When Rome gradually declined, Gaul, which had already enjoyed prosperity, also became chaotic with the decline of Rome. Worse still, for so many years, Rome was unable to effectively restrain barbarians such as Germans, which eventually led to barbarian invasions in the third century.
There were many barbarian tribes around the Roman Empire, and some tribes still lived a poor life of slash and burn. The strength and wealth of the Roman Empire has always made these poor neighbors envious and hateful. In the later period of the Roman Empire, due to the weakening of the country, some barbarians (especially Germans) were often hired to help fight in the Roman legions. The army is full of these barbarians, and many barbarians can get an officer and a half in the army, and even become a general. This group lived in the Roman Empire and witnessed Rome's big cities, large estates, farmland full of grain, grapes, and Rome's spacious, well-connected avenues. When they returned to their hometowns, they told their fellow countrymen about the prosperity they had seen and heard in Rome, which further stimulated the desire of this group of barbarians for Roman wealth. And the decay of Rome gave hope to this group of barbarians.
(Visigothic samurai)
At the same time, at the other end of the barbarian territory, there is a group of people who are more "barbarian" than them who have come to the door to kick the museum, and they are huns. The source of the Huns is said to have been the Huns who were beaten west by the Han Dynasty. In the process of migrating westward, this powerful tribe that once threatened East Asia conquered and integrated many local tribes along the way, forming the Huns two hundred years later. The Fighting Power of the Huns was higher than that of the Germans and other "barbarians", and their plunder was even more barbaric. The barbarians could not resist the Huns, so they had to point the finger at the "soft persimmon" Rome. In 367 AD, the Visigoths of the Germanic army were approved by the Roman Emperor to cross the Danube River and settle in the northern part of the Roman Empire as "allies". Beginning with the group's move, Europe unleashed a wave of barbarian migrations that led to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
The first to attack were the Visigoths, the first to immigrate. The Visigoths were meant to escape the Huns from moving into the Roman Empire, and the Romans allowed them to move in out of selfishness, and they wanted to use the Visigoths' forces to defend the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Both families are uneasy and kind, and it is difficult to have a good result in such cooperation. The Roman officials treated the Visigoths like lemons, desperately trying to squeeze the benefits out of them. The Visigoths not only had to help the Romans watch over their doorsteps, but they were also squeezed by the Romans, and even sold their children and women for rations. There was no such unfair trade under the heavens, and the Visigoths decided to rise up against Rome.
Rome was even weaker than expected, and at the Battle of Adriatic Fort, the Visigoths preemptively took advantage of the battlefield and unexpectedly launched a surprise attack on the Roman army. The Roman army was defeated, and even emperor Valente was killed in battle. In 410, the Visigoths, led by their leader Alaric, captured the city of Rome. After a sack, the Visigoths continued to engage Rome and migrated westward, establishing the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse as its capital in southern Gaul in 418. After that, the Visigothic kingdom crossed the Pyrenees and seized Spain, thus becoming a great power in Western Europe.
For the first time, the barbarians gained a foothold in the Roman Empire, and Rome wanted to deal with the Goths but did not have much to do. At the Battle of Fort Adriatica, Rome had lost the last vest in its family and was no longer able to reorganize a Roman legion that had swept the world as it had done before. What's more, at this time, the Roman Empire had been divided into two parts, east Rome with Greece as the core, and western Rome with Italy as the core. The country was divided in two, and the forces were more dispersed.
At this time, the Roman Empire actually came up with the method of "destroying with destruction" to deal with the Visigoths. They first hired other barbarian armies as their own armies, and then invited attila, the "whip of God", the King of Hungary, to join him in the conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom. These self-made clever Roman high-ranking officials thought that they had used a trick to "drive the tiger and swallow the wolf", but did they not know that Attila was the master who listened to their instructions? In the process of cooperating with Attila, the strength and arbitrariness of the Huns made them very uneasy. They finally realized that this was not a way to drive a tiger and swallow a wolf, but to lure a wolf into the house!
(Attila the Whip of God)
The remorseful Roman hierarchy ran to the Visigoths and joined forces with them to drive Attila away. They found one of the best officers, Aetius, who had been a hostage of the Hun tribe as a child and knew Attila very well and knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Huns.
In 450, Attila personally led the Huns and vassal states of Ostrogoths and Gepids to invade Gaul, advancing into Paris and Orléans, and the Roman side was also desperate, gathering the main army, as well as the Visigoths, Alans, Burgundians, Franks and other allied Germanic tribes, and the commander-in-chief was Aetius. The strength of the two sides, in the past, was recorded to be 500,000 people each, and in modern times it is generally believed that each side has tens of thousands of people.
The two armies fought a bloody battle at Chalon (on the banks of the Marne River east of Paris), in which the Roman-Visigothic army finally stopped Attila, but the Visigothic king died in this battle. Soon after, the Roman hierarchy slaughtered donkeys and assassinated Aetius, whom they believed to be in crisis. Attila, the King of Hungary, also died in the army due to an accident, and the huge Hunnic empire collapsed.
The Huns thus came to an end, but Rome had become an empty shelf after these tosses. The other barbarians, like the Visigoths, poured in in one after another. Soon, the states established by these barbarians sprung up like mushrooms across Europe and North Africa. Under this shock, the Western Roman Empire eventually collapsed. And the Frankish kingdom established by the Franks became the final victor of laughter.
Prequel to The Milky Hair (1) Happy Gauls, who once burned the city of Rome
Prequel to The Milky Beard (2) How the mighty Gallic army was conquered by Caesar
Prequel to The Milky Hair (3) Roman provinces and the French Zero Empire