THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 111

The Pacification of Teutonic Gaul

7-12. The Pacification of Teutonic Gaul

Thus the danger was averted from the Empire, and the desire of its restless neighbours beyond the Danube to make expeditions on the great scale was damped for nearly a hundred years. No doubt the inroads and piratical voyages of smaller Gothic war-bands continued; indeed, in the next fourteen years (270-284), there was fighting with bands of this kind under Quintillus, Aurelian, Tacitus, and Probus, but all these incursions were easily repelled by the imperial government, which gained strength under Aurelian and Probus. Just at this time, too, there broke out a severe internal struggle between the Teutons of the Euxine and those of the Danube. The first aid called in by the Goths against the Tervingi was that of the Bastarnae, but the outcome of the struggle was that the Bastarnae were defeated and compelled to abandon the territory which they had held so tenaciously for more than five hundred years. The expelled Bastarnae, said to have numbered 100,000 men, were taken under his protection by the Emperor Probus and settled in Thrace. After that the Tervingi, supported by the Taifali, made war on the allied Gepidae and Vandals, while the East Goths fought with their eastern neighbours the Urugundi, who on their defeat were taken under the protection of the Alani. We can see that the whole of the eastern Germanic world was in a state of wild uproar.

On the middle Danube there had been no fighting worth mention since the Marcomannic war. We hear indeed of an incursion of the Marcomanni in the reign of Valerian, but, broadly speaking, the name of this once so warlike nation may be said to disappear from history. Their old comrades the Quadi often appear in association with the Iazyges, from the time of Gallienus, when they made a descent upon Pannonia. There was further fighting with them in 283, as is proved by a coin of Numerian. However, they are in this period thrown into the shade by the other more dangerous assailants of the Empire; indeed, with the appearance of the Goths the main struggle between the Roman and Germanic powers had shifted from the middle to the lower Danube.

Shortly after the death of Probus (Oct. 282), the Alemans on the upper Rhine, and the Pranks and Saxons on the lower Rhine, had begun their forays again. The eastern districts of Gaul were again over- run, while the coasts of the Channel were harried by Saxon pirates. The Burgundians also had left their home between the Oder and the Vistula, and forced their way through the heart of Germany to the Main. When the government had been taken over by Diocletian, his colleague and (after April 286) co-Emperor Maximian entered Gaul in the beginning of that year; it was his first care, so soon as he had suppressed the insurrection of the Bagaudae, to put a stop to the piracy of the Saxons and Franks. He first cleared the left bank of the Rhine, drove the Heruli and Chaivones, two Baltic tribes who had invaded Gaul, right out of the country, and, basing himself on Mainz, conducted a successful defensive campaign against Alemans and Burgundians. The defence of the coasts was entrusted to a capable officer, Carausius the Menapian, with a strong command and extensive authority.

But when Carausius set up for Emperor in Britain towards the end of 286 the Teutons found a fresh opportunity. The usurper even made common cause with the enemies of the Empire and openly helped them. Maximian, indeed, repeatedly (287 and 291) gained successes against them, but the first decided improvement on the Rhine frontier was due to a new development of imperial organisation by which Gaul and Britain became a distinct administrative department with a governor of their own in the person of the general Flavius Constantius (March 293), who was at the same time appointed Caesar. The Franks were decisively defeated within their own borders (summer 293), Britain was reconquered for the Empire (spring 296) — Carausius himself had fallen a victim to a conspiracy in 293 — and finally by two great victories over the Alemans on the upper Rhine peace was at length restored (298-9), and the Rhine was made secure, especially as regards the upper part of its course, by the building of forts and the restoration of the defensive works which had been destroyed by the enemy or had fallen into decay.

Following the example of Maximian, Constantius settled large numbers of prisoners of war, Franks, Frisians, and Chamavi, as laeti and coloni, in the wasted and depopulated districts of north-east Gaul. Here they were to cultivate the fields that had been lying fallow, to supply the labour that was sorely needed, and to aid in the defence of the frontier. The country rapidly recovered, trade and commerce began to flourish again, and the ancient prosperity returned.

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