Britain had been voluntarily left by the Romans since 427. In Africa, the governor Boniface having been driven into rebellion by the intrigues of the Roman general Ætius, who possessed the ear of Placidia, invited the Vandals from Spain, under the command of Genseric, to come to his assistance. The latter then obtained possession of the country, 429—439; indeed, even as early as 435, Valentinian was obliged to make a formal cession of it to them. Valentinian's wife Eudoxia, a Grecian princess, was purchased by the cession of western Illyricum (Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Noricum); so that of all the countries south of the Danube there now only remained those which belonged to the præfecture of Italy: Rhætia and Vindelicia. On the south-east of Gaul was formed, 435, the kingdom of the Burgundians, which, besides the south-east part of France, comprised also Switzerland and Savoy. The south-west was under the dominion of the Visigoths. There remained only the territory north of the Loire which still submitted to the Roman governors; the last of whom, Syagrius, survived the fall of the empire itself; holding out till the year 486, when he was defeated near Soissons by Clodovicus, or Clovis, king of the Franks.
The Huns.
Attila.
450.
451.
453.
454.
455.
23. But while the western empire seemed thus of itself almost to fall to pieces, another impetuous rush of nations took place, which threatened the whole of western Europe. The victorious hordes of Huns who now occupied the territory formerly the seat of the Goths, between the Don and the Theiss, and even as far as the Volga, had united themselves, since the year 444, under one common chief, Attila; who, by this union and his own superior talents as a warrior and ruler, became the most powerful prince of his time. The eastern empire having bought a peace by paying him a yearly tribute, he fell with a mighty army upon the western provinces. The united forces, however, of the Romans under Ætius and the Visigoths, obliged him near Chalons (in campis Catalaunicis) to retreat. Nevertheless, the following year he again invaded Italy, where he had a secret understanding with the licentious Honoria, Valentinian's sister. The cause of his second retreat, which was soon followed by his death, is unknown. The miserable Valentinian soon after deprived the Roman empire of its best general, being led by his suspicions to put Ætius to death. He himself, however, was soon doomed to undergo the punishment of his debaucheries, being murdered in a conspiracy formed by Petronius Maximus, whose wife he had dishonoured, and some friends of Ætius, whom he had executed.
24. The twenty years which intervened between the assassination of Valentinian, and the final destruction of the Roman empire in the west, was nearly one continued series of intestine revolutions. No less than nine sovereigns rapidly succeeded one another. These changes, indeed, were but of little importance in this troublesome period, compared to the terror with which Genseric king of the Vandals filled the Roman empire: he by his naval power having become master of the Mediterranean and Sicily, could ravage the coasts of the defenceless Italy at his pleasure, and even capture Rome itself. While in Italy, the German Ricimer, general of the foreign troops in Roman pay, permitted a series of emperors to reign in his name. It would have been his lot to put an end to this series of Augusti, but for mere accident, which reserved that glory for his son and successor, Odoacer, four years after his father's death.
After the death of Valentinian, Maximus was proclaimed emperor; but as he wished to compel Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, to marry him, she called over Genseric from Africa, who took and pillaged Rome, and Maximus perished after a reign of three months, 455. He was succeeded by M. Avitus, who ascended the throne at Arles; and he again was soon deposed by Ricimer, 456, who, just before, had defeated the fleet of the Vandals. Ricimer now placed upon the throne, first Julianus Majorianus, April 1, 457; but he, having distinguished himself in the wars against the Vandals, 461, was set aside, and Libius Severus put in his place, who, however, died in 465, probably of poison. His death was followed by an interregnum of two years, during which Ricimer ruled, though without the title of emperor. At length the patrician Anthemius, then at Constantinople (where they never gave up their pretensions to the right of naming or confirming the sovereigns of the west), was, though not without the consent of the powerful Ricimer, named emperor of the west, April 12, 467, by the emperor Leo. But differences having arisen between him and Ricimer, the latter retired to Milan, 469, and commenced a war, in which he took and pillaged Rome, and Anthemius was slain. Ricimer himself followed soon after, † Aug. 18, 472. Upon this, Anicius Olybrius, son-in-law of Valentinian III. was proclaimed Augustus, but dying in three months, Oct. 472, Glycerius assumed the purple at Ravenna, without, however, being acknowledged at Constantinople, where they in preference named Julius Nepos Augustus. The latter, in 474, having expelled Glycerius, became also in his turn expelled by his own general Orestes, 475, who gave the diadem to his son Romulus Momyllus, who, as the last in the succession of Augusti, acquired the surname of Augustulus. In 476, however, Odoacer, the leader of the Germans in the Roman pay at Rome, sent him, after the execution of Orestes, into captivity, and allowed him a pension. Odoacer now remained master of Italy till the year 492, when the Ostrogoths, under their king Theodoric, founded there a new empire.
25. Thus fell the Roman empire of the west, while that of the east, pressed on every side, and in a situation almost similar, endured a thousand years, notwithstanding its intestine broils, which would alone have sufficed to destroy any other, and the hosts of barbarians who attacked it during the middle ages. The impregnable situation of its capital, which usually decides the fate of such kingdoms, joined to its despotism, which is not unfrequently the main support of a kingdom in its decline, can alone, in some measure, explain a phenomenon which has no equal in the history of the world.
APPENDIX.
CHRONOLOGY OF HERODOTUS TO THE TIME OF CYRUS, EXTRACTED FROM THE RESEARCHES OF M. VOLNEY. See Preface.