You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [6]
Often the barbarians became Romans themselves and held high office. Fraomer, king of the Alamanni, was a Roman officer in A.D. 372. The Frank Bauto and Vandal Stilicho were barbarian generals who at one time actually ruled Rome. The desire was to possess what the Romans had — security, land, power, wealth, culture and fame — simple desires expressed by most barbarians (and Romans too). Around A.D. 370, the Chinese army uprooted the pesky Huns, driving them west into the Middle East and Europe. In A.D. 390 the Huns joined the Alans and attacked the Ostrogoths, who were then pushed into Visigoth land. After the battle of Dniester, the 200,000 surviving but defeated Visigoths begged to be admitted to Roman territory. After first being refused and then poorly treated, the Visigoths overwhelmed the small garrisons of Roman soldiers and “peacefully” flooded into Roman territory (Moesia). Badly outnumbered and taking the hint, the Roman frontier troops were evacuated, only to be attacked by the out-flanking Huns, who circled in from the north. They avoided annihilation only by paying the Huns a large inducement of silver.
Who did this? It becomes a parade of emperors — Caesars, that is — who found it convenient or necessary to use the barbarians, beginning with Valetinian, an Italian Roman, and ending with Alaric, who was most definitely not a Roman. By the late fourth century, barbarian armies were embroiled as mercenaries in the incessant Roman civil wars of that period. In A.D. 383, Roman general Magnus moved from Britain to Gaul, using paid German barbarian troops to retake central Europe and put himself on the throne. Emperor Valentinian used Franks, Huns and Alans to stop the general. In A.D. 387, Maximus deposed Valentinian as emperor of the Western Empire. The Eastern Empire emperor, Theodosius, hired a Visigoth army to kill Maximus and restore Valentinian to the Western Empire throne, which they accomplished in A.D. 392. After restoration, neither emperor could adequately pay off their barbarian troops, who then collected their pay by sacking all of Macedonia. Unfortunately for the Romans, Valentinian died the next year (bad luck) and the Frank king, Arbogastes, declared his man, Eugenius, emperor of the West. In A.D. 394, an army of 20,000 Visigoths attacked the Western Empire armies and murdered the Frank-controlled Eugenius (more bad luck). They declared Theodosius as emperor of both East and West Roman Empires. A few months later, Theodosius died of natural causes (a rarity in Roman politics). Vandal general Stilicho then took the throne of the Western Empire. The emperor of Rome was a barbarian.
The general attacked a Visigoth army commanded by Alaric I, which was invading northern Italy in A.D. 397. He also planned a counterattack on the Eastern Empire, which had secretly funded Alaric. After several years of inconclusive battles, Alaric was driven north, out of Italy, by a combination of a Hun army hired by Rome and attacks on his northern flank by his “brother barbarians,” the Vandals, Suebi and Alans. An A.D. 407 revolt by Romans stationed in Britain (no pay) brought Constantine into Europe as a new self-declared Western emperor. There were three individuals now claiming the Western Empire throne; four individuals claiming its wealth. A deal was struck between Emperor Constantine in Gaul, Emperor Stilicho in Rome, Emperor Honorius in Ravinia and General Alaric (no claim on the throne…just all the money) in northern Italy to leave Rome alone and, instead, attack the Balkans. Each party had their own barbarian troops. The