THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 112

Constantine Imposes Peace on the Rhine

7-13. Constantine Imposes Peace on the Rhine

It was in this hopeful condition that the Western provinces came into the hands of Constantine when (25 July 306) he was called by the will of the army to take up the reins of government. During a reign of thirty-one years he thoroughly fulfilled the promise of his youth. From the first day of his rule he devoted all his efforts to the securing and well-being of the provinces. The Franks who were again on the move were energetically repressed; in the process two of their chiefs were taken prisoners and given to the beasts. Similarly four years later a combined attack of the Bructeri, Chamavi, Cherusci, Lanciones, Alemans, and Tubantes was repulsed with heavy loss. These were the only occasions during Constantine's long reign on which the Germanic peoples of the Rhine district made any expeditions on a large scale.

As regards the actual defence of the frontier, the number of troops was increased, the flotilla on the Rhine was reorganised and raised to a considerable strength, and the belt of fortresses along the frontier was improved. In this connexion took place the reoccupation and refortification of Divitia (Deutz), the old bridge-head of Cologne, which once more gave the Romans a firm foothold on the right bank of the Rhine on what had now become Frankish soil. The coast defence of Gaul and Britain likewise underwent further improvements. The establishment of a special military command in the latter country, mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum under the title comes litons Saxonici per Britanniam, most probably goes back to Constantine.

When the Emperor towards the end of 316 left Gaul for the last time, the land was in the enjoyment of complete peace, and this happy state of affairs continued so long as the internal peace of the Empire was preserved. The enemy on the further side of the Rhine was thoroughly overawed, and ventured on nothing more than small violations of the frontier.

Nevertheless the peace did not endure. When Magnentius, a Frank by race, set himself up as Emperor (350), the security of the Rhine was immediately imperilled, since the eastern Emperor Constantius himself incited the Teutons to attack the usurper and so to invade the Empire.

All that had been accomplished by Constantine was rapidly lost in the disastrous years of civil war between 351 and 353. The left bank of the Rhine was again overrun by the Teutons, the fortified positions, denuded of their garrisons, were almost all captured and destroyed and the open country far into the interior of the province was plundered till there was nothing left to plunder. Although Constantius, after the suppression of the pestifera tyrannis, himself made two campaigns against the Alemans, in the first (spring 354) against the kings Gundomad and Vadomar, in the second (summer 355) against the Lentienses, he effected practically nothing. It was only when the young Caesar Julian took up the command in Gaul that the situation began to improve. The whole year 356 was taken up in fighting against the Alemans, who were driven back on all sides. A great number of towns, including Cologne, which had been captured by the Franks, were won back again. A serious defeat incurred in 357 by the magister peditum Barbatio was retrieved by the brilliant victory of the Caesar over the united forces of Chodomar, Serapio, Vestralp, and other kings — in all 35,000 men under seven "kings" (reges) and ten "sub-kings" (regales) — at Argentoratum (Strassburg).

Two further campaigns against the Alemans, in 359 and 361, were equally successful On the lower Rhine also Julian defeated the Franks, the Chauci, and the Chamavi (358-360); the tracts between the Scheldt and the Meuse were cleared of the enemy, seven towns, among them the old fortresses of Bingium, Antunnacum, Bonna, Novaesium, and Vetera, all on the Rhine, were retaken, and again put in a state of defence. Thus the young Caesar seemed in the way of bringing about a complete pacification of the Rhine country, when he was compelled to leave Gaul by the outbreak of the conflict with Constantius (361).

Once again the country was left defenceless before the barbarians,who did not fail to profit by the situation. It was indeed high time when, after the death of Jovian (Feb. 364), the new Emperor Valentinian entered the threatened province in the late autumn of 365, and took up his headquarters at Paris. So much had the situation altered for the worse since the departure of Julian that the Alemans could venture in January 366 to cross the frozen Rhine, and penetrate to the neighbourhood of Chalons-sur-Marne. Here, indeed, they were defeated by the general Jovinus who had hastened from Paris to intercept them, and were compelled to beat a retreat.

But the danger was not done with. The guerrilla warfare continued on the frontier, with its forays and surprises. Several years of vigorous action were needed before any change was apparent. Following the old and well-tried maxim that attack is the best defence, Valentinian in 368 himself crossed the Rhine at the head of a considerable army reinforced by contingents of Illyrian and Italian troops. Advancing into the country of the Alemans he came upon the enemy at Solicinium and defeated them in a bloody battle. Two smaller expeditions beyond the Rhine followed in the years 371 and 374. The result of this successful assumption of the aggressive by the Romans was, broadly speaking, the recovery of the Rhine frontier, which remained for the present exempt from serious attack.

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