rose from their seats in Thrace and wasted Macedon, Thessaly, Achaia, Peloponnesus, and Epirus, with fire and sword for five years together; when turning westward, they invaded Dalmatia, Illyricum and Pannonia; and from thence went into Italy A.C. 402; and the next year were so beaten at Pollentia and Verona, by Stilico the commander of the forces of the Western Empire, that Claudian calls the remainder of the forces of Alaric, tanta ex gente reliquias breves, and Prudentius, Gentem deletam. Thereupon Alaric made peace with the Emperor, being so far humbled, that Orosius saith, he did, pro pace optima & quibuscunque sedibus suppliciter & simpliciter orare. This peace was ratified by mutual hostages; Ætius was sent hostage to Alaric; and Alaric continued a free Prince in the seats now granted to him.
When Alaric took up arms, the nations beyond the Danube began to be in motion; and the next winter, between A.C. 395 and 396, a great body of Hunns, Alans, Ostrogoths, Gepides, and other northern nations, came over the frozen Danube, being invited by Rufinus: when their brethren, who had obtained seats within the Empire, took up arms also. Jerome calls this great multitude, Hunns, Alans, Vandals, Goths, Sarmatians, Quades, and Marcomans; and saith, that they invaded all places between Constantinople and the Julian Alps, wasting Scythia, Thrace, Macedon, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all Pannonia. The Suevians also invaded Rhætia: for when Alaric ravaged Pannonia, the Romans were defending Rhætia; which gave Alaric an opportunity of invading Italy, as Claudian thus mentions.
Non nisi perfidiâ nacti penetrabile tempus,
Irrupere Getæ, nostras dum Rhætia vires
Occupat, atque alio desudant Marte cohortes.
And when Alaric went from those parts into Italy, some other barbarous nations invaded Noricum and Vindelicia, as the same Poet Claudian thus writes:
——Jam fœdera gentes
Exuerant, Latiique auditâ clade feroces
Vendelicos saltus & Norica rura tenebant.
This was in the years 402 and 403. And among these nations I reckon the Suevians, Quades, and Marcomans; for they were all in arms at this time. The Quades and Marcomans were Suevian nations; and they and the Suevians came originally from Bohemia, and the river Suevus or Sprake in Lusatia; and were now united under one common King called Ermeric, who soon after led them into Gallia. The Vandals and Alans might also about this time extend themselves into Noricum. Uldin also with a great body of Hunns passed the Danube about the time of Chrysostom's banishment, that is, A.C. 404, and wasted Thrace and Mæsia. Radagaisus, King of the Gruthunni and succesor of Winithar, inviting over more barbarians from beyond the Danube, invaded Italy with an army of above two hundred thousand Goths; and within a year or two, A.C. 405 or 406., was overcome by Stilico, and perished with his army. In this war Stilico was assisted with a great body of Hunns and Ostrogoths, under the conduct of Uldin and Sarus, who were hired by the Emperor Honorius. In all this confusion it was necessary for the Lombards in Pannonia to arm themselves in their own defence, and assert their liberty, the Romans being no longer able to protect them.
And now Stilico purposing to make himself Emperor, procured a military prefecture for Alaric, and sent him into the East in the service of Honorius the Western Emperor, committing some Roman troops to his conduct to strengthen his army of Goths, and promising to follow soon after with his own army. His pretence was to recover some regions of Illyricum, which the Eastern Emperor was accused to detain injuriously from the Western; but his secret design was to make himself Emperor, by the assistance of the Vandals and their allies: for he himself was a Vandal. For facilitating this design, he invited a great body of the barbarous nations to invade the Western Empire, while he and Alaric invaded the Eastern. And these nations under their several Kings, the Vandals under Godegisilus, the Alans in two bodies, the one under Goar, the other under Resplendial, and the Suevians, Quades, and Marcomans, under Ermeric, marched thro' Rhætia to the side of the Rhine, leaving their seats in Pannonia to the Hunns and Ostrogoths, and joined the Burgundians under Gundicar, and ruffled the Franks in their further march. On the last of December A.C. 406, they passed the Rhine at Ments, and spread themselves into Germania prima and the adjacent regions; and amongst other actions the Vandals took Triers. Then they advanced into Belgium, and began to waste that country. Whereupon the Salian Franks in Brabant took up arms, and under the conduct of Theudomir, the son of Ricimer, or Richomer, abovementioned, made so stout a resistance, that they slew almost twenty thousand of the Vandals, with their King Godegesilus, in battel; the rest escaping only by a party of Resplendial's Alans which came timely to their assistance.
Then the British soldiers, alarm'd by the rumour of these things, revolted, and set up Tyrants there; first Marcus, whom they slew presently; then Gratian, whom they slew within four months; and lastly Constantine, under whom they invaded Gallia A.C. 408, being favoured by Goar and Gundicar. And Constantine having possessed a good part of Gallia, created his son Constans Cæsar, and sent him into Spain to order his affairs there, A.C. 409.
In the mean time Resplendial, seeing the aforesaid disaster of the Vandals, and that Goar was gone over to the Romans, led his army from the Rhine; and, together with the Suevians and residue of the Vandals, went towards Spain; the Franks in the mean time prosecuting their victory so far as to retake Triers, which after they had plundered they left to the Romans. The Barbarians were at first stopt by the Pyrenean mountains, which made them spread themselves into Aquitain: but the next year they had the passage betrayed by some soldiers of Constans; and entring Spain 4 Kal. Octob. A.C. 409, they conquered every one what he could; and at length, A.C. 411, divided their conquests by lot; the Vandals obtained Bœtica, and part of Gallæcia; the Suevians the rest of Gallæcia; and the Alans Lusitania and the Carthaginian Province: the Emperor for the sake of peace confirming them in those seats by grant A.C. 413.
The Roman Franks abovementioned, having made Theudomir their King, began strait after their conquest of the Vandals to invade their neighbours also. The first they set upon were the Gauls of Brabant[2]: but meeting with notable resistance, they desired their alliance: and so those Gauls fell off from the Romans, and made an intimate league with the Franks to be as one people, marrying with one another, and conforming to one another's manners, till they became one without distinction. Thus by the access of these Gauls, and of the foreign Franks also, who afterwards came over the Rhine, the Salian kingdom soon grew very great and powerful.
Stilico's expedition against the Greek Emperor was stopt by the order of Honorius; and then Alaric came out of Epirus into Noricum, and requested a sum of money for his service. The Senate were inclined to deny him, but by Stilico's mediation granted it. But after some time Stilico being accused of a traiterous conspiracy with Alaric, and slain 10 Kal. Sept. A.C. 408; Alaric was thereby disappointed of his money, and reputed an enemy to the Empire; he then broke strait into Italy with the army he brought out of Epirus, and sent to his brother Adolphus to follow him with what forces he had in Pannonia, which were not great, but yet not to be despised.