the Pyrenees, devastating as they went. Then they pushed on, as the
Cimbri had done before them, across the mountains into Spain, and
made havoc of that country for several years, reducing to subjection even
great cities like Tarraco, while, like the Vandals after them, they also
made a foray into Africa. As at the time of the Cimbrian war, the
terror of the Germans spread through all the countries of Western
Europe. Only after a considerable time Postumus—a capable soldier
and a well-intentioned administrator—was able to force the Germanic
hordes out of Gaul and restore peace and security. But the Rhine
became the frontier of the Empire and remained so as .long as the
Empire lasted.
From this time onward begins a period of incessant fighting with the Teutons of the Rhine-country: with the Alemans in the south and the Franks in the north. The weakness and exhaustion of the Empire caused by inner dissensions becomes manifest. If Postumus succeeded in keeping the Roman possessions on the Gaulish bank of the Rhine essentially intact, his immediate successors were less successful. The country was left defenceless, and large portions of it were plundered and drained of their resources. Probus indeed, whose short reign (276-282) is a ray of light in these gloomy times, succeeded in clearing them out of Gaul, and even ventured to assume the offensive on the upper Rhine, in a brilliant campaign forcing the Alemans back to the further side of the Neckar. But such successes were but temporary. Only in the time of Diocletian does a durable improvement on the Rhine frontier set in, an improvement which was maintained for the next two or three generations. During this period a third set of invaders, in addition to the Franks and Alemans, appeared towards the close of the century in the Saxons, the terror of the British and Gaulish coasts. In the main, however, Gaul was suffered to enjoy peace; and with peace returned prosperity.
Meanwhile on the shores of the Euxine, there emerges a people with whose name the world was to ring for centuries, the Goths. Their original home had been, it would appear, in Scandinavia, and after their migration to the German Baltic coast they had at first established themselves about the estuary of the Vistula,[1] then in course of time they had moved further southward along the right bank of that river, so that at the beginning of our era they appear as far south as the neighbourhood of the Bohemian kingdom of the Marcomanni. How long they remained in this region we do not know, but it is not unlikely that their eastward migration falls about the time of the great Marcomannic war. We are equally ignorant of the time occupied by this migration and the details of its progress; the only thing certain is that it reached its close not later than c. 286-240.
- ↑ The Gutones on the North Sea coast mentioned by Pytheas in the fourth century b.c. may have been a branch of this people which had wandered westward, and were absorbed probably by the Frisians.
