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The BARBARIANS … Excerpts compiled by Mrs. Popa
The Barbarians Arrive: The Fourth and Fifth Centuries CE Increasing pressure
from peoples outside the Empire, the much maligned barbarians, had compelled
the Romans in later antiquity to let more and more foreigners inside their state.
Since most of these spoke a language based on Common Germanic, the Romans
referred to them collectively as Germans, even though they actually represented
a wide array of nations and cultures. These newly adopted resident aliens were
assigned to work farms or were conscripted into the Roman army in numbers so
large that the late Latin word for "soldier" came to be barbarus ("barbarian"). And
where these barbarians met resistance, they sneaked or pushed their way inside
the Empire, and in such a profusion that Rome was fast turning into a nation of
immigrants.
The HUNS. Traveling all the way from Mongolia in the Far East, the Huns began
encroaching on Europe sometime after 350 CE. Toughened by decades of crossing
the Russian steppes on small ponies, these marauding Asiatic nomads spread
terror far and wide, developing a reputation for insurmountable ferocity. The
Huns' new, powerful leader – Attila learned that Christians in Rome had
pronounced him, in traditional Old-Testament fashion, "the Scourge of God"—
meaning God's whip. Sweeping west across the Rhine River into Gaul, Attila's
forces met a Roman army near Châlons (central Gaul) in 451 CE and, against all
odds, the Huns were defeated. Infuriated and apparently under-educated in
military protocol, the Hunnic general took the loss as an insult, a challenge of
sorts, and wheeled south heading for Italy. The Romans in panic fled at his
approach. Even the Emperor Valentinian III abandoned the capital.
OTHER
The Huns, pushing westward, had dislodged the northern tribes of Germany who
dwelt on the Baltic. These were the Alans, Sueves, Vandals, and Burgundians.
Under the leadership of RADAGAISUS, these tribes invaded Italy with about two
hundred thousand men. They were met near Florence by Stilicho, and totally
defeated (406). Radagaisus himself was killed. The survivors turned backward,
burst into Gaul, ravaged the lower portion of the country, and finally separated.
One portion, the Burgundians, remained on the frontier, and from their
descendants comes the name of Burgundy. The Alans, Sueves, and Vandals
pushed on into Spain, where they established kingdoms. The Alans occupied the
country at the foot of the Pyrenees, but were soon after subdued by the Visigoths.
The Sueves settled in the northwest of Spain, but met the same fate as the Alans.
The Vandals occupied the southern part, and from there crossed over to Africa,
where they maintained themselves for nearly a century, and at one time were
powerful enough, as we shall see, to capture Rome itself.
The VANDALS. A confederation of Germanic tribes, the Vandals, poured across
the border—crossing the Rhine during the particularly cold winter of 406 when
the river had frozen to an uncustomary depth—and ranged freely about the everyday-less- Roman province of Gaul. After a while, the Vandals settled in Spain.
Following their expulsion from Spain at the hands of the Visigoths and Romans,
the Vandals fled to the northwest corner of Africa (modern Morocco). Once there,
their wily and double-dealing leader Gaiseric helped them expand their domain by
uprooting Roman control over the rich provinces of North Africa—the Vandals'
were imminently infringing on Carthage (modern Tunisia) in 430 CE. The
infamous Sack of Rome happened in 455 CE. Unlike the Visigoths' earlier siege,
the Vandals' attack involved prolonged, physical ruin, a destruction so complete
and indiscriminate, so emblematic of wanton atrocity, that these barbarians' very
name made its way into common parlance, and ultimately English, as a by-word
for "the malicious destruction of property," or vandalism.
In 408 A.D. Alaric and his Visigothic forces invaded Italy with brutal barbarian
dispatch and headed for the city of Rome itself. Panicking again, Honorius
abandoned the capital, evading the Visigoths by fleeing to another Roman city in
Italy, Ravenna, where he watched and waited out their wrath from a safe
distance. Now unprotected, the eternal city, the heart of the Roman Empire, took
the full brunt of the Visigoths' rage. In this infamous Visigothic Sack of Rome
(410 CE) Alaric and his comrades plundered the city for three days, a devastation
which turned out to be actually less physical than psychological but, even so, a
wound which went deep into the heart of an already ailing state.
The GOTHIC nation consisted of two branches, the OSTROGOTHS, Eastern Goths,
and the VISIGOTHS, Western Goths. The Ostrogoths arrived at the Danube, also
desiring to cross. When they were refused permission they seized ships and
crossed, despite the prohibition of the Romans. They found the condition of their
brethren, the Visigoths, so sad, that they united with them in open revolt,
defeated a Roman army sent against them, and ravaged Thrace. The Goths broke
into open revolt under their leader, Alaric. They moved southward and westward
into Greece, everywhere pillaging the country. Corinth, Argos, and Sparta were
taken and plundered. In 410 Alaric took Rome by starvation, sacked it for three
days. Alaric’s army marched into France, where they established a kingdom
reaching from the Loire and the Rhone to the Straits of Gibraltar.
The GERMANS, under their king, CLODION, prompted by the example of the
Burgundians and Visigoths, began, about 425, a series of attempts to enlarge their
boundaries. They succeeded in establishing themselves firmly in all the country
from the Rhine to the Somme, and under the name of FRANKS founded the
present French nation in France (447).