THE GERMANS TO 476 A.D. [1]
82. GERMANY AND THE GERMANS
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF GERMANY
The Germans were an Indo-European people, as were their neighbors, the
Celts of Gaul and Britain. They had lived for many centuries in the wild
districts of central Europe north of the Alps and beyond the Danube and
the Rhine. This home land of the Germans in ancient times was cheerless
and unhealthy. Dense forests or extensive marshes covered the ground. The
atmosphere was heavy and humid; in summer clouds and mists brooded over
the country; and in winter it was covered with snow and ice. In such a
region everything was opposed to civilization. Hence the Germans, though a
gifted race, had not advanced as rapidly as the Greek and Italian peoples.
THE GERMANS DESCRIBED BY THE ROMANS
Our earliest notice of the Germans is found in the _Commentaries_ by
Julius Caesar, who twice invaded their country. About a century and a half
later the Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote a little book called Germany,
which gives an account of the people as they were before coming under the
influence of Rome and Christianity. Tacitus describes the Germans as
barbarians with many of the usual marks of barbarism. He speaks of their
giant size, their fierce, blue eyes, and their blonde or ruddy hair. These
physical traits made them seem especially terrible to the smaller and
darker Romans. He mentions their love of warfare, the fury of their onset
in battle, and the contempt which they had for wounds and even death
itself. When not fighting, they passed much of their time in the chase,
and still more time in sleep and gluttonous feasts. They were hard
drinkers, too, and so passionately fond of gambling that, when a man's
wealth was gone, he would even stake his liberty on a single game. In some
of these respects the Germans resembled our own Indian tribes.
GERMAN MORALS
On the other hand, the Germans had certain attractive qualities not always
found even among civilized peoples. They were hospitable to the stranger,
they respected their sworn word, they loved liberty and hated restraint.
Their chiefs, we are told, ruled rather by persuasion than by authority.
Above all, the Germans had a pure family life. "Almost alone among
barbarians," writes Tacitus, "they are content with one wife. No one in
Germany laughs at vice, nor is it the fashion to corrupt and be corrupted.
Good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere." [2] The
Germans, then, were strong and brave, hardy, chaste, and free.
PROGRESS OF THE GERMANS
The Germans, during the three centuries between the time of Tacitus and
the beginning of the invasions, had advanced somewhat in civilization.
They were learning to live in towns instead of in rude villages, to read
and write, to make better weapons and clothes, to use money, and to enjoy
many Roman luxuries, such as wine, spices, and ornaments. They were
likewise uniting in great confederations of tribes, ruled by kings who
were able to lead them in migrations to other lands.
[Illustration: RUNIC ALPHABET
The word "rune" comes from a Gothic word meaning a secret thing, a
mystery. To the primitive Germans it seemed a mysterious thing that
letters could be used to express thought. The art of writing with an
alphabet appears to have been introduced into Germanic Europe during the
first centuries of our era. Most Runic inscriptions have been found in
Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula.]
REASONS FOR THE GERMANIC MIGRATIONS
During this same period, also, the Germans increased rapidly in numbers.
Consequently it was a difficult matter for them to live by hunting and
fishing, or by such rude agriculture as their country allowed. They could
find additional land only in the fertile and well cultivated territories
of the Romans. It was this hunger for land, together with the love of
fighting and the desire for booty and adventure, which led to their
migrations.
GROWING WEAKNESS OF ROME
The German inroads were neither sudden, nor unexpected, nor new. Since the
days of Marius and of Julius Caesar not a century had passed without
witnessing some dangerous movement of the northern barbarians. Until the
close of the fourth century Rome had always held their swarming hordes at
bay. Nor were the invasions which at length destroyed the empire much more
formidable than those which had been repulsed many times before. Rome fell
because she could no longer resist with her earlier power. If the
barbarians were not growing stronger, the Romans themselves were steadily
growing weaker. The form of the empire was still the same, but it had lost
its vigor and its vitality. [3]
83. BREAKING OF THE DANUBE BARRIER
THE GOTHS
North of the Danube lived, near the close of the fourth century, a German
people called Visigoths, or West Goths. Their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths, or
East Goths, held the land north of the Black Sea between the Danube and
the Don. These two nations had been among the most dangerous enemies of
Rome. In the third century they made so many expeditions against the
eastern territories of the empire that Aurelian at last surrendered to the
Visigoths the great province of Dacia. [4] The barbarians now came in
contact with Roman civilization and began to lead more settled lives. Some
of them even accepted Christianity from Bishop Ulfilas, who translated the
Bible into the Gothic tongue.
THE VISIGOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE, 376 A.D.
The peaceful fusion of Goth and Roman might have gone on indefinitely but
for the sudden appearance in Europe of the Huns. They were a nomadic
people from central Asia. Entering Europe north of the Caspian Sea, the
Huns quickly subdued the Ostrogoths and compelled them to unite in an
attack upon their German kinsmen. Then the entire nation of Visigoths
crowded the banks of the Danube and begged the Roman authorities to allow
them to cross that river and place its broad waters between them and their
terrible foes. In an evil hour for Rome their prayer was granted. At
length two hundred thousand Gothic warriors, with their wives and
children, found a home on Roman soil.
BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE, 378 A.D.
The settlement of such a host of barbarians within the frontier of the
empire was in itself a dangerous thing. The danger was increased by the
ill treatment which the immigrants received. The Roman officials robbed
them of their possessions, withheld the promised supplies of food, and
even tried to murder their leaders at a banquet. Finally, the Germans
broke out in open revolt. The emperor Valens misjudged their strength and
rashly gave them battle near Adrianople in Thrace. The once invincible
legions fell an easy prey to their foes, and the emperor himself perished.
[Illustration: A PAGE OF THE GOTHIC GOSPELS (REDUCED)
A manuscript of Ulfilas's translation of the Bible forms one of the
treasures of the library of the university of Upsala, Sweden. It is
beautifully written in letters of gold and silver on parchment of a rich
purple dye. In making his version Ulfilas, who was himself a converted
Visigoth, generally indicated the Gothic sounds by means of the Greek
alphabet. He added, however, a few signs from the Runic alphabet, with
which the Germans were familiar.]
RESULTS OF THE BATTLE
The defeat at Adrianople is considered one of the few really decisive
battles in the world's history. It showed the barbarians that they could
face the Romans in open fight and beat them. And it broke, once for all,
the Danube barrier. Swarms of fighting men, Ostrogoths as well as
Visigoths, overran the provinces south of the Danube. The great ruler,
Theodosius, [5] saved the empire for a time by granting lands to the
Germans and by enrolling them in the army under the high-sounding title of
"allies." Until his death the Goths remained quiet--but it was only the
lull before the storm.
ALARIC THE VISIGOTH
Theodosius, "the friend of the Goths," died in 395 A.D., leaving the
defense of the Roman world to his weakling sons, Arcadius and Honorius. In
the same year the Visigoths raised one of their young nobles, named
Alaric, upon a shield and with joyful shouts acclaimed him as their king.
The Visigothic leader despised the service of Rome. His people, he
thought, should be masters, not servants. Alaric determined to lead them
into the very heart of the empire, where they might find fertile lands and
settle once for all.
ALARIC IN GREECE AND ITALY
Alaric at first fixed his attention on Constantinople. Realizing, at
length, how hopeless would be the siege of that great city, he turned
toward the west and descended upon Greece. The Germans marched unopposed
through the pass of Thermopylae and devastated central Greece, as the
Persians had done nearly nine centuries before. [6] Then the barbarians
entered the Peloponnesus, but were soon driven out by Stilicho, a German
chieftain who had risen to the command of the army of Honorius. Alaric
gave up Greece only to invade Italy. Before long the Goths crossed the
Julian Alps and entered the rich and defenseless valley of the Po. To meet
the crisis the legions were hastily called in, even from the distant
frontiers. Stilicho formed them into a powerful army, beat back the enemy,
and captured the Visigothic camp, filled with the spoil of Greek cities.
In the eyes of the Romans Stilicho seemed a second Marius, who had arisen
in an hour of peril to save Italy from its barbarian foes. [7]
THE VISIGOTHS BEFORE ROME
Alaric and his Goths had been repulsed; they had not been destroyed.
Beyond the Alps they were regaining their shattered strength and biding
their time. Their opportunity came soon enough, when Honorius caused
Stilicho to be put to death on a charge of plotting to seize the throne.
The accusation may have been true, but in killing Stilicho the emperor had
cut off his right hand with his left. Now that Stilicho was out of the
way, Alaric no longer feared to descend again on Italy. The Goths advanced
rapidly southward past Ravenna, where Honorius had shut himself up in
terror, and made straight for Rome. In 410 A.D., just eight hundred years
after the sack of the city by the Gauls, [8] Rome found the Germans within
her gates.
SACK OF ROME BY THE VISIGOTHS, 410 A.D.
The city for three days and nights was given up to pillage. Alaric, who
was a Christian, ordered his followers to respect the churches and their
property and to refrain from bloodshed. Though the city did not greatly
suffer, the moral effect of the disaster was immense. Rome the eternal,
the unconquerable, she who had taken captive all the world, was now
herself a captive. The pagans saw in this calamity the vengeance of the
ancient deities, who had been dishonored and driven from their shrines.
The Christians believed that God had sent a judgment on the Romans to
punish them for their sins. In either case the spell of Rome was forever
broken.
KINGDOM OF THE VISIGOTHS, 415-711 A.D.
From Rome Alaric led his hosts, laden with plunder, into southern Italy.
He may have intended to cross the Mediterranean and bring Africa under his
rule. The plan was never carried out, for the youthful chieftain died
suddenly, a victim to the Italian fever. After Alaric's death, the
barbarians made their way northward through Italy and settled in southern
Gaul and Spain. In these lands they founded an independent Visigothic
kingdom, the first to be created on Roman soil.
[Illustration: Map, THE GERMANIC MIGRATIONS to 476 A.D.]
ROMANIZATION OF THE VISIGOTHS
The possessions of the Visigoths in Gaul were seized by their neighbors,
the Franks, in less than a century; [9] but the Gothic kingdom in Spain
had three hundred years of prosperous life. [10] The barbarian rulers
sought to preserve the institutions of Rome and to respect the rights of
their Roman subjects. Conquerors and conquered gradually blended into one
people, out of whom have grown the Spaniards of modern times.
84. BREAKING OF THE RHINE BARRIER
THE GERMANS CROSS THE RHINE, 406 A.D.
After the departure of the Visigoths Rome and Italy remained undisturbed
for nearly forty years. The western provinces were not so fortunate. At
the time of Alaric's first attack on Italy the legions along the Rhine had
been withdrawn to meet him, leaving the frontier unguarded. In 406 A.D.,
four years before Alaric's sack of Rome, a vast company of Germans crossed
the Rhine and swept almost unopposed through Gaul. Some of these peoples
succeeded in establishing kingdoms for themselves on the ruins of the
empire.
KINGDOM OF THE BURGUNDIANS, 443-534 A.D.
The Burgundians settled on the upper Rhine and in the fertile valley of
the Rhone, in southeastern Gaul. Alter less than a century of independence
they were conquered by the Franks. [11] Their name, however, survives in
modern Burgundy.
VANDAL KINGDOM IN NORTH AFRICA, 429-534 A.D.
The Vandals settled first in Spain. The territory now called Andalusia
still preserves the memory of these barbarians. After the Visigothic
invasion of Spain the Vandals passed over to North Africa. They made
themselves masters of Carthage and soon conquered all the Roman province
of Africa. Their kingdom here lasted about one hundred years. [12]
THE FRANKS IN NORTHERN GAUL
While the Visigoths were finding a home in the districts north and south
of the Pyrenees, the Burgundians in the Rhone valley, and the Vandals in
Africa, still another Germanic people began to spread over northern Gaul.
They were the Franks, who had long held lands on both sides of the lower
Rhine. The Franks, unlike the other Germans, were not of a roving
disposition. They contented themselves with a gradual advance into Roman
territory. It was not until near the close of the fifth century that they
overthrew the Roman power in northern Gaul and began to form the Frankish
kingdom, out of which modern France has grown.
THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN, FROM 449 A.D.
The troubled years of the fifth century saw also the beginning of the
Germanic conquest of Britain. The withdrawal of the legions from that
island left it defenseless, for the Celtic inhabitants were too weak to
defend themselves. Bands of savage Picts from Scotland swarmed over
Hadrian's Wall, attacking the Britons in the rear. Ireland sent forth the
no less savage Scots. The eastern coasts, at the same time, were
constantly exposed to raids by German pirates. The Britons, in their
extremity, adopted the old Roman practice of getting the barbarians to
fight for them. Bands of Jutes were invited over from Denmark in 449 A.D.
The Jutes forced back the Picts and then settled in Britain as conquerors.
Fresh swarms of invaders followed them, chiefly Angles from what is now
Schleswig-Holstein and Saxons from the neighborhood of the rivers Elbe and
Weser in northern Germany. The invaders subdued nearly all that part of
Britain that Rome had previously conquered. In this way the Angles and
Saxons became ancestors of the English people, and Engleland became
England. [13]
POLITICAL SITUATION IN 451 A.D.
By the middle of the fifth century the larger part of the Roman Empire in
the West had come under barbarian control. The Germans ruled in Africa,
Spain, Britain, and parts of Gaul. But now the new Germanic kingdoms,
together with what remained of the old empire, were threatened by a common
foe--the terrible Huns.
85. INROADS OF THE HUNS
THE HUNS
We know very little about the Huns, except that they were not related to
the Germans or to any other European people. Some scholars believe them to
have belonged to the Mongolian race. But the Huns, to the excited
imagination of Roman writers, were demons rather than men. Their olive
skins, little, turned-up noses, and black, beady eyes must have given them
a very frightful appearance. They spent most of their time on horseback,
sweeping over the country like a whirlwind and leaving destruction and
death in their wake.
ATTILA THE HUN
The Huns did not become dangerous to Rome for more than half a century
after their first appearance in Europe. [14] During this time they moved
into the Danube region and settled in the lands now known as Austria and
Hungary. At last the Huns found a national leader in Attila, "a man born
into the world to agitate the nations, the fear of all lands," [15] one
whose boast it was that the grass never grew again where his horse's hoofs
had trod. He quickly built up a great military power obeyed by many
barbarous nations from the Caspian to the Rhine.
INVASION OF GAUL BY ATTILA
Attila, from his capital on the Danube, could threaten both the East and
the West. The emperors at Constantinople bought him off with lavish gifts,
and so the robber-ruler turned to the western provinces for his prey. In
451 A.D. he led his motley host, said to number half a million men, across
the Rhine. Many a noble municipality with its still active Roman life was
visited by the Huns with fire and sword. Paris, it is worthy of note,
escaped destruction. That now famous city was then only a little village
on an island in the Seine.
BATTLE OF CHÂLONS, 451 A.D.
In this hour of danger Romans and Germans gave up quarreling and united
against the common foe. Visigoths under their native king hastened from
Spain; Burgundians and Franks joined their ranks; to these forces a German
general, named Aëtius, added the last Roman army in the West. Opposed to
them Attila had his Huns, the conquered Ostrogoths, and many other
barbarian peoples. The battle of Châlons has well been called a struggle
of the nations. It was one of the fiercest conflicts recorded in history.
On both sides thousands perished, but so many more of Attila's men fell
that he dared not risk a fresh encounter on the following day. He drew his
shattered forces together and retreated beyond the Rhine.
ATTILA INVADES ITALY, 452 A.D.
In spite of this setback Attila did not abandon the hope of conquest. The
next year he led his still formidable army over the Julian Alps and burned
or plundered many towns of northern Italy. A few trembling fugitives
sought shelter on the islands at the head of the Adriatic. Out of their
rude huts grew up in the Middle Ages splendid and famous Venice, a city
that in later centuries was to help defend Europe against those kinsmen of
the Huns, the Turks.
DEATH OF ATTILA, 453 A.D.
The fiery Hun did not long survive this Italian expedition. Within a year
he was dead, dying suddenly, it was said, in a drunken sleep. The great
confederacy which he had formed broke up after his death. The German
subjects gained their freedom, and the Huns themselves either withdrew to
their Asiatic wilds or mingled with the peoples they had conquered. Europe
breathed again; the nightmare was over.
86. END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 476 A.D.
VANDAL PIRATES
Rome escaped a visitation by the Huns only to fall a victim, three years
later, to the Vandals. After the capture of Carthage,[16] these barbarians
made that city the seat of a pirate empire. Putting out in their long,
light vessels, they swept the seas and raided many a populous city on the
Mediterranean coast. So terrible were their inroads that the word
"vandalism" has come to mean the wanton destruction of property.
SACK OF ROME BY THE VANDALS, 455 A.D.
In 455 A.D. the ships of the Vandals, led by their king, Gaiseric,
appeared at the mouth of the Tiber. The Romans could offer no resistance.
Only the noble bishop Leo went out with his clergy to meet the invader and
intercede for the city. Gaiseric promised to spare the lives of the
inhabitants and not to destroy the public buildings. These were the best
terms he would grant. The Vandals spent fourteen days stripping Rome of
her wealth. Besides shiploads of booty the Vandals took away thousands of
Romans as slaves, including the widow and two daughters of an emperor.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 455-476 A.D.
After the Vandal sack of Rome the imperial throne became the mere
plaything of the army and its leaders. A German commander, named Ricimer,
set up and deposed four puppet emperors within five years. He was, in
fact, the real ruler of Italy at this time. After his death Orestes,
another German general, went a step beyond Ricimer's policy and placed his
own son on the throne of the Caesars. By a curious coincidence, this lad
bore the name of Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, and the nickname of
Augustulus ("the little Augustus"). The boy emperor reigned less than a
year. The German troops clamored for a third of the lands of Italy and,
when their demand was refused, proclaimed Odoacer king. The poor little
emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was sent to a villa near Naples, where he
disappears from history.
[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the Deposition of Romulus Augustulus 476
A.D.]
POLITICAL SITUATION IN 476 A.D.
There was now no emperor in the West. To the men of that time it seemed
that East and West had been once more joined under a single ruler, as in
the days of Constantine. The emperors who reigned at Constantinople did
not relinquish their claims to be regarded as the rightful sovereigns in
Italy and Rome. Nevertheless, as an actual fact, Roman rule in the West
was now all but extinct. Odoacer, the head of the barbarians in Italy,
ruled a kingdom as independent as that of the Vandals in Africa or that of
the Visigoths in Spain and Gaul. The date 476 A.D. may therefore be chosen
as marking, better than any other, the overthrow of the Roman Empire in
the West by the Germans.
87. GERMANIC INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GERMANIC INVASIONS
Classical civilization suffered a great shock when the Germans descended
on the empire and from its provinces carved out their kingdoms. These
barbarians were rude in manners, were very ignorant, and had little taste
for anything except fighting and bodily enjoyments. They were unlike the
Romans in dress and habits of life. They lived under different laws, spoke
different languages, obeyed different rulers. Their invasions naturally
ushered in a long period of confusion and disorder, during which the new
race slowly raised itself to a level of culture somewhat approaching that
which the Greeks and the Romans had attained.
RETROGRESSIVE FORCES
The Germans in many ways did injury to classical civilization. They
sometimes destroyed Roman cities and killed or enslaved the inhabitants.
Even when the invaders settled peaceably in the empire, they took
possession of the land and set up their own tribal governments in place of
the Roman. They allowed aqueducts, bridges, and roads to go without
repairs, and theaters, baths, and other public buildings to sink into
ruins. Having no appreciation of education, the Germans failed to keep up
the schools, universities, and libraries. Being devoted chiefly to
agriculture, they had no need for foreign wares or costly articles of
luxury, and hence they permitted industry and commerce to languish. In
short, large parts of western Europe, particularly Gaul, Spain, and
Britain, fell backward into a condition of ignorance, superstition, and
even barbarism.
PROGRESSIVE FORCES
But in closing our survey of the Germanic invasions we need to dwell on
the forces that made for progress, rather than on those that made for
decline. Classical civilization, we have already found reason to believe,
[17] had begun to decay long before the Germans broke up the empire. The
Germans came, as Christianity had come, only to hasten the process of
decay. Each of these influences, in turn, worked to build up the fabric of
a new society on the ruins of the old. First Christianity infused the
pagan world with its quickening spirit and gave a new religion to mankind.
Later followed the Germans, who accepted Christianity, who adopted much of
Graeco-Roman culture, and then contributed their fresh blood and youthful
minds and their own vigorous life.
STUDIES
1. On an outline map indicate the extent of Germany in the time of
Tacitus.
2. Make a list of all the Germanic nations mentioned in this chapter, and
give a short account of each.
3 Give dates for the following: battle of Châlons; sack of Rome by Alaric;
battle of Adrianople; and end of the Roman Empire in the West.
4. What resemblances existed between the culture of the Germans and that
of the early Greeks?
5. Why did the Germans progress more slowly in civilization than the
Greeks and the Romans?
6. Comment on this statement: "The Germans had stolen their way into the
very citadel of the empire long before its distant outworks were stormed."
7. Why is modern civilization, unlike that of antiquity, in little danger
from barbarians?
8. Why has the battle of Adrianople been called "the Cannae of the fourth
century"?
9. Why has Alaric been styled "the Moses of the Visigoths"?
10. What is the origin of the geographical names Andalusia, Burgundy,
England, and France?
11. Why was Attila called the "scourge of God"?
12. Can you suggest a reason why some historians do not regard Châlons as
one of the world's decisive battles?
13. In what sense does the date, 476 A.D., mark the "fall" of the Roman
Empire?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xxiii, "The Germans as
Described by Tacitus."
[2] Tacitus, _Germania_, 19.
[3] See pages 224-226.
[4] See page 219.
[5] See page 223.
[6] See page 98.
[7] See page 178.
[8] See page 153.
[9] See page 303.
[10] See page 378.
[11] See page 303.
[12] See page 330.
[13] The invasion of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was followed by the
migration across the Channel of large numbers of the defeated islanders.
The district in France where they settled is called after them, Brittany.
[14] See page 241.
[15] Jordanes, _De rebus Geticis_, 35.
[16] See page 225.
[17] See page 224.