After the commencement of the fifth century, from A.D. 406 to 409, it
was no longer by incursions limited to certain points, and sometimes
repelled with success, that the Germans harassed the Roman provinces; a
veritable deluge of divers nations forced, one upon another, from Asia,
into Europe, by wars and migration in mass, inundated the empire and
gave the decisive signal for its fall. St. Jerome did not exaggerate
when he wrote to Ageruchia: "Nations, countless in number and exceeding
fierce, have occupied all the Gauls; Quadians, Vandals, Sarmatians,
Alans, Gepidians, Herulians, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemannians,
Pannonians, and even Assyrians have laid waste all that there is between
the Alps and the Pyrenees, the ocean and the Rhine. Sad destiny of the
Commonwealth! Mayence, once a noble city, hath been taken and destroyed;
thousands of men were slaughtered in the church. Worms hath fallen after
a long siege. The inhabitants of Rheims, a powerful city, and those of
Amiens, Arras, Terouanne, at the extremity of Gaul, Tournay, Spires, and
Strasburg have been carried away to Germany.
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