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Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




RADAGAISUS.--The empire was not long left in peace. _Alaric_ was
a Christian, and partially civilized. _Radagaisus_ was a Goth,
but a heathen and a barbarian. The _Suevi_ under his command,
took their course southward from the neighborhood of the Baltic, and,
drawing after them the _Burgundians, Vandals_, and
_Alans_,--tribes which began to be alarmed by the hordes of
_Huns_ that were gathering behind them,--advanced to the pillage
of the empire. Leaving the bulk of their companions on the borders of
the Rhine, two hundred thousand of them crossed the Alps, and made
their way as far as _Florence_. _Stilicho_ once more saved
Rome and the empire by forcing them back into the Apennines, where
most of them perished from famine. _Radagaisus_ surrendered, and
was beheaded. The news of this disaster moved the host which had been
left behind, joined by the remainder of the army of Radagaisus, to
make an attack upon _Gaul_. Despite the resistance of the
Ripuarian Franks, to whom Rome had committed the defense of the Rhine,
they crossed that river on the last day of the year 406. For two years
Gaul was a prey to their ravages, until the Suevi, the Alans, and the
Vandals, sought for fresh booty on the south of the Pyrenees (409). In
Gaul they "destroyed the cities, ravaged the fields, and drove before
them in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin,
laden with the spoils of their houses and altars." Brief as was this
period of devastation, it marks the severance of _Gaul_ from the
empire.

ALARIC AGAIN IN ITALY.--_Stilicho_ had kept up friendly relations
with _Alaric_, and had retained in Italy thirty thousand
barbarians in the pay of the empire. The brave general became an
object of suspicion to _Honorius_, who caused him to be
assassinated, and the wives and children of the barbarian troops to be
massacred. The men fled to _Alaric_. He came back with them to
avenge them. He appeared under the walls of Rome. "It was more than
six hundred years since a foreign enemy had been there, and Hannibal
had advanced so far, only to retreat." When the envoys of the Senate
represented to Alaric how numerous was the population, he answered,
"The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed." But he consented to
accept an enormous ransom, and retired to winter quarters in
Tuscany. The court at Ravenna refused to assign lands to the Visigoths
for a permanent settlement in Northern Italy. Alaric demanded the post
of master-general of the Western armies. Once more he advanced to
Rome, seized the "Port" of _Ostia_, and compelled the Senate to
appoint _Attalus_, the prefect of the city, emperor. He besieged
_Ravenna_ without effect, quarreled with Attalus, and deposed
him, and for the third time marched upon Rome. Slaves within the city
opened the Salarian gate to their countrymen, and on the 24th of
August, 410, the sack of the city began. To add to the horrors of the
scene, a terrific thunderstorm was raging. For three days Rome was
given up to pillage. Only the Christian temples were respected, which
were crowded by those who sought within them an asylum. Rome had been
the center of Paganism. The scattering and destruction of its
patrician families was the ruin of the old religion. Alaric did not
long survive his victory. He died at _Consentia_ in
_Bruttium_. He was buried under the little river
_Basentius_, which was turned out of its course while the
sepulcher was constructing, and then restored to its former
channel. The slaves employed in the work were put to death, that the
place of his burial might remain a secret (410).

ATHAULF: WALLIA.--_Athaulf_ (called Adolphus), the brother and
successor of Alaric, was an admirer of the empire. He enlisted in the
service of _Honorius_, and married his sister, _Placidia_,
who was in the hands of the Goths, either as a captive or as a
hostage. He put down usurpers in the south of Gaul who had set
themselves up as emperors, and entered _Spain_, in order to drive
out the barbarians from that country. But he was assassinated
(415). His successor, _Wallia_, carried forward his plans, in the
name of Honorius, against the Alans, the Suevi, and the Vandals. He
partly exterminated the Alans, chased the Suevi into the mountains on
the north-west, and the Vandals into the district called after them,
_Andalusia_.

THREE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS.--The kingdom of the Suevi thus established
(419), under the kings reigning from 438 to 455 conquered
_Lusitania_, and would have subdued all Spain had they not been
checked by the _Visigoths_. As a reward for their services, the
latter received from Honorius, _Aquitaine_ in Gaul, as far as the
Loire and the Rhone, with _Toulouse_ for their capital. They
conquered the _Suevi_ in 456, and in 585 subjugated them; in 507
the Franks had driven them out of Gaul. Early in the fifth century the
_Burgundian kingdom_ grew up in South-eastern Gaul. At the end of
that century the Rhone was a Burgundian river. _Lyons_ and
_Vienne_ were Burgundian cities. Thus in the first twenty years
of the fifth century there arose _three_ barbarian kingdoms. Of
these, that of the _Suevi_ soon vanished (585), being absorbed by
the Visigoths; that of the _Burgundians_ continued until 534;
while that of the _Visigoths_ in Spain lasted until the conquest
by the Arabs in 711.

CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE VANDALS.--_Honorius_ died in 423. He
had shown himself a zealous defender of the Church against heresy, and
was the author of edicts for the suppression of heathenism, and for
the destruction of heathen temples and idols. But he had proved
himself inefficient in the defense of the empire. His nephew
_Valentinian III.,_ the son of _Placidia_ and of the general
_Constantius_, whom she had married in 417, succeeded him; but he
was only six years old, and for twenty-five years the government was
carried on in his name by his unworthy mother. She had two able
generals, _Aëtius_ and _Boniface_, whose discord was fatal
in its effects. At the same time in the East, the government was
managed by _Pulcheria_ for her brother, _Theodosius II.,_
who had succeeded _Arcadias_ in 408. _Aëtius_, who was a
Hun, by insidious arts persuaded Placidia to recall _Boniface_,
who was governor of Africa, at the same time that he advised Boniface
to disobey the order which he represented as a sentence of
death. Boniface sent to _Gonderic_, king of the Vandals in
Spain,--who, after the retreat of the Visigoths, were strong in that
country,--an offer of an alliance. _Genseric_, the Vandal leader,
the brother and successor of _Gonderic_, landed in Africa in 429
with fifty thousand men. Too late the treachery of Aëtius was
explained to Boniface. Genseric, with his allies, tribes of nomad
Moors, defeated him in a bloody battle, and besieged _Hippo_ for
fourteen months. _Augustine_, the bishop of Hippo, animated the
courage of its defenders until his death in 430, in the seventy-sixth
year of his age. Boniface was again defeated, and Hippo was taken. The
Vandals pushed on their conquest, but eight years passed before
_Carthage_ was reduced (439). _Valentinian_ had recognized
by treaty the kingdom of the Vandals. _Genseric_ was
characterized by genius and energy as well as by cruelty and
avarice. He built up a navy, and made himself master of Sicily,
Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. He was able to defy
Constantinople, on account of his control of the Mediterranean. At the
same time he entered into relations with the barbarians in the north,
in order that Aëtius, who endeavored to bring in some degree of order
and obedience in the empire, might be checked and restrained on all
sides. The Vandals were Arians, and made full use of the difference in
faith as a motive for plundering and maltreating the orthodox
Christians in Africa, whom their arms had subdued.

ATTILA: CHALONS.--The enemy whom _Genseric_ invoked to make a
diversion in his favor against the combined rulers of the East and of
the West, was _Attila_. For a half-century the _Huns_ had
halted, in their migration, in the center of Europe, and held under
their sway the Ostrogoths, the Gepids, the Marcomanni, and other
tribes. The empire of Attila extended from the Baltic to the north of
the Danube, and as far east as the Volga. His name inspired terror
wherever it was heard. He was styled "the scourge of God." The "sword
of Mars"--the point of an ancient sword which, it was said, was
discovered by supernatural means, and was presented to him--was deemed
the symbol of his right to the dominion of the world. Yet,
notwithstanding his fierce visage and haughty mien, he was an
indulgent ruler of his own people, and not without pity and other
generous traits. Such was the dread of him that it was said that no
blade of grass grew on the path which his armies had traversed. First,
he attacked _Theodosius II._ in the East, to force him to recall
the troops which he had sent against _Genseric_. He crossed the
Danube, destroyed seventy cities, and forced the Eastern emperor not
only to pay a tribute heavier than he had paid before, but also to
cede to the Huns the right bank of the river. Theodosius failed in a
treacherous attempt to assassinate him through Attila's ambassador,
_Edecon_, whom he had bribed. Attila discovered the plot, but
pardoned with disdain the ambassadors of the emperor who went to him
in his wooden palace in Pannonia. He contented himself with
reproaching Theodosius with "conspiring, like a perfidious slave,
against the life of his master." Regarding Constantinople as
impregnable, he turned to the West. He demanded of the Western emperor
the half of his states; and, moving to the Rhine with six hundred
thousand barbarians, he crossed that river and the Moselle, advanced
on his devastating path into the heart of _Gaul_, crossed the
Seine, and laid siege to _Orleans_. Everywhere the inhabitants
fled before him. The courage of the people in Orleans was sustained by
their bishop, who at length, as the city was just falling into the
hands of the assailants, saw a cloud of dust, and cried, "It is the
help of God." It was _Aëtius_, who, on the death of Boniface, had
thought it prudent to fly to the _Huns_, had come back to Italy
at the head of sixty thousand men, obtained forgiveness of
_Placidia_, and been made master-general of her forces. He had
united to the Roman troops the barbarians who had occupied Gaul, the
Visigoths under Theodoric, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Ripuarian
and the Salian Franks. On the Catalaunian fields, a vast plain near
_Chalons_, whither _Attila_ now retreated to find room for
the effective use of his cavalry, the two multitudinous armies, each
composed of a motley collection of nations, met. It was, like the
conflict at Marathon, one of the decisive battles of history. It was
to determine whether the Aryan or the Scythian was to be supreme in
Europe. The battle-field was strewn, it was said, with the bodies of a
hundred and sixty thousand men,--an exaggeration indicating that the
carnage was too great to be estimated. Attila was worsted. He
encircled his camp with a rampart of wagons; and in the morning the
victors saw him standing on the top of a mound composed of the
trappings of horsemen, which was to serve as his funeral-pile, with
torch-bearers at hand ready to light it in case of defeat. Aëtius was
weakened by the withdrawal of the _Visigoths_: the allies did not
venture to attack the lion standing thus at bay, but suffered him to
return to Germany (451).

ATTILA IN ITALY.--The next year _Attila_ invaded Upper Italy. He
destroyed _Aquileia_, the inhabitants of which fled to the
lagoons of the Adriatic, where their descendants founded
_Venice_. Padua, Verona, and other cities were reduced to
ashes. At Milan he saw a painting which represented the emperor on his
throne, and the chiefs of the Huns prostrate before him. He ordered a
picture to be painted in which the king of the Huns sat on the throne,
and the emperor was at his feet. The Italians were without the means
of defense. _Leo I._ (Leo the Great), bishop of Rome, at the risk
of his life accompanied the emperor's ambassadors to Attila's
camp. Their persuasions, with rich gifts and the promise of a tribute,
availed. The army of Attila was weakened by sickness, and
_Aëtius_ was approaching. The king of the Huns decided to retire
to his forests. The apparition of the two apostles, _Peter_ and
_Paul_, threatening the barbarian with instant death if he did
not comply with the prayer of their successor, is the subject of one
of the paintings of _Raphael_. Some months after he left Italy
_Attila_ died at the royal village near the Danube, probably from
the bursting of an artery during the night (453). The nations which he
had subjugated regained their freedom. The chiefs of the Huns
contended for the crown in conflicts which dissipated their
strength. The expeditions of Attila were like a violent tempest,--
destructive for the moment, the traces of which soon disappear.

About the name of _Attila_, there gathered cycles of traditions,
Gallo-Roman or Italian, East German or Gothic, West German and
Scandinavian, and Hungarian. Such traditions in Germany formed, later,
the germ of the national epic, the _Nibelungen-lied_. They
testify to the powerful impression which the hero of the Huns made on
the memory and imagination of the different nations.

GENSERIC.--_Attila_ did not see Rome; but _Genseric_, his
ally, visited it with fire and sword (455). The emperor was
_Petronius Maximus_, a senator, who had slain _Valentinian
III._ as the penalty for a mortal offense. The weakness of Maximus
as a ruler caused him to be destroyed by the populace. _Eudoxia_,
the widow of Valentinian, whom Maximus had compelled to marry the
author of her husband's death, had secretly implored the aid of the
king of the Vandals. Once more _Leo_ showed his fearless spirit
by going into the camp of the Vandal king, and interceding for
Rome. He only succeeded, however, in mitigating to a limited extent
the horrors that attended the pillage of the city by the fierce and
greedy soldiers, the Vandals and Moors, who followed _Genseric_,
For fourteen days (June 15-29, 455) Rome was given up to carnage and
robbery. The conqueror carried off every thing of value that was
capable of being transported. _Eudoxia_ was rudely stripped of
her jewels, and with her two daughters, descendants of the great
Theodosius, was conveyed away with the conqueror to Carthage. For
twenty years longer _Genseric_ ruled over the Mediterranean in
spite of the hostility of both empires. An expedition sent against him
at the instigation of _Ricimer_, the Sueve, by the Eastern
emperor _Leo_, was ill commanded by _Basiliscus_, and
failed. But after the Vandal king died (477), his kingdom was torn by
civil and religious disorders, and by the revolts of the Moors, and,
fifty-seven years after the death of its founder, was conquered by the
general of the Eastern Empire.

FALL OF ROME: ODOACER.--After the death of _Maximus, Avitus_ was
appointed emperor by the king of the Visigoths in Gaul. The barbarians
hesitated to assume the purple themselves, but they determined on whom
it should be bestowed. Of the emperors that succeeded, _Majorian_
(457-461)--who was raised to the throne by _Ricimer_, military
leader of the German mercenaries in the Roman army--presents an
instance of a worthy character in a corrupt time. At last another
leader of mercenaries (_Orestes_, a Pannonian) made his son
emperor,--a boy six years old, called _Romulus Augustulus_
(475). _Odoacer_, who commanded the Heruli, Rugii, and other
federated tribes,--mercenaries to whom Orestes refused to grant a
third part of the lands of Italy,--made himself ruler of that
country. The Senate of Rome, in pursuance of his wishes, in an address
to the Eastern emperor _Zeno_, declared that an emperor in the
West was no longer necessary, and asked him to make Odoacer
_patrician_, and prefect of the diocese of Italy. It was in this
character--not as king, but in nominal subordination to _Zeno_,
the head of the united Roman Empire--that Odoacer governed (476). For
more than a half-century people had been accustomed to see the
barbarians exercise supreme control, so that the extinguishment of the
Western Empire was an event less marked in their eyes than it seemed
to the view of subsequent ages.

OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM OF THEODORIC.--When _Odoacer_ had reigned
twelve years, _Theodoric_, king of the Ostrogoths in
_Moesia_,--who in his youth had lived at the court of
Constantinople, had defended the Eastern emperor, but had been
provoked to hostility to him,--was authorized by _Zeno_ to move
upon Italy. A host consisting of two hundred thousand fighting-men,
together with their families and goods, followed the Gothic
leader. Defeated at _Verona_ (489), Odoacer was forced to make a
treaty for a division of power, and to surrender _Ravenna_, where
he had taken refuge; but very soon, in the tumult of a banquet, he was
slain by Theodoric's own hand, either from fear of a rival, or because
he suspected that Odoacer was plotting against him. From this time the
long reign of Theodoric was one of justice and of peace. More by
negotiation than by war, he extended his dominion so that it embraced
Illyricum, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhoetia, and, in the West,
Southeastern Gaul (Provence). The Bavarians paid him tribute; the
Alemanni invoked his assistance against the Franks, against whom he
afforded succor to the Goths of Aquitaine. In his administration he
showed reverence for the old imperial system, and for its laws and
institutions. He fostered agriculture, manufactures, and
trade. Although he could not write, he encouraged learning; and a
learned Roman, _Cassiodorus_, he appointed to high offices. He
permitted the Goths alone to bear arms. He caused to be compiled from
the Roman law a collection of statutes for the Goths and for his new
subjects, and established mixed tribunals for causes in which both
were parties. Cassiodorus ascribes to Theodoric the words, "Let other
kings seek to procure booty, or the downfall of conquered cities: our
purpose is, with God's help, so to conquer that our subjects shall
lament that they have too late come under our rule." He did what he
could to promote peace among other barbarian nations. The prosperity
of Italy, and the increase of its population, were a proof of the good
government which it enjoyed. An Arian, he respected the Catholics,
confirmed the immunities enjoyed by the churches, and generally
allowed the Romans to elect their own bishop. He also protected the
Jews. The persecution of the Arians in the East (524) by _Justin
I._, awakened in his mind the belief that a conspiracy was forming
against him. He accused _Boethius_ of being a partner in it, and
adjudged him to death (524). While in prison at Pavia, this cultivated
man, whom Theodoric had highly esteemed, composed a work on the
"Consolations of Philosophy," which has made his name immortal in
literature. The course of Theodoric at this time drew upon him the
severe displeasure of his orthodox subjects. Soon after his death
(526) his ashes were taken out of the tomb, and scattered to the
winds. Hence nothing remains of his sepulcher at Ravenna but his empty
mausoleum.

Before the close of the century, as we shall see, another German
tribe, the _Lombards_, founded a powerful state in Italy, which
continued for more than two hundred years (568-774).

THE FRANKS: CLOVIS.--When _Clovis_ (481-511), a warlike and
ambitious chief of the Merovingian family of princes, became king of
the Franks, they numbered but a few thousand warriors. The remnant of
the Roman dominion on the Seine and the Loire he annexed, after having
put to death _Syagrius_, the Roman governor, who was delivered up
to him by the _Visigoths_. He made _Soissons_, and then
_Paris_, the seat of his authority. A Salian Frank himself, he
joined to himself the Ripuarian Franks on the Lower Rhine, and made
war on the _Alemanni_, who were planted on both sides of the
river. Before a battle (formerly thought to have been at
_Tolbiac_), he vowed, that, if the victory were given him, he
would worship the God of the Christians, of whom his wife
_Clotilde_ was one. Clotilde was the niece of the Burgundian
king, who was an Arian; but she was orthodox. The victory was
won. Clovis, with three thousand of his nobles, was baptized by
Remigius (_St. Remi_), Archbishop of Rheims. Hearing a sermon on
the crucifixion, Clovis exclaimed, that, if he and his faithful Franks
had been there, vengeance would have been taken on the Jews. He was a
barbarian still, and the new faith imposed little restraint on his
ambition and cruelty. But his conversion was an event of the highest
importance. The Gallic church and clergy lent him their devoted
support. The Franks were destined to become the dominant barbarian
people. It was now settled that power was to be in the hands of
Catholic--as distinguished from heretical Arian--Christianity. Clovis
forced _Gundobald_, the Burgundian king, to become tributary, and
to embrace the Catholic faith. He extended his kingdom to the Rhone on
the east, and on the south (507-511), confined the Visigoths in Gaul
to the strip of territory called _Septimania_, which they held
for three centuries longer. _Brittany_ alone remained independent
under its king. Clovis was hailed as the "most Christian king" and the
second Constantine, and was made patrician and consul by the Eastern
emperor _Anastasius_, in which titles, with their insignia, he
rejoiced. In the closing part of his life he took care to destroy
other Frank chieftains who might possibly undertake to dispute or
divide with him his sovereignty.

DISTRIBUTION OF TRIBES.--If we look at the map at the close of the
fifth century, we find that all the western dominions of Rome are
subject to Teutonic kings. The _Franks_, still retaining Western
and Central Germany, rule in Northern Gaul, and are soon to extend
their sway to the Pyrenees, and to conquer Burgundy. The _West
Goths_ are the masters in Spain, and still hold Aquitaine, the most
of which, however, is soon to be lost to the Franks. Italy and the
lands north of the Alps and the Adriatic form the _East Gothic_
kingdom of _Theodoric_. Africa is governed by the Arian
Vandals. To the north of the Franks, the tribes of Germany, which were
never subject to Rome, have already begun their conquests in
Britain. With the exception of Britain, which is falling under the
power of the _Saxons_, and Africa, these countries are still
nominally parts of the Roman Empire, of which Constantinople is the
capital. In the east, the boundaries of the empire, notwithstanding
the aggressions and insults which it has suffered, are but little
altered.

THE MEROVINGIANS.--The dominion of _Clovis_ was partitioned among
his four sons (511). _Theodoric_, the eldest, in Rheims, ruled
the Eastern Franks, in what soon after this time began to be called
_Austrasia_, on both banks of the Rhine. _Neustria_, or the
rest of the kingdom north of the Loire, was governed in parts by the
other three. Theodoric gained by conquest the land of the Thuringians,
whose king, _Hermanfrid_, he treacherously destroyed. A part of
this land was given to the Saxons. The history of the Franks for half
a century lacks unity. The several rulers rarely acted in
concert. They made expeditions against the Burgundians, the Visigoths,
and the Ostrogoths. Twice they attacked the _Burgundians_. The
last time, in 534, they conquered them, deprived them of their
national kings, and forced them to become Catholic. In 531 they made
war on the Visigoths to avenge the wrongs inflicted on
_Clotilde_, a princess of their family who suffered indignities
at the hands of the Arian king _Amalaric_. They crossed the
Pyrenees, and brought away Clotilde. A second division of the kingdom
was made in 561 among the grandsons of Clovis, and consummated in
567. _Austrasia_, having Rheims for its capital, had a population
chiefly German. _Neustria_, where the Gallo-Roman manners were
adopted, had Soissons for its capital; and _Burgundy_ had its
capital at Orleans. The population in both these last dominions was
more predominantly Romano-Celtic, or "Romance." Family contests, and
wars full of horrors,--in which the tragic feud of two women,
_Brunhilde_ of Austrasia, a daughter of Athanagild, king of the
Visigoths, and _Fredegunde_ of Neustria, played a prominent
part,--ensued. In 613 _Clotaire II_. of Neustria united the
entire kingdom. Brunhilde was captured, and put to death in a
barbarous manner. The son of Clotaire, _Dagobert_, was a
worthless king. The Frank sovereigns of the royal line are
inefficient, and the virtual sovereignty is in the hands of the
"Mayors of the Palace," the officers whose function it was to
superintend the royal household, and who afterwards were leaders of
the feudal retainers. The family of the _Pipins_, who were of
pure German extraction, acquired the hereditary right to this office,
first in Austrasia and later in Neustria. The descendants of _Pipin
of Heristal_, as dukes of the Franks, had regal power, while the
title of king was left to the Merovingian princes. The race of Pipin
was afterwards called _Carolingians_, or _Karlings_. The
preponderance of power at first had been with Neustria, but it shifted
to the ruder and more energetic Austrasians. The battle of
_Testry_, in which _Pipin_ of Heristal at their head
overcame the Neustrians, determined the supremacy of Germany over
France (687). His son and successor, _Charles Martel_ (715-741),
made himself sole "Duke of the Franks;" and _Pipin the Short_
(741-768), the son of Charles Martel, became king, supplanting the
Merovingian line (752).

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