Germanic Invasions

THE LATE ROMAN EMPIRE and the GERMANIC INVASIONS
1. Historical overview
The Age of Roman Empire started at 27 BC when Augustus took the power. With the coming of the Roman Empire, a long period of stability was ensured in South Europe – called Pax Romana, which lasted for two centuries. In the system of the Roman Empire, being a Roman citizen was the main source of prestige for the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin, and this approach kept the mentality of citizenship alive and permitted to Rome to keep the local populations voluntarily inside the borders of Rome. The society was highly stratified and there were several social classes, which were responsible of a certain duty within the society. The city senates were ascribing several works to be done to the important personalities of the city. This way, the state was ridden of a great economic burden and an opportunity of participating to the state affairs were given to citizens. Rome was above all militaristic and the organization of the Roman army was impeccable. This highly-disciplined professional army permitted the Roman Empire to enlarge its area of influence. The Roman capacity of road building was very high, and this way the Roman army was capable to move everywhere if wanted in the Old World. In peace times, the army soldiers were given several menial jobs, like taking part in building projects, and thus the state was realizing its projects without hiring extra labor force. There was slavery in the society but it was rather an economic class, and it was possible to buy back his/her freedom from the master. There were several cases where the slave was set free but continued to work with his master, as a contractor or even as a partner.
The first two centuries are remembered as the era of Romanization of the West. In the 3rd Century, the politics of enlarging the “imperium” starts to fail. The borders, already too large, become hard to defend and the first barbarian raids begin. The Romans start to hire Germanic people as soldiers, and it harmed the inner order and discipline of the army. The importance of the border legions started to increase and these legions got hold of the power of controlling the emperors and deciding who is taking the throne. Thus the age of Soldier Emperors started. It was an age of inner conflict, with emperors from soldier descent, who remained in power for a couple of years. Constant bribing of soldiers for keeping the power in their hands, triggered a very high rate of inflation, and weakened the economic power of the state, and inflicted a great impact to the mentality of Romanization. There were other economic problems that shook the foundations of the empire. In order to mint more money, the rate of gold and silver was constantly diminished, and it caused depreciation in the value of money. There is a partial re-organization in the following years with Diocletian and Constantine. On the other hand, a devastating plage was ravaging the Empire. Throughout the empire, thousands of people were dead and entire cities were abandoned. With the economic, social and political disasters coming on and on, the Roman polytheistic religion, which was based upon mundane happiness, was no longer promoted. Christianity became more and more popular. Mithraism was also a popular religion of the time, but its initiation and its ritual rules did not allow anyone to be part of this religion. Christianity on the other hand was more embracing. At the end of the third century the Emperor Diocletian tried to stop the decline . what he did this was to divide the Empire into an eastern area ruled by him from Asia Minor and a western part ruled by a general in Rome. Soon after the Emperor Constantine made his capital in Asia Minor at a city called Byzantium. This city controlled the access to the Black Sea and was renamed Constantinople. The Eastern part of the Empire survived still for a very longtime, until Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, but the Western part, which was relatively poor and more often threatened by the barbarian invasions, collapsed after one century. On 476: Romulus Augustulus was desposed and the Roman Rule in west ended. In the last two hundred years empire the moral power was declined and Rome was not that safe anymore. The wars started to became in borders and inside the borders so Romans were afraiding to be sacked. It was too hard to choose an Emperor there were big wars between armies to choose the new ruler. It was like a competition. The grain stocks were not enough and this coused lots of problems and there were infectious diseases and they spread very quickly because the cities like Rome was very crowded.
a) The Germanic barbarians
i. The concept 'barbarian'
The term was first minted by Herodotus (5th Century BC), who called the non-greek nations as “barbarians”, because their language was sounding unintelligible. The term might have been used even before, but with the Persian invasions, it also took a negative meaning, like “the civilization destroyers”.
ii. Early Germanic culture In Europe
We know the Germanic People were living in Scandinavian lands in the first millennium BC. They were using Indo European language and this language must arrive there in the second Millennium BC. Because there are not any known place names before this period. And hundreds years of war between Celts and the Germanic people in the Hellenistic Age of the Greeks the Rhine river became a border between these people. Germanic people needed new agriculture and hunting territories. The eastern and western Germanic tribes were different. The western Germans practiced in agriculture. The Eastern Germans and most notifying group of them Goths moved to the north Black Sea region. Here they divided to 2 groups, Visigoths and Ostrogoths, the other eastern Germanic tribes were the Vandals, the Gepids, the Burgundians and the Lombards. The western Germans were the Franks, the Saxons, the Thuringians and the Alamanni people. Vandals were settled at Elbe and Vistula. We know the Germanic peoples in written sources from Tacitus’ Germania. Pliny the Older, in his Historia Naturalis, mentions vindilii (the vandals) as one of the Germanic races in Northern Europe. There are also some early information about these tribes in Oyteas of Marseillas mentions them in the fourth century BC. Poseidonius (Greek Historian) first used the word “Germani” in Late Hellenistic period. The home of the Vandals was the Northern Prussia, but there were several neighbor tribes at the region. With the weakening of the Roman Empire, the Vandals started to improve their borders towards the south. The first Gothic touch to Roman Empire is on the year 376 at Danube according to the ancient authors Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus. It was a movement pushed by the Vandal migrations, and the barbarians established themselves between the regions of Pannonia and Dacia. After several years, the emperor Aurelian manages to win a single victory over the Vandals (271). During the last regnal years of Constantine, the Goths attacked the Vandals and defeated them badly; and Constantine was entreated to permit them to enter within the limits of the empire and to settle at the region of Pannonia (331-337). The Vandals remained as peaceful subjects for several years, but in year 406, they started to march towards Gaul, together with Alans and a Germanic tribe called Suevi.
After the split of the empire into West and East Roman Empire, the death of Thedosoius caused further trouble within the empire. The two sons of the emperor were too young to reign and there were throne fights among statesmen and generals. This instability caused three major invasions by the Germanic people throughout the fifth century.
First, a gothic king called Radagaisus invaded Italy in 405. We learn about this invasion from Zosimus, that Radagaisus failed and was executed. Some years later, a mixed group of Vandals, Alans and Suevi raided into Gaul, and managed to carve themselves small kingdoms within the empire. This invasion was also partly caused by the Hunnic movements, which pushed these tribes further west. Thirdly, it was the Hunnic leader Uldin who crossed the Danube and entered the empire in 409, but he was defeated. In the meanwhile the Eastern Empire was attacked by the Visigoths under Alaric and on the other hand there was a Hunnic invasion coming from further East at the beginning of the fifth century.
The consequences of the Barbarian Invasions
The Danube and the Rhein borders were too long to survive. And after these borders, there were no second borders. And after the collapse of these frontiers, it was easy to access to Spain, Italy and the other places. And the Western Empire used her money and sources for the civil wars after “Pax Romana” There were civil rebels in Roman west like Gaul and Spain, and at this time Roman army was needed at the other parts of the Empire. The grain supplies and all other wealth were in the east. After the stop of the grain trade with Egypt. It was very hard for empire to feed the army and the people. They brought new taxes and made new soldiers, but this was the decline and the fall of the Economy of the empire. The Germanic people were primitive and their economies were based on agriculture and hunting. And they had clans in political order.