After the departure of the Visigoths Rome and Italy
remained undisturbed for nearly forty years. The western provinces were not so
fortunate. At the time of Alaric's first attack on Italy the legions along the
Rhine had been withdrawn to meet him, leaving the frontier unguarded. In 406
A.D., four years before Alaric's sack of Rome, a vast company of Germans
crossed the Rhine and swept almost unopposed through Gaul. Some of these
peoples succeeded in establishing kingdoms for themselves on the ruins of the
empire.
KINGDOM OF THE BURGUNDIANS, 443-534 A.D.
The Burgundians settled on the upper Rhine and in the
fertile valley of the Rhone, in southeastern Gaul. Alter less than a century of
independence they were conquered by the Franks. Their name, however,
survives in modern Burgundy.
VANDAL KINGDOM IN NORTH AFRICA, 429-534 A.D.
The Vandals settled first in Spain. The territory now
called Andalusia still preserves the memory of these barbarians. After the
Visigothic invasion of Spain the Vandals passed over to North Africa. They made
themselves masters of Carthage and soon conquered all the Roman province of
Africa. Their kingdom here lasted about one hundred years.
