payment page
Alaric’s Successors
After taking over Visigothic kingship from his brother-in-law Alaric, Athaulf retreated from Italy, taking his people over the Western Alps into Gaul. In return for access to grain and legal recognition, Athaulf offered to fight against the Gallic imperial claimant Jovinus. Honorius accepted the offer, and Athaulf sent Honorius Jovinus’ head, but received nothing in return. A revolt in North Africa, led by yet another imperial claimant, cut off all grain supplies, leaving the Goths with nothing. Despite this, Athaulf and Honorius eventually found peace with each other. Athaulf eventually took his people to Barcelona, where he was killed in 416 CE.
Athaulf’s successor, Wallia, not only repeated Alaric’s attempt to cross to North Africa, but also repeated his failure. With little choice, he negotiated with Honorius for the Goths to gain foederati status, (supposedly) serving Roman military needs in exchange for land. After defeating the Vandals in Iberia, the Visigoths were granted provisions and land in Aquitania Secunda (Southwest France) by means of hospitalitas, once used to legally quarter Roman soldiers on farmland. While the indigenous population of Aquitaine remained responsible to Roman civil administration, the Visigoths answered only to their own kings, laws, and Arian Christian ecclesiastical authorities. This would be the case for several other similar foederati-hospitalitas arrangements, brokered for the Suebi and Silingi Vandals in Northwestern Gaul, as well as for the Burgundians in the upper Rhine region. However, they offered little military support when Rome requested it.
Valentinian III and Aetius
When Honorius died in 423 CE, the Western Roman lands were in disarray—Italy, Gaul, and segments of Iberia had been severely plundered, and Visigoths living in the regions controlled by foederati-hospitalitas answered to no Roman. Back in Italy, Rome was in the midst of yet another succession crisis. The Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II, installed Valentinian III, on the Western Throne, but the true power rested with Aetius. A man of Balkan-Germanic origin, he had previously served as a political hostage of the Huns, and was able to recruit them to his own military forces. He had been the Master of Soldiers in Gaul, but, by 433 CE, became the Master of Soldiers for the entire Western Empire. In this role, he neglected every territory except Gaul and Italy, leaving Britain, Iberia, and the southern Mediterranean unguarded.
Aetius was harsh on Visigoths, but he was unable to crack down on the Vandals. In 429 CE, the Vandal leader Gaiseric led his people from northern Gaul to Gibraltar, finally securing passage for a Germanic tribe to North Africa. Moving East from Morocco, the Vandals occupied Carthage in 439, declaring it the capital of their new German kingdom. Not only did it cut off wheat and grain supplies to the reliant central Empire, but it also saw the Vandals obtaining a pirate raiding base that they used to attack Southern Iberia and Italy for the next 30 years. The once-great Roman Empire was fractured.
