Crossing of the Rhine (406): Vandals, Alans and Suebi Enter Gaul

The crossing of the Rhine, traditionally dated to 31 December 406, was the moment when a coalition of Vandals, Alans and Suebi broke through the Roman frontier into Gaul. Over the next three years they plundered the Gallic provinces before moving on to Spain, and the Western Empire never fully restored its control of the Rhine. Many historians regard the event as a turning point in the collapse of Roman power in the West.

Background: pressure on the frontier

For more than four centuries the Rhine had marked the boundary between the Roman provinces of Gaul and the lands of the Germanic peoples. The frontier was never a sealed wall, but it was defended by forts, river fleets and alliances with neighbouring groups such as the Franks and Alamanni.

By the early fifth century that system was under strain. The arrival of the Huns on the steppe after about 370 had set off a chain of movements among the peoples of central and eastern Europe, as described in Arrival of the Huns in Europe. Some historians believe the Vandals, Alans and Suebi were pushed west by Hun expansion into the Hungarian plain; others stress local politics and the attraction of Roman wealth.

The Western Empire was also weakened by internal conflict. Its real ruler was the general Stilicho, guardian of the young emperor Honorius. In 405–406 a Gothic leader named Radagaisus invaded Italy with a large army, and Stilicho had to gather every available soldier to defeat him near Faesulae (Fiesole) in August 406. It is widely thought that troops were drawn from the Rhine for this campaign, though the extent is uncertain.

The invaders

The coalition was made up of several distinct groups:

• Hasding Vandals, whose king Godigisel was killed in the fighting before the crossing; his son Gunderic succeeded him.
• Siling Vandals, a separate Vandal people whose name is often linked with the region of Silesia.
• Alans, Iranian-speaking horsemen originally from the steppe north of the Caucasus. One group under Respendial joined the invasion, while another under Goar went over to the Romans.
• Suebi, a Germanic group whose exact origins are unclear; some scholars connect them with the Quadi of the middle Danube.

What happened

According to fragments of the historian Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, preserved by Gregory of Tours, the Vandals first fought the Franks, who were defending the frontier as Roman allies. Around 20,000 Vandals were said to have died and Godigisel was killed, and the whole Vandal force might have been destroyed had Respendial’s Alans not come to their rescue. The figure is not reliable, but the story shows that the crossing was resisted.

The chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine dates the crossing to the last day of the year 406. Ancient sources do not name the exact place, but it is traditionally located near Mainz (Mogontiacum), one of the main Roman bases on the river. The popular picture of the invaders walking across a frozen Rhine comes from Edward Gibbon and later writers, not from any ancient text.

Once across, the invaders spread through northern and central Gaul. In a letter written around 409, the scholar Jerome listed cities that had been captured or devastated: Mainz, where he said thousands were massacred in a church, as well as Worms, Reims, Amiens, Arras, Thérouanne, Tournai, Speyer and Strasbourg. Jerome was writing from Bethlehem with rhetorical purpose, but the list reflects the scale of the damage.

Usurpation and Roman response

The invasion triggered a political crisis. The Roman army in Britain, fearing that it would be cut off, proclaimed a series of emperors of its own. The third, Constantine III, crossed to Gaul in 407, fought the invaders with some success and made himself master of Gaul and later Spain. For several years Honorius in Italy and Constantine in Gaul were rival emperors.

Stilicho, accused of failing to defend the empire and of plotting with barbarians, was executed on Honorius’s orders in August 408. His fall left Italy exposed to the Visigoths of Alaric, who besieged Rome and finally sacked it in 410, as described in Sack of Rome (410).

In the autumn of 409 the Vandals, Alans and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, possibly helped by the confusion of a revolt there against Constantine III. In 411 they divided the Spanish provinces among themselves: the Hasding Vandals and Suebi took Gallaecia in the north-west, the Alans took Lusitania and Carthaginiensis, and the Siling Vandals took Baetica in the south.

Consequences

The Roman government struck back through allies. Between 416 and 418 the Visigoths, fighting on Rome’s behalf, destroyed the Siling Vandals and inflicted heavy losses on the Alans. The survivors joined the Hasding Vandals under Gunderic, whose kings afterwards called themselves “kings of the Vandals and Alans”. In 429 Gunderic’s successor Gaiseric led them into Africa, the subject of Vandal Conquest of North Africa.

The Suebi stayed in north-west Spain, where their kingdom lasted until the Visigothic king Leovigild conquered it in 585. Meanwhile Franks, Burgundians and Alamanni gradually took over the lands along the Rhine, and Roman authority in northern Gaul faded over the following decades.

Myths and facts

Myth: the invaders crossed a frozen Rhine. No contemporary or near-contemporary source mentions ice; the image is a modern embellishment.

Myth: the date is certain. The date of 31 December 406 depends on a single chronicle entry. In 2000 Michael Kulikowski argued that it should be read as 31 December 405, which would change the order of events in Britain and Gaul. The traditional date remains the most widely used.

Fact: “vandalism” is a later coinage. The word was invented in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, Bishop of Blois, during the French Revolution. It reflects later reputation rather than any special destructiveness by the Vandals of 406.

Key people and sources

• Stilicho (died 408): the half-Vandal general who directed the Western Empire for Honorius. His concentration on Italy and on rivalry with Constantinople left Gaul exposed, and his enemies blamed him for the invasion.
• Honorius (emperor 393–423): the Western emperor, based at Ravenna, who survived the crisis but lost control of much of Gaul, Britain and Spain for years.
• Godigisel and Gunderic: kings of the Hasding Vandals. Godigisel died fighting the Franks before the crossing; his son Gunderic led the Vandals through Gaul and Spain until his death in 428.
• Respendial: king of the Alans whose intervention saved the Vandals from defeat by the Franks.
• Constantine III (usurper 407–411): the soldier-emperor from Britain who fought the invaders in Gaul before being defeated and executed on Honorius’s orders.

The sources

Very little is known for certain because the surviving accounts are brief. Prosper’s chronicle provides the date, Jerome’s letter the list of ruined cities, and the fifth-century Spanish bishop Hydatius describes the invaders’ arrival in Spain and the famine and plague that followed. Later writers such as Orosius, Zosimus and Gregory of Tours add fragments, sometimes from lost earlier histories, and modern reconstructions differ accordingly.

Timeline

• 405–406: Radagaisus invades Italy; Stilicho defeats him near Faesulae in August 406.
• 406, 31 December: Traditional date of the crossing of the Rhine.
• 407: Constantine III is proclaimed in Britain and crosses to Gaul.
• 408, August: Stilicho is executed at Ravenna.
• 409, autumn: Vandals, Alans and Suebi cross the Pyrenees into Spain.
• 411: The invaders divide the Spanish provinces among themselves.
• 416–418: Visigoths on Rome’s behalf destroy the Siling Vandals and weaken the Alans.
• 429: Vandals and Alans cross from Spain to North Africa.

Why it matters

The crossing of 406 marked the point at which the Western Empire lost the ability to keep large barbarian groups out of its provinces. Within a generation the invaders had reshaped Spain and North Africa, Gaul had fallen into the hands of competing kings and usurpers, and the slow transformation of the Roman West into successor kingdoms was well under way.