Rhine Crossing of 406: The Frontier Collapses
A large body of Vandals, Alans and Sueves crossed the Rhine on the last day of 406 and were never expelled. The traditional account has them cross the frozen river near Mainz, which is picturesque and may be an invention of a later chronicler; the date itself rests on Prosper of Aquitaine. What is not disputed is that the frontier was undefended. Stilicho had stripped the Rhine garrisons to meet Radagaisus's invasion of Italy, and the Frankish federates who held the line were beaten after killing a Vandal king. The invaders were themselves refugees. Hunnic pressure on the Danube had pushed whole peoples west for a generation, and these groups were moving with families and possessions rather than raiding. They spent two years crossing Gaul, sacking Mainz, Trier, Reims, Tournai, Arras and Amiens, and entered Spain in 409. Britain reacted by proclaiming its own emperor, Constantine III, who took the remaining garrison to Gaul in 407 and never sent it back — which is effectively the end of Roman Britain. Rome's answer was to settle them. Land was granted in Spain by treaty in 411 and the Visigoths were used to fight them, which worked in the sense that the empire kept a legal fiction of control and lost the tax revenue either way. The Vandals crossed to Africa in 429, took Carthage in 439, and cut off the grain and the richest provinces the west had left. Rome fell in 476 to a commander of its own federate troops. Its last emperor was a boy the sources call Romulus Augustulus, holding two names that between them cover the whole of Roman history.
- Year: 406 CE
- Category: Military
