weakness in Gaul, where a force of Vandals, Sueves, and Alans
broke through the Rhine frontier in the winter of 406/7 and
Constantius, a usurper from Britain, set up a short-lived empire
based on Arles. By 418 the imperial government got the upper
hand over the twin dangers of sedition and invasion by the
increasingly familiar expedient of setting a thief to catch
thieves. The promise of land and subsidies together with the
threat of a food blockade enforced by Roman naval power
induced the Visigoths into repelling the Alans and Vandals and
settling in Aquitaine as Roman federati (allies).

The first half of the fifth century saw the settlement of
Germanic peoples in most areas of the western Mediterranean,
and in the main this process took place smoothly and peace-
fully. In Gaul the Visigoths and the Burgundians, who were
settled first on the Rhine and later in Savoy, served as a
bulwark against peasant rebels and other barbarians, took only
a proportion of the land for themselves, and allowed the
Romans to retain their institutions as nominal subjects of the
emperor. Spain lapsed into a period of confusion and obscurity
following the invasion of the Vandals and their Sueve and Alan
allies. In 429 the Vandals moved on to Africa and Visigothic
overlordship was eventually established over most of the
country.

Africa is the province of the western Mediterranean whose
fate approximates most closely to the popular view of cata-
strophic invasion. The Vandals, led by their remarkable king,
Gaiseric, were quick to throw off the façade of allied status and
seized Carthage and the other cities of what was once one of
the richest of Rome's provinces. The Roman population was
relentlessly taxed, the Catholic hierarchy was persecuted, and
naval raids were launched against Roman targets throughout
the Mediterranean.

Italy and the imperial court at Ravenna felt little direct
effect from what appeared to be a phoney war against the
barbarians. This immunity was the achievement of two capable
commanders-in-chief, Constantius and Aëtius, 'the last of the
Romans', who manipulated the invaders in order to shore up
the tottering empire. Aëtius' balancing act failed when his

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