Crossing of the Rhine

Several written accounts document the crossing, supplemented by the timeline of Prosper of Aquitaine, which gives a firm date of 31 December 406 in his year-by-year chronicle: "In the sixth consulship of Arcadius and Probus, Vandals and Alans came into the Gauls, having crossed the Rhine, on the day before the kalends of January." A letter by Saint Jerome, written from Bethlehem and dated 409, gives a long list of the barbarian tribes who had overrun all of Gaul at that time, including those who had crossed the Rhine: Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Alemanni and, to the shame of the empire, Pannonians from within the empire. Jerome lists the cities now known as Mainz, Worms, Rheims, Amiens, Arras, Thérouanne, Tournai, Speyer and Strasbourg as having been pillaged. Jerome's account is highly stylised, and neither his list of peoples nor his list of cities can be taken at face value as they have sources in previous texts. In his History of the Franks, the 6th-century historian Gregory of Tours embeds some short passages of a lost account by the 5th-century historian Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus of a war between the Vandals, Alans and Franks that took place in the Rhine region around the time of the crossing of the Rhine. This text, known as the "Frigeridus fragment", may provide some clues about the circumstances preceding the crossing. Olympiodorus of Thebes, a generally reliable contemporary historian, wrote an account of the crossing, of which only fragments have survived in quotations by Sozomen, Zosimus and Photius. 5th century Roman historian Orosius mentions the crossing in passing. == Interpretation ==

Motives The initial gathering of barbarians on the east bank of the Rhine has been interpreted as a banding of refugees from the Huns or the remnants of Radagaisus's defeated Goths, without direct evidence. Scholars such as Walter Goffart and Guy Halsall have argued instead that the barbarian groups crossed the Rhine not (so much) because they were fleeing the Huns, but seized the opportunity to plunder and settle in Gaul when the Roman garrisons on the Rhine frontier were weakened or withdrawn in order to protect Italy. British historian Peter Heather argues that this hypothesis does not explain all the evidence, such as the fact that "the vast majority of the invaders who emerged from the middle Danubian region between 405 and 408 had not been living there in the fourth century", and that the evidence for any Roman military withdrawal from the northwest at this time was weak; escaping "the Hun-generated chaos and predation" was still a better explanation. Vandal–Frankish war According to the "Frigeridus fragment," there was a war between the Franks and the Vandals, in which the latter were losing. Frigeridus states that the Vandals lost around 20,000 warriors, including their king Godigisel, in these military engagements. On the other hand, the downstream fortresses of Nijmegen (Noviomagus) and Cologne (Colonia) in the north were apparently left intact by the barbarians, as was Trier (Augusta Treverorum), situated a few days' march west of Mainz. As Jerome had lived in Trier until 370, it is likely he would have reported it if the invaders had attacked his former hometown, but he makes no such mention. A frozen Rhine, making the crossing easier, is not attested by any contemporary source, but was a plausible surmise made by 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon. Although many later writers have since mentioned a frozen Rhine as if it were a fact, for Gibbon it was merely a hypothesis ("in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most probably frozen") to help explain why the Vandals, Alans and Suebi were able to cross the Rhine into Gaul with such apparent ease. It is also possible that they used a Roman Rhine bridge, or that the migrating peoples simply used boats. However, Heather (2009) points out that the evidence for any Roman military withdrawal from the northwest at this time is weak. == Alternative dating ==

A 2000 article by Michael Kulikowski, finding that in traditional historiography "the sequence of events bristles with technical difficulties", bypasses modern historians' accounts, which he finds to have depended upon Gibbon and one another, and reanalysed the literary sources. His conclusion is that a date for the mid-winter crossing of the Rhine of 31 December 405 offers a more coherent chronology of events in Belgica, Gaul and Britannia. However, Kulikowski's dating theory, which is a revival of arguments that were put forward by Norman H. Baynes, was forcefully challenged by Anthony Birley. Kulikowski outlines how 406 came to be selected. The sixth consulship of Arcadius, with Probus as co-consul, corresponds to 406. Prosper notes the invasion of Italy by Radagaisus as the prime event of 405, as well as his death which actually occurred in 406, and he correctly assigns to 407 the usurpation of Constantine III. "The three entries are linked, and together they tell a kind of story", Kulikowski observes. "Prosper was writing a chronicle, and the genre abhorred blank years. Since his chosen genre demanded an entry for each of three years, Prosper simply portioned out his sequence of events, one event to the year. He does the same thing elsewhere in the chronicle". Kulikowski notes a contradiction between Prosper's date and the assertions made by a fragment of Olympiodorus of Thebes, Zosimus's New History (vi.3.1) and Orosius that the Rhine crossing and the presence of barbarians in Gaul provoked the usurpation of Marcus in Britannia: the latter occurred in the course of 406, thus preceded the 31 December 406 date, and therefore the Rhine crossing must have happened earlier. Kulikowski's proposed date of 31 December 405 places the acclamation of the first of the usurpers in Britannia, which was characterised as a fearful reaction to the barbarian presence in Gaul, after the crossing of the Rhine. With the traditional date of 31 December 406 in mind, much has been made of the inaction of Stilicho, which is sometimes imputed to his strategy focussed on ambitions in Illyria. Kulikowski's date of 31 December 405 places Stilicho fully occupied in Tuscia battling the forces of Radagaisus, who was finally overcome and executed at the Battle of Faesulae in August 406. == Aftermath ==

According to bishop Hydatius of Aquae Flaviae, the barbarians crossed into Spain in September or October 409; little is known about the acts of the Vandals, Alans and Suevi in Gaul between the crossing of the Rhine and their invasion of Spain. Gregory of Tours only mentions "the Vandals left their own country and burst into the Gauls under King Gunderic. And when the Gauls had been thoroughly laid waste they made for the Spains. The Suebi, that is, Alamanni, following them, seized Gallaecia." Based on Jerome's letter, Kulikowski argues that the Vandals, Alans and Suebi probably mostly stayed in northern Gaul until at least the spring of 409 (the earliest possible date of Jerome's letter), because almost all cities pillaged by the barbarians listed by Jerome were located in the north, and the southern city of Toulouse (Tolosa) had so far been able to repel the invaders, and they had not yet crossed into Spain. == Footnotes ==