The Beginnings of Rome

It was about the same period that the accomplished fact of the division of Spain between the three barbarian tribes of Vandals, Suebi and Alani was in a similar manner recognized by the para mount authority of the emperor of the West. These peoples had crossed the Rhine at the time when Alaric was making his first attempt on Italy. A portion of the host led by Radagaisus ac tually invaded Italy, but was cut to pieces by Stilicho near Flor ence (405) ; the rest pressed on through Gaul, crossed the Pyre nees, and entered the as yet untouched province of Spain.

Honorius died in 423. With the single exception of Britain,' no province had yet formally broken loose from the empire. But over a great part of the West the authority of the emperors was now little more than nominal; throughout the major part of Gaul and in Spain the barbarians had settled, and barbarian states were growing up which recognized the supremacy of the emperor, but were in all essentials independent of his control.

The long reign of Valentinian III. (423-455) is marked by two events of first-rate importance--the conquest of Africa by the and the invasion of Gaul and Italy by Attila. The Van dal settlement in Africa was closely akin in its origin and results to those of the Visigoths and of the Vandals themselves in Gaul and Spain. Here, as there, the occasion was given by the jealous quarrels of powerful imperial ministers. The feud between Boni face, count of Africa, and Aetius, the "master-general" or "count of Italy," opened the way to Africa for the Vandal king Gaiseric (Genseric), as that between Stilicho and Rufinus had before set Alaric in motion westwards, and as the quarrel between the tyrant Constantine and the ministers of Honorius had paved the way for the Vandals, Suebi and Alani into Spain. In this case, too, land hunger was the impelling motive with the barbarian invader, and in Africa, as in Gaul and Spain, the invaders' acquisitions were confirmed by the imperial authority which they still professed to recognize. In 429 Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, crossed with his warriors, their families and goods, to the province of Africa, hitherto almost untouched by the ravages of war. Thanks to the quarrels of Bonif ace and Aetius, their task was an easy one. The province was quickly overrun. In 435 a formal treaty secured them in the possession of a large portion of the rich lands which were the granary of Rome, in exchange for a payment probably of corn and oil. Carthage was taken in 439, and in the following year the Vandal kingdom was firmly established over a wide area in the ancient Roman realm.

Eleven years later (451) Attila invaded Gaul, but this Hunnish movement was in a variety of ways different from those of the Visigoths and Vandals. Nearly a century had passed since the Huns first appeared in Europe and drove the Goths to seek shelter within the Roman lines. Attila was now the ruler of a great empire in central and northern Europe and, in addition to his own Huns, the German tribes along the Rhine and Danube and far away to the north owned him as king. He confronted the Roman power as an equal; and, unlike the Gothic and Vandal chieftains, he treated with the emperors of East and West as an independent sovereign. His advance on Gaul and Italy threatened, not the establishment of one more barbaric chieftain on Roman soil, but the subjugation of the civilized and Christian West to the rule of a heathen and semi-barbarous conqueror. But the Visi

goths in Gaul, Christian and already half romanized, rallied to the aid of the empire against a common foe. Attila, defeated at Ch5.1ons by Aetius, withdrew into Pannonia (451). In the next year he overran Lombardy, but penetrated no farther south, and in 453 he died. With the murder of Valentinian III. (455) the western branch of the house of Theodosius came to an end, and 'The Roman troops were withdrawn from Britain by Constantine in 407 ; Mommsen, Chron. min. i, 465.

'Hodgkin vol. ii. bk. iii., chap. ii.; Gibbon ii. 40o sqq.; Jung, 583. The leading ancient authority is Procopius. See Ranke iv. (2) 285; Papencordt, Gesch. d. Vandal, Herrschaft in Africa.

the next 20 years witnessed the accession and deposition of nine emperors.

The End.

Under the three months' rule of Maximus, the Van dals under Gaiseric invaded Italy and sacked Rome. From 456 472 the actual ruler of Italy was Ricimer, the Suebe. Of the four emperors whom he placed on the throne, Majorian alone played any imperial part outside Italy. Ricimer died in and two years later a Pannonian, Orestes, attempted to fill his place. He deposed Julius Nepos and proclaimed as Augustus his own son Romulus. But the barbarian mercenaries in Italy determined to secure for themselves a position there such as that which their kinsfolk had won in Gaul and Spain and Africa. Their demand for a third of the lands of Italy was refused by Orestes, and they instantly rose in revolt. On the defeat and death of Orestes they proclaimed their leader, Odoacer the Rugian, king of Italy. Romulus Augustulus laid down his imperial dignity, and the court at Constantinople was informed that there was no longer an emperor of the West.

The installation of a barbarian king in Italy was the natural climax of the changes which had been taking place in the West throughout the 5th century. In Spain, Gaul and Africa bar barian chieftains were already established as kings. In Italy, for the last 20 years, the real power had been wielded by a barbarian officer. Odoacer, when he decided to dispense with the nominal authority of an emperor of the West, placed Italy on the same level of independence with the neighbouring provinces. But the old ties with Rome were not severed. The new king of Italy for mally recognized the supremacy of the one Roman emperor at Constantinople, and was invested in return with the rank of "patrician," which had been held before him by Aetius and Rici mer. In Italy too, as in Spain and Gaul, the laws, the adminis trative system and the language remained Roman. But the eman cipation of Italy and the western provinces from direct imperial control, which is signalized by Odoacer's accession, has rightly been regarded as marking the opening of a new epoch. It made possible in the West the development of a Romano-German civ ilization ; it facilitated the growth of new and distinct states and nationalities; it gave a new impulse to the influence of the Chris tian Church and laid the foundations of the power of the bishops of Rome.

For subsequent events see ROMAN EMPIRE, LATER.