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Collapse of the West

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Southern Italy Series

-----Collapse of the West-----

In 407 the Vandals, the Suevi and the Alans crossed the Rhine to invade Roman Gaul. By 409 they were in Hispania. The Roman commander Stilicho who had defeated the Visigoths just a few years earlier was executed for plotting against the emperor. Then in 410 Alaric, King of the Visigoths, invaded Italia and sacked Rome.

But all was not as bad as it seems; Alaric soon died and the Visigoths were convinced by the Romans to attack the Vandals, Suevi and Alans. In exchange for their military service to the Empire the Visigoths received the Aquitaine region in the south of Gaul. But the Vandals were not totally defeated, they crossed the Straight of Gibraltar into Roman North Africa around 430. By 439 the Visigoths occupied Carthage and most of North Africa.

The situation began to tense again when the Huns attacked the Empire in 441 by invading northern Gaul. At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain in 451 the Roman general Aetius with the help of the Visigoths and the Franks defeated Attila and his Ostrogoth allies. Attila returned in 452, this time invading Italy. He was dissuaded from sacking Rome by the most unlikely of men, Bishop of Rome Leo I. Attila returned to Hungary where he died in 453. The tributaries of the Huns, the Ostrogoths and the Gepids now rose against them [link] and by 454 the Huns were no more. In September of that year emperor Valentinian III himself assassinated general Aetius at the imperial court at Ravenna. In March of 455 Valentinian was assassinated. The Vandals refused to accept the new Emperor and sacked Rome by sea.

As the Western Roman Empire continued to collapse, the Germanic foederati charged with defending the remnants of the Empire became increasingly valuable. In 475 Orestes rebelled against the emperor Julius Nepos, by promising the foederati land in Italy. Orestes then crowned his son emperor as Romulus Augustus. But the foederati had seen enough. Their leader Odoacer lead the army against Orestes and deposed Romulus in 476, finally ending the Western Roman Empire.

Ruling as King of Italy, Odoacer campaigned into Dalmatia to enlarge his kingdom. But the Eastern Roman Empire still remained. Their emperor Zeno convinced the Ostrogoths, lead by their king Theodoric, to invade Italy and depose Odoacer. In 489 the Ostrogoths invaded Italy and by 493 Odoacer was under siege in Ravenna. Theodoric signed a peace treaty with Odoacer then held a banquet to celebrate where he then strangled Odoacer to death with his own hands.

Throughout his reign, Theodoric assured the citizens of Italy that he was only acting as the viceroy of the emperor in Constantinople. In 526 Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, died. One year later, so did the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Justin I. His nephew Justinian soon took command of the Empire.


Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 [link] East and West
526 Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 [link] Lombard Invasion
751 [link] Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne's Italy
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 [link] Bourbon Italy
1799 [link] Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
map base source [link]
map base created by Citypeek [link]
Image size
2500x1900px 625.19 KB
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In the year 407, some groups of people called the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans went into Roman Gaul to attack it. Then, in 410, the King of the Visigoths, named Alaric, went into Italy and destroyed Rome. However, things got better because Alaric died and the Romans convinced the Visigoths to fight against the other attackers. The Visigoths were given a part of Gaul as a reward for their service. But, the Vandals weren't totally defeated and went into North Africa in 430, and by 439 the Visigoths controlled most of North Africa.


In 441, the Huns attacked the Roman Empire, but the Romans, Visigoths, and Franks were able to defeat them in a big battle in 451. Attila, the Hun leader, tried to attack Italy in 452, but the Bishop of Rome talked him out of it. Attila went back to Hungary, where he died in 453. Then, some other groups attacked the Huns, and by 454 they were gone. The Emperor of Rome then killed the Roman general who helped win the big battle against the Huns in 455, and the Vandals attacked Rome by sea.


The Roman Empire was still collapsing, and in 476, a man named Orestes made his son emperor, but the soldiers who were supposed to help them decided they had enough and deposed the son emperor. A man named Odoacer became king of Italy, but the Eastern Roman Empire was still around. The Eastern Roman Empire convinced a group of people called the Ostrogoths to invade Italy and get rid of Odoacer. The Ostrogoths attacked Italy in 489 and by 493, they had defeated Odoacer. The leader of the Ostrogoths then killed Odoacer at a party.


The new king, Theodoric, told the people he was just acting as the representative of the emperor in Constantinople. Theodoric ruled for a while, but he died in 526, and the new emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Justinian, took over.