A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 29

peace was concluded and the Vandals were allowed to settle in Numidia, once more as _foederati_ of the empire. However, in 439 A. D. Gaiseric broke the peace and treacherously seized Carthage. This step was followed by the organization of a fleet which harried the coasts of Sicily. In 442 the western emperor acknowledged the independence of the Vandal kingdom.

Peace continued until 455, when the a.s.sa.s.sination of the emperor Valentinian III gave Gaiseric the pretext for a descent upon Italy and the seizure of Rome which was systematically plundered of its remaining treasures, although its buildings and monuments were not wantonly destroyed. Among the captives was Eudoxia, widow of the late emperor, and her daughters, who were valuable hostages in the hands of Gaiseric.

The lack of cooperation between the eastern and western empires against the Vandals enabled them to extend their power still further. Their fleets controlled the whole of the Mediterranean and ravaged both its western and its eastern coasts. A powerful expedition fitted out by the eastern emperor Leo I in 468 for the invasion of Africa ended in utter failure, and in 476 his successor Zeno was compelled to come to terms and acknowledge the authority of the Vandals over the territory under their control. At the death of Gaiseric in 477 A. D. the Vandal kingdom included all Roman Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, and the fortress of Lilybaeum in Sicily.

IV. THE BURGUNDIANS, FRANKS, AND SAXONS

*The Burgundian invasion of Gaul.* The invasion of Gaul by the Vandals and Alans in 406 A. D. was followed by an inroad of the Burgundians, Ripuarian Franks and Alemanni. The two latter peoples established themselves on the left bank of the Rhine, while the Burgundians penetrated further south. In 433 the Burgundians were at war with the empire and were defeated by Aetius, the Roman master of the soldiers in Gaul. Subsequently they were settled in the Savoy. Thence, about 457, they began to expand until they occupied the whole valley of the Rhone as far south as the Durance.

Yet on the whole they remained loyal _foederati_ of the empire. They fought under Aetius against Attila in 451, and their kings bore the Roman t.i.tle of _magister militum_ until the reign of Gundobad (473516), who was given the rank of patrician by the emperor Olybrius.

*The Salian Franks.* The Salian Franks, as those who had once dwelt on the sh.o.r.es of the North Sea were called in contrast to the Ripuarians, whose home was on the banks of the Rhine, crossed the lower Rhine before the middle of the fourth century and occupied Toxandria, the region between the Meuse and the Scheldt. They were defeated by Julian who, however, left them in possession of this district as Roman _foederati_. The disturbances of the early fifth century enabled the Salian Franks to a.s.sert their independence of Roman suzerainty, and to extend their territory as far south as the Somme. Still, they fought as Roman allies against the Huns in 451 A. D., and their king Childeric, who began to rule shortly afterwards, remained a faithful _foederatus_ of Rome until his death in 481 A. D.

In 486 A. D. Clovis, the successor of Childeric, overthrew the Gallo-Roman state to the south of the Somme and extended his kingdom to meet the Visigoths on the Loire. Thus the whole of Gaul pa.s.sed under the rule of Germanic peoples.

*The Saxons in Britain.* After the decisive defeat of the Picts and Scots by Theodosius, the father of Theodosius the Great, in 368 and 369 A. D., the Romans were able to maintain the defence of Britain until the close of the fourth century. But in 402 Stilicho was obliged to recall part of the garrison of the island for the protection of Italy, and in 406 Constantine, who had laid claim to the imperial crown in Britain, took with him the remaining Roman troops in his attempt to obtain recognition on the continent. The ensuing struggles with the barbarians in Gaul prevented the Romans from sending officials or troops across the channel, and the Britons had to depend upon their own resources for their defense.

The task proved beyond their strength and it is probable that by the middle of the fifth century the Germanic tribes of Saxons, Angles and Jutes were firmly established in the eastern part of Britain. Because of the uncivilized character of these peoples, of the fact that Roman culture was not very deeply rooted among the native population, and of the desperate resistance offered by the latter to the invaders, the subsequent struggle for the possession of the island resulted in the obliteration of the Latin language and the disappearance of that material civilization which had developed under four centuries of Roman rule.

V. THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE

*Honorius, 395432 A. D.* After the murder of Stilicho in 408 A. D., Honorius was faced with the problem of restoring his authority in Gaul, where for a time he had been forced to acknowledge the rule of a rival emperor Constantine who had donned the purple in Britain in 406 A. D.

Constantius, a Roman n.o.ble who had succeeded Stilicho as master of the soldiers, was despatched to Gaul in 411 and soon overthrew the usurper.

Two years later another rival, Jovinus, was crushed with the help of the Visigoths.

Constantius, the leader of the anti-barbarian faction of the court, was now the mainstay of the power of Honorius and used his influence to further his own ambitions. After the surrender of the princess Placidia by the Visigoths he induced the emperor to grant him her hand in marriage (417 A. D.). In 421 A. D. Honorius appointed him co-emperor, but he was not recognized as an Augustus at Constantinople and died in the same year.

His death was followed by a quarrel between the emperor and his sister, as a result of which Placidia and her son took refuge under the protection of the eastern emperor, Theodosius II.

*Valentinian III, 425455 A. D.* Honorius died in 423 A. D., leaving no children, and Castinus, the new master of the soldiers, secured the nomination of John, a high officer of the court, as his successor.

However, Theodosius refused him recognition and his authority was defied by Bonifacius, an influential officer who had established himself in Africa. Valentinian, the five-year-old son of Placidia and Constantius, was escorted to Italy by forces of the eastern empire and John was deposed. His chief supporter Aetius, who had brought an army of Huns to his aid, was induced to dismiss his troops and accept a command in Gaul with the rank of count. Placidia, who had returned to Italy with Valentinian, became regent with the t.i.tle of Augusta.

*Aetius.* During the reign of Valentinian III interest centers about the career of Aetius, "last of the Romans." In 429, after getting rid of his enemy Felix, who had succeeded to the position of Castinus, Aetius himself became master of the soldiers and the real ruler of the empire. However, the Augusta Placidia endeavored to compa.s.s his downfall by an appeal to Bonifacius, who after his revolt of 427 A. D. had fought in the imperial cause against the Vandals. In 432 Bonifacius returned to Italy and was appointed master of the soldiers in place of Aetius. The latter appealed to arms, was defeated near Ariminum, and forced to flee for refuge to his friends the Huns. But as Bonifacius died not long after his victory, Aetius, with the backing of the Huns, was able to force the emperor to reappoint him master of the soldiers in 433 A. D. From that time until his death in 454 he directed the imperial policy in the West. He received emba.s.sies from foreign peoples and the latter made treaties with him and not with the emperor.

*Attila's invasion of Gaul, 451 A. D.* The chief efforts of Aetius were directed towards the preservation of central and southeastern Gaul for the empire. In this he was successful, holding in check the Franks on the north, the Burgundians on the east, and the Goths in the southwest. But though Gaul was saved, Africa was lost to the Vandals, Britain to the Saxons and the greater part of Spain to the Suevi. The success of Aetius in Gaul was princ.i.p.ally due to his ability to draw into his service large numbers of Hunnish troops, owing to the influence he had acquired with the leaders of that people while a hostage among them. At this time the Huns occupied the region of modern Hungary, Rumania, and South Russia. They comprised a number of separate tribes, which in 444 A. D. were united under the strong hand of King Attila, who also extended his sway over neighboring Germanic and Scythian peoples.

At first Attila remained on friendly terms with Aetius but his ambitions and his interference in the affairs of Gaul led to friction and to his demand for the hand of Honoria, sister of Valentinian III, with half of the western empire as her dowry. When the emperor refused to comply Attila led a great army across the Rhine into Gaul and laid siege to Orleans.

Their common danger brought together the Romans and the Germanic peoples of Gaul, and Aetius was able to face the Huns with an army strengthened by the presence of the kings of the Visigoths and the Franks. Repulsed at Orleans, Attila withdrew to the Mauric plains where, in the vicinity of Troyes, a memorable battle was fought between the Huns and the forces of Aetius. Although the result was indecisive, Attila would not risk another engagement and recrossed the Rhine. The next year he invaded Italy, but the presence of famine and disease among his own forces and the arrival of troops from the Eastern Empire induced him to listen to the appeal of a Roman emba.s.sy, led by the Roman bishop Leo, and to withdraw from the peninsula without occupying Rome. Upon his death in 453 A. D. his empire fell to pieces and the power of the Huns began to decline.

*Maximus and Avitus, 4556 A. D.* The death of Attila was soon followed by that of Aetius, who was murdered by Valentinian at the instigation of his chamberlain Heraclius (454 A. D.). This rash act deprived him of the best support of his authority and in the next year Valentinian himself fell a victim to the vengeance of followers of Aetius. With him ended the dynasty of Theodosius in the West. The new emperor, a senator named Petronius Maximus, compelled Valentinian's widow, Eudoxia, to marry him, but when the Vandal Gaiseric appeared in Italy in answer to her call he offered no resistance and perished in flight. Maximus was succeeded by Avitus, a Gallic follower of Aetius, whom he had made master of the soldiers. But after ruling little more than a year Avitus was deposed by his own master of the soldiers, Ricimer (456 A. D.).

*Ricimer.* Ricimer, a German of Suevic and Gothic ancestry, who succeeded to the power of Aetius, was the virtual ruler of the western empire from 456 until his death in 472. Backed by his mercenary troops he made and unmade emperors at his pleasure, and never permitted his nominees to be more than his puppets. Majorian, who was appointed emperor in 457 A. D., was overthrown by Ricimer in 461, and was followed by Severus. After the death of Severus in 465 no emperor was appointed in the West for two years. The imperial power was nominally concentrated in the hands of the eastern emperor, Leo, while Ricimer was in actual control of the government in Italy. In 467, Leo sent as emperor to Rome, Anthemius, a prominent dignitary of the eastern court, whose daughter was married to Ricimer in order to secure the cooperation of the latter in a joint attack of the two empires upon the Vandal kingdom in Africa. However, in 472 Ricimer broke with Anthemius who had endeavored with the support of the Roman Senate to free himself from the influence of the powerful barbarian.

Anthemius was besieged in Rome, and put to death following the capture of the city. Thereupon Ricimer raised to the purple Olybrius, a son-in-law of Valentinian III. But both the new emperor and his patron died in the course of the same year (472 A. D.).

*The last years of the western empire.* In 473 A. D. Gundobad, the nephew of Ricimer, caused Glycerius to be proclaimed emperor. However, his appointment was not recognized by Leo, who nominated Julius Nepos. The next year Nepos invaded Italy and overthrew his rival, only to meet a like fate at the hands of Orestes, whom he had made master of the soldiers (475 A. D.). Orestes did not a.s.sume the imperial t.i.tle himself, but bestowed it upon his son Romulus, known as Augustulus. But Orestes was unable to maintain his position for long. The Germanic mercenaries in Italy-Herculi, Sciri, and others-led by Odovacar, demanded for themselves lands in Italy such as their kinsmen had been granted as _foederati_ in the provinces.

When their demands were refused they mutinied and slew Orestes. Romulus was forced to abdicate, and Odovacar a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king (476 A. D.). The soldiers were settled on Italian soil and the barbarians acquired full control of the western empire.

*The kings.h.i.+p of Odovacar, 476493 A. D.* With the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the commander-in-chief of the barbarian soldiery, long the virtual ruler in the western empire, was recognized as legally exercising this power. The imperial authority was united in the person of the eastern emperor who sanctioned the rule of Odovacar by granting him the t.i.tle of patrician, which had been held already by Aetius, Ricimer and Orestes. The barbarian king was at the same time the imperial regent in Italy.

But it was only in Italy that Odovacar obtained recognition. The last remnants of Roman authority vanished in Gaul and Spain, while Raetia and Noric.u.m were abandoned to the Alamanni, Thuringi and Rugii.

*The Ostrogothic conquest of Italy, 488493 A. D.* In 488 A. D. the position of Odovacar in Italy was challenged by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. This people after having long been subject to the Huns, recovered their freedom at the death of Attila, and settled in Pannonia as _foederati_ of the eastern empire. Theodoric, who became sole ruler of the Ostrogoths in 481 A. D., had proved himself a troublesome ally of the emperor Zeno who mistrusted his ambitions. Accordingly when Theodoric demanded an imperial commission to attack Odovacar in Italy, Zeno readily granted him the desired authority in order to remove him to a greater distance from Constantinople. In 488 Theodoric set out with his followers to invade Italy. Odovacar was defeated in two battles and, in 490 A. D., blockaded in Ravenna. After a long siege he agreed to surrender upon condition that he and Theodoric should rule jointly over Italy. Shortly afterwards he and most of his followers were treacherously a.s.sa.s.sinated by the Ostrogoths (493 A. D.). Theodoric now ruled Italy as king of the Ostrogoths and an official of the Roman empire, probably retaining the t.i.tle of master of the soldiers which he had held in the East.

VI. THE SURVIVAL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE EAST

*Arcadius, 395408 A. D.* The year of the death of Theodosius the Great saw the Asiatic provinces of the empire overrun by the Huns who ravaged Syria and Asia Minor, while the Visigoths under Alaric devastated the Balkan peninsula. The absence of the eastern troops in Italy prevented the government from offering any effective opposition to either foe. And when Stilicho came to the rescue from Italy and was holding the Visigoths in check, his rival the praetorian prefect Rufinus, who directed the policy of the young Arcadius, induced the emperor to order Stilicho to withdraw and sent the troops of the East to Constantinople. This order resulted in the death of Rufinus, who was killed by the returning soldiery at the orders of their commander, the Goth Ganas.

The influential position of Rufinus at the court fell to the grand-chamberlain Eutropius, who had been an enemy of the late prefect. He had induced Arcadius to marry Eudoxia, daughter of a Frankish chief, instead of the daughter of Rufinus, as the latter had desired. The fall of Eutropius was brought about by Ganas, now a master of the soldiers, who sought to play the role of Stilicho in the East. He was supported by the empress Eudoxia, who chafed under the domination of the chamberlain. In 399 on the occasion of a revolt of the Gothic troops in Phrygia, Ganas held aloof and the failure of the nominee of Eutropius to crush the movement gave him the opportunity to bring about the latter's dismissal and eventually his death.

But Ganas did not long retain his power. He quarrelled with the empress, and the Arianism of himself and his followers roused the animosity of the population of the capital. A ma.s.sacre of the Goths in Constantinople followed and with the aid of a loyal Goth Fravitta, Ganas was driven north of the Danube where he was slain by the Huns (400 A. D.). The influence of Eudoxia was now paramount. However, she found a critic in the eloquent bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, who inveighed against the extravagance and dissipation of the society of the court, and directed his censures towards the empress in particular. Ultimately, Eudoxia was able to have him deposed from his see in 404 A. D., a few months before his death. Four years later Arcadius himself died, leaving the empire to his eight-year-old son Theodosius II.

*Theodosius II, 408450 A. D.* At the opening of the reign of Theodosius II the government was in the hands of the praetorian prefect Anthemius, who had shown himself an able administrator during the last years of Arcadius. However, in 414, the emperor's elder sister, Pulcheria, was made regent with the t.i.tle of Augusta. She was a strong personality and for many years completely dominated the emperor who was lacking in independence of character and energy. In 421 Pulcheria selected as a wife for Theodosius, Athenais, the daughter of an Athenian sophist, who took the name of Eudocia upon accepting Christianity. After a lapse of some years differences arose between the empress and her sister-in-law which led to the latter's withdrawal from the court (after 431 A. D.). But, about 440, Eudocia lost her influence over the emperor; she was compelled to retire from Constantinople and reside in Jerusalem, where she lived until her death in 460. The reins of power then pa.s.sed to the grand chamberlain Chrysapius, whose corrupt administration rivalled that of his predecessor Eutropius.

During the reign of Theodosius II the peace of the eastern empire was broken by a war with Persia and by inroads of the Huns. The Persian war which began in 421 as a result of persecutions of the Christians in Persia was brought to a victorious conclusion in the next year. A second war, the result of a Persian invasion in 441, ended with a Persian defeat in 442.

But with the Huns the Romans were not so fortunate. In 434, king Rua, the ruler of the Huns in the plains of Hungary, had extorted from the empire the payment of an annual tribute to secure immunity from invasion. At the accession of Attila and his brother in 433, this tribute was raised to 700 pounds of gold and the Romans were forbidden to give shelter to fugitives from the power of the Huns. But the payment of tribute failed to win a permanent respite, for Attila was bent on draining the wealth of the empire and reducing it to a condition of helplessness. In 44143 the Huns swarmed over the Balkan provinces and defeated the imperial armies. An indemnity of 6000 pounds of gold was exacted and the annual payment increased to 2100 pounds. Another disastrous raid occurred in 447. The empire could offer no resistance, and so Chrysapius plotted the a.s.sa.s.sination of Attila, but the plot was detected. Attila claimed to regard himself as the overlord of Theodosius.

In 438 there was published the Theodosian code, a collection of imperial edicts which const.i.tuted the administrative law of the empire, and which was accepted in the West as well as in the East. Theodosius died in 450, without having made any arrangements for a successor.

*Marcian, 45057 A. D.* The officials left the choice of a new emperor to the Augusta Pulcheria. She selected Marcian, a tried officer, to whom she gave her hand in formal marriage. Marcian proved himself an able and conscientious ruler. He refused to continue the indemnity to Attila, and was able to adhere to this policy owing to the latter's invasion of the West and subsequent death. It was he who permitted the Ostrogoths to settle as _foederati_ in Pannonia (454 A. D.).

*Leo I, 457474 A. D.* At the death of Marcian in 457 the imperial authority was conferred upon Leo, an officer of Dacian origin. His appointment was due to the Alan Aspar, one of the masters of the soldiers, whose power in the East rivalled that of Ricimer in the West. But Leo did not intend to be the puppet of the powerful general, whose loyalty he eventually came to suspect. Accordingly as a counterpoise to the Gothic mercenaries and _foederati_, the mainstay of Aspar's power, he drew into his service the Isaurians, the warlike mountaineers of southern Anatolia, who had defied the empire under Arcadius and Theodosius. The emperor's eldest daughter was given in marriage to Zeno, an Isaurian, who was made master of the soldiers in the Orient. However, in 470 Aspar was still strong enough to force Leo to bestow the hand of his second daughter upon his son Leontius and to appoint the latter Caesar. But in the following year when Zeno returned to Constantinople the Alan and his eldest sons were treacherously a.s.sa.s.sinated in the palace.

*Leo II, 4734 A. D.* In 473 Leo took as his colleague and destined successor his grandson, also called Leo, the son of Zeno. The death of the elder Leo occurred early in 474, and the younger soon crowned his father Zeno as co-emperor. When Leo II died before the close of the same year, Zeno became sole ruler.

*Zeno, 474491 A. D.* The reign of Zeno was an almost uninterrupted struggle against usurpers and revolting Gothic _foederati_. In 474 occurred an outbreak of the latter led by their king Theodoric the son of Triarius, called Strabo or "the Squinter," who ruled over the Goths settled in Thrace as a master of the soldiers of the empire. Before this revolt was over, the unpopularity of the Isaurians induced Basiliscus, the brother-in-law of Leo I, to plot to seize the throne for himself. He was supported by his sister, the ex-empress Verina, and Illus, the chief Isaurian officer in Zeno's service. The conspirators seized Constantinople and proclaimed Basiliscus emperor (475 A. D.). But his heretical religious views aroused strong opposition, and he was deserted by both Verina and Illus. Zeno re-entered the capital and Basiliscus was executed.

During the revolt Zeno had been supported by Theoderic the Amal, a Gothic prince who was a rival of Theoderic son of Triarius. The emperor therefore tried to crush the latter with the help of the former, but the two Theoderics came to an agreement and acted in concert against Zeno (478 A. D.). In 479 peace was made with Strabo, but hostilities continued with the Amal. At this time another insurrection broke out in Constantinople, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Marcian, a son-in-law of Leo I, as a protest against the predominance of the Isaurians, in particular Illus. However, this revolt was easily put down.

Theoderic son of Triarius was killed in 481, and in 483 Zeno made peace with Theoderic the Amal, creating him patrician and master of the soldiers, and granting him lands in Dacia and lower Moesia. These concessions were made in consequence of the antagonism which had developed between the emperor and his all-powerful minister Illus. This friction culminated in 484 A. D. when Illus, who was master of the soldiers in the Orient, induced the dowager empress Verina to crown a general, named Leontius, as emperor. But outside of Isauria the movement found little support and after a long siege in an Isaurian fortress the leaders of the revolt were taken and put to death (488 A. D.). In the meantime Theoderic the Amal had asked and received an imperial warrant for the conquest of Italy, and with the departure of the Goths the eastern empire was delivered from the danger of Germanic domination. Zeno died in April, 491 A. D.

*Anastasius, 491518 A. D.* The choice of a successor was left to the empress Ariadne, who selected as emperor and her husband an experienced officer of the court, Anastasius. The first act of Anastasius was to remove the Isaurian officials and troops from Constantinople. This led to an Isaurian rebellion in southern Asia Minor which was not stamped out until 498. In the struggle the power of the Isaurians was broken, their strongholds were captured, part of their population transported to Thrace, and they ceased to be a menace to the peace of the empire.

In the place of the Goths new enemies appeared on the Danubian border in the Slavic Getae and the Bulgars who overran the depopulated provinces of the northern Balkan peninsula. So extended were their ravages and so utterly did the imperial troops fail to hold them in check that Anastasius was obliged to build a wall across the peninsula, upon which the city of Constantinople stands, for the protection of the capital itself.

Anastasius had also to cope with a serious Persian war which began with an invasion of Roman Armenia and Mesopotamia by King Kawad in 502 A. D. After four years of border warfare, in which the Persians gained initial success but the fortune of the Roman arms was restored by the master of the offices Celer, peace was reestablished on the basis of the _status quo ante_.

The civil administration of Anastasius is noteworthy for the abolition of the tax called the _chrysargyrum_ (498 A. D.), and his relief of the _curiales_ from the responsibility for the collection of the munic.i.p.al taxes. A testimony of the increasing influences of Christian morality was the abolition of certain pagan festivals and of combats between gladiators and wild beasts in the circus.

But in spite of the justness and efficiency of his administration the reign of Anastasius was marked by several popular upheavals in Constantinople, and in other cities of the empire as well. The cause lay in his sympathy for the monophysite doctrine which was vigorously opposed by the orthodox Christians. In 512 the appointment of a monophysite bishop at Constantinople provoked a serious rebellion which almost cost Anastasius his throne.

Although the emperor was able to quiet the city rabble by a display of cool courage the prevailing religious discord encouraged Vitalian, the commander of the Bulgarian _foederati_ in the Thracian army, to raise the standard of revolt (514 A. D.). He defeated all forces sent against him and endangered the safety of the capital. However, he was induced to withdraw by a ransom of 5000 pounds of gold and the office of master of the soldiers in Thrace. But the truce was only temporary, and in 515 he again advanced on Constantinople. This time his forces met with a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on land and sea, and the rebellion came to an end. Three years later Anastasius died.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Roman Empire and the Germanic Kingdoms in 526 A. D.]