandals were not insensible to beauty and art, and that the term of Vandalism has been wrongly used in order to indicate coarse barbarity, the enemy of refinement, science, and civilization, are clearly proved on reference to history, which records their having deprived Rome of her finest marbles, and that a ship laden with them was wrecked; had they not appreciated the value of these statues, as miracles of art, they would either have been wantonly destroyed or passed by unheeded. Geiserich, preferring his African kingdom to the possession of Italy, returned to Carthage, accompanied by the empress Eudoxia, whom he regarded as part of the booty. Her daughter, who was also named Eudoxia, was given in marriage to his son Hunerich. The Vandals now ruled the seas, and annually devastated the coasts of Spain, Italy, and Greece. The Romans and Goths in Spain armed a great fleet against them, which Geiserich attacked when lying in the harbours, and carried away from the roads. Leo, emperor of the East, AD 460, manned a formidable fleet at Constantinople, and sent it, under the command of Basiliscus, against Carthage. Geiserich, instead of opposing it on the open sea, prudently retreated into the harbour, and as soon as the Greeks had drawn up their ships in a close circle round the entrance, suddenly sent fire ships among them, which destroyed the greater part, and put the rest to flight, AD 468. Geiserich died, ten years after this event, in extreme old age, AD 478. After the migration of the Vandals to Africa, the Roman peasants, headed by Merobaudes, the Roman poet, in whose honour col­umns were raised, revolted against the Suevi, who, numerically weak, and shaken by disaster, gradually sank, while the dominion of the Visigoths increased, and finally spread over the whole of Spain.

 

LXVII. Odoachar

 

After Geiserichs' departure from Rome, Ricimer, the Sueve, grandson to Wallia, king of the Visigoths, and the hereditary enemy of the Vandals, held undisputed sway in Italy, and conducted all the measures taken against Geiserich by both the Western and Eastern empires. His authority, however, was not displeasing to the weak emperors of Constantinople, with whom he entered into alliance, because, satisfied with possessing the power without the title of emperor, he bestowed it upon men whom he one after the other deposed, as soon as they disobeyed his injunctions. Majorian, Severus, Arthemius, whose daughter he married, but whom he soon after disagreed with, and finally, Olybrius, were successively proclaimed emperor, and kept in awe by his German troops, chiefly composed of Heruli and Rugii, who had settled in the Alps to the northwest of Italy, AD 472. His death left the throne defenseless.

Odoachar, one of the Heruli (of whom when yet a youth it had been foretold by St. Severinus that he would exchange his rough furs for the imperial purple), was distinguished for his boldness and valour, and soon caused himself to be elected prince of his nation, and leader of the Roman mercenaries. He first united with Childerich, the Frank, against the Alemanni, whose prince, Gibuld, he overthrew, AD 466. He then planned the conquest of Rome, and easily succeeded in dethroning Romulus Augustulus, an amiable but weak youth, the last of the Roman emperors, when he caused himself to be proclaimed king of Italy, probably as much from a super­stitious dread of the fatal destiny which seemed attached to those who bore the imperial title as from a desire of flattering his countrymen. AD 476.—A.U.C. 1329. Order was quickly established throughout the kingdom. The Germans received a third of the landed property, and were distributed among the Romans, who were allowed to retain their customs and laws. Ravenna, which became the capital, kept the Tyrolean Rugii and Heruli in check. Thus was the fall, of the Roman empire accomplished, after a struggle of eight centuries against the Germans, from the time of the first Brennus to that of Odoachar, by whom their colossal power was finally crushed. Order was restored; but it was long before the ferment entirely ceased. After the fall of Rome, the Latin tongue and the refinements of the South greatly influenced its conquerors, and drew a broader line of distinction between them and their brethren who still inhabited the wild and trackless forests; Christianity also caused a still wider separation between the converted and the pagan nations. These circumstances, combined with the hereditary feuds and the restless, war-loving character of the Germans, were turned to advantage by their kings, who, influenced either by zeal for religion or by ambitious motives, carried on the struggle, now terminated with Rome, among themselves.

LXVIII. The Propagation of the Gospel among the Goths. ULPHILAS