The Invasions
Along with the rise of Christianity, the other factor which transformed the political constitution of Roman society were invasions by a series of Germanic peoples who, because they lived outside the borders of the Empire, were called “barbarians”.[156] These peoples penetrated the Empire beginning in the late fourth century, and in many cases ended up as allies of Rome (foederati), defending the Empire’s borders.
During the fifth century they settled in different areas of the Western Empire, although it was only after 476—when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus— that Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Burgundians, Alamanni, Angles, and Lobards formed independent kingdoms.[157]5.1.1 The First Germanic Wave: The Visigoths (Late Fourth Century)
The Goths were the first of the Germanic peoples to come into contact with the Romans. Hailing from the Black Sea, by the end of the third century, they had split into two groups: the Western Goths (Visigoths) and the Eastern Goths (Ostro- goths).[158] Driven by the Huns, the former crossed the border of the Roman Empire, defeating and killing Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (378). As it was clear that Rome could not contain them, Theodosius I signed a first treaty (foedus) with the Visigoths in the year 382, whereby in exchange for their aid in defending the Empire they were granted permission to settle within its boundaries (specifically Lower Moesia, modern-day Bulgaria). After the death of Theodosius and the rupturing of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western divisions, the Visigoths elected their first leader from among one of their most illustrious lineages, the Balthes: Alaric I (395-410), who aimed to exploit the youth of Honorius (395-423), the first emperor of the West, and invade Italy (Wolfram 1990, 143-145).
He was stopped, however, at the Battle of Pollentia (near Asti) in the spring 402, by the regent Stilicho, who chose to negotiate with the Germanic leader, appointing him commander-in-chief (magister militum) of the Western Empire. However, it would be necessary for Stilicho to soundly defeat Alaric I at Verona, in 403, before the Visigoths agreed to serve as federated troops (allies) of Rome. This was a decisive step, as the knowledge and experience acquired opened up to individual members of the Visigothic nation a path which, once taken, would lead them to a more or less substantial affiliation and even solidarity with the Roman world (Chrysos 2003, 14).The relationship between Rome and the Visigoths, however, was stormy. Stil- icho was the last Roman general capable of defending the Western Empire. After his death in 408, Alaric I set out to conquer Italy, managing to plunder the city of Rome from August 24-26, 410. He would die just months later, but Roman history was changed forever.[159] The result for the Visigoths was that they became more exposed to—and engaged in—Roman civilization. Ataulf, the new Visigothic leader, married the sister of Emperor Honorius, Galla Placidia, a union through which he sought to make the Visigoths the armed wing of the Western Empire, to defend its borders and maintain internal order.[160] However, Ataulf’s murder at the hands of Sigeric and the premature death of Ataulf and Galla Placidia’s son, Theodosius, would foil these plans. After the brief reign of Sigeric, who was also assassinated, the Visigoths elected Valia as king, who in 416 signed a new foedus with the Emperor Honorius. The accord required the Visigoths to defend the Empire, in return receiving wheat and permission to settle in imperial territory, specifically in Aquitaine (southwestern France). The foedus would be renewed 2 years later. Theodoric I (418-451) succeeded and broke with Rome by invading Narbonese Gaul (southeastern France) and creating what was, de facto, the first Germanic kingdom on Roman soil.[161] This was the beginning of the Kingdom of Toulouse (Wolfram 1990, 172).[162] The occupation was ultimately accepted by Rome when, after Honorius’s death (423), the Roman General Aetius (390-454), on behalf of Emperor Valentinian III, renewed the foedus with the Visigothic leader in 425.
However, by that time the Goths were heavily Romanized. In the first decades of the fifth century they had already lived under the shadow of Rome for a whole century; no longer products and victims of Roman history, they now formed part of it themselves (Kulikowski 2007, 184).5.1.2 The Second Wave: The Suebi, Vandals and Alani
(Early Fifth Century)
Neither the Visigoths nor the Romans managed to prevent the Suebi, Vandals and Alani from breaching the Danube border and, after ravaging Gaul, occupying Hispania (409). To expel these people, Rome turned to the Visigoths, whose soldiers were deployed in the years 417 and 418 to vanquish the Vandals, Silingi and Alani. While the Suebi took refuge in Galicia, from whence they would not be expelled until Leovigild did so in the late sixth century, the Hasdingi Vandals migrated to North Africa.[163]
5.1.3 The Third Wave: Franks, Burgundians, Alamanni,
Angles and Saxons (Mid Fifth Century)
In the first half of the fifth century, the Huns, a people from the steppes of Asia, led by Attila from 434 to 453, began to move westward. Their advance forced a series of Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Franks, Burgundians and Alamanni) to cross the northern border of the Western Empire. Despite some Roman victories, such as that of Aetius against the Burgundians in 436, these Germanic peoples eventually came to permanently settle inside the Empire, on the island of Great Britain (Angles and Saxons), in Gaul (Franks), in the Rhone Valley (Burgundians), and on the right bank of the Rhine (Alamanni). Attila, meanwhile, threatened to devastate the Western Empire, but was checked by Aetius, who succeeded in forming a coalition of Romans, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians and Saxons who, in 451, defeated the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunic Fields (Halsall 2009, 242-253). The Visigoth king Theodoric I, was killed in the battle.
5.1.4 The Last Wave: The Lombards
After the formal dissolution of the Western Empire, the Italian Peninsula was occupied by the Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric the Great (ruler of Italy from 493 to 526). After his death, his descendants took on the troops of the Emperor Justinian (527-565), in a long and bloody war which allowed them to occupy all of Italy (552). However, this Byzantine domain did not preclude an invasion by another Germanic tribe, the Lombards (or Longobards, so named for the long beards) (Pohl 2002, 21-24), who, commanded by Alboin in the year 568, set foot in northern Italy, this region being subsequently named for them (Lombardy).[164]
5.2