77 *CONSTANTINE III (r.409-411) (W)
78 *CONSTANS II (r.409-411) (W)
Visigoth Kingdom (418-720)
The first mention of the Goths is in 238, when a Gothic army raided the city of Histria on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea, near the mouth of the Danube. In 249 they sacked Marcianopolis, a city a little way west of the Black Sea. The following year a Gothic force crossed the Danube River and marched into the Balkans, capturing Philippopolis. At this time, there were at least two groups of Goths, Tervingi and the Greuthungi. In the 250s, Gothic raiders took to the water, crossing the Black Sea and making their way through the straits into the Aegean Sea.
In 268 the Tervingi overran the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum. However, they were defeated that summer and in a series of campaigns over the next three years they were driven back over the Danube. In 332 Constantine II inflicted a massive defeat on the Goths and made a treaty that brought Gothic troops into the Roman army.
In 375 the Goths were defeated by the Huns. About half (Greuthungi) of the Goths submitted to the Huns and became known as Ostrogoths (East Goths). The remainder (Tervingi), who became known as Visigoths (West Goths), were defeated in a second battle and the rest mostly moved south to the Danube where they were granted permission by Valens to settle inside the Roman Empire, just south of the Danube River.
In 394 the Huns crossed the Danube and forced the Visigoths to move towards Constantinople. The Romans made a new treaty with the Visigoths and this time they were settled in Macedonia. (In 410 Alaric moved his tribe westwards into Italy and sacked Rome).
In 415 Ataulf took his Visigoths into the northeast province of Hispania Tarraconensis and made Barcino (=Barcelona) his capital. In September he was fatally stabbed at Barcino. A usurper, Sigeric, seized control, but he was killed one week later. The new leader, Wallia (c.34; r.415-419), reached an agreement with Honorius and Constantius similar to the earlier agreement with Ataulf. In return for sixty thousand measures of grain, Wallia agreed to enter Roman service, attack the Vandals, Alani and Suebi in Hispania, and return Placidia.
In 417-418, Wallia campaigned against the other barbarian groups within Hispania. The Silingi Vandals in Baetica were decisively defeated and nothing more is heard of them. King Addax of the Alani was killed during the same campaign, and his followers joined Gunderic (49; r.406-428), king of the Asdingi Vandals in Galatia. The Asdingi Vandals and the Suebi were both left unscathed by Wallia’s conquest.
Early in the fifth century the seat of Gallic prefecture (dioceses of Gaul, Viennensis, Hispania and Britannia) was transferred from Trier in the north to Arles in the south; and in the same city a diocesan council was established for the Seven Provinces, comprising the provinces of Gallia Aquitanica (I) Prima (central Gaul), Gallia Aquitanica (II) Secunda (W), Novem Populi (SW), Gallia Narbonensis (I) Prima (S), Gallia Narbonensis (II) Secunda (SE), Gallia Alpes Maritimae (ESE) and Gallia Viennensis (E).
In 418 Wallia and the Visigoths were resettled in the southwest Gaul (Aquitanica Secunda and Novem Populi), which included Tolosa (=Toulouse). Wallia’s successor Theodoric-I (c.60; r.418-451) completed the settlement of the Visigoths and took advantage of the declining power of the Empire by seeking to extend his territory eastwards to Narbonensis.
Frankish Kingdom (430-843)
The Franks emerged in the third century AD from a number of Germanic peoples living in land bordering the east bank of the lower and middle Rhine. In c.230 a major marine transgression brought about great changes in the geography of the lower Rhine and North Sea coasts. This led to a reduction of the Roman military presence in the region and one group of Franks exploited this by pushing their way into Gaul (258), moving steadily southwards. Some of them reached the town of Tarragona in northeast Spain (265), where it is said they remained for about a dozen years, with some of them taking ship and sailing for North Africa.
In 297 the Salian (‘salty’) Franks, a group of Franks living on the right bank of the lower Rhine (i.e. near the North Sea), were driven eastwards by the Saxons to Batavia, an island east of the Rhine Delta, from where they sought and were given Roman protection. In 352, under more pressure by the Saxons, they crossed to the left (west) bank of the Rhine and eventually occupied Toxandria, south of the Rhine Delta.
In 358 the Romans defeated the Salian Franks, after which the Western emperor Julian granted them more land in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as giving them foederati status. Soon afterwards, the Ripuarian (‘river’) Franks, a group of Franks living on the right bank of the middle Rhine, spread southwestwards up the valleys of the Rhine and Moselle rivers and into the southeast Ardennes. In 406 the Franks as allies of the Romans battled against the incursions of other Germanic peoples, such as the Vandals, into Gaul. However, in 431 the Salian chieftain Chlodio (c.53; r.c.428-c.448) advanced southwards towards the Via Belgica (Boulogne-Arras-Cambrai-Cologne). Before reaching it he was surprised and defeated near the town of vicus Helena (=Helesmes-Nord), while celebrating the wedding of one of his warriors, by Aetius. Recovering from his defeat, Chlodio captured Cambrai and Arras shortly after, thus gaining control of the Roman road. He advanced as far as the Somme, which marked the limit of Frankish expansion. About this period Tournai on the Scheldt seems to have become his capital.
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