The Final Invasions
Between Diocletian and Constantine the empire held together but the threat of invasion by barbarians grew ever stronger. The term barbarian actually means outsider and the Romans considered them to be uncivilized. They lived in farming communities and were strong warriors.
The Germans had many tribes such as the Franks, Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals. The Goths and the Vandals began to move into the empire after the Huns invaded their lands. The Romans didn’t welcome them or treat them well, which lead to a Goth revolt in 378. The Goths won, and were allowed to settle in the empire and even recruited them into the roman army. However, in 410 the Visigoths sacked Rome. Rome hadn’t been sacked in over 800 years. Remember how shocked we were when terrorists blew up the Twin Towers, in New York, and that happened only a short 225 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence!
While the Visigoths were sacking Rome, the Vandals were crossing the borders. They invaded North Africa in 429 and then they too sacked Rome, in 455. Today we use the word vandal to mean the destruction of property. They were infamous for the terror and destruction they caused.
Remember the Huns that I mentioned earlier? Well they were nomadic people from Asia who had been united by a fierce warrior named Attila in the mid 400s. Under Attila they swept into Europe and drove the German tribes out.
In 451 an army of Romans and Visigoths defeated Attila’s army which was broken up. Unfortunately the damage done the the Western Roman empire was so great that in 476 a barbarian commander overthrew the last Western emperor Romulus Augustulus.
