The grants of
land, and the rich donations by which the emperors endeavoured to
secure the fidelity of these dangerous auxiliaries, encouraged them to
regard the Roman territories as their prey; and being alternately the
objects of lavish extravagance and wanton insult, their power was
increased at the same time that their resentment was provoked. 2.
Towards the close of the year 406, the Vandals, the Suevi, and the
Alans, first sounded the tocsin of invasion, and their example was
followed by the Goths, the Burgundians, the Alleman'ni, the Franks,
the Huns, the Angli, the Saxons, the Heruli, and the Longobar'di, or
Lombards. The chief of these nations, with the exception of the Huns
were of German origin. It is not easy in every instance to discover
the original seat of these several tribes, and trace their successive
migrations, because, being ignorant of letters, they only retained
some vague traditions of their wanderings.
THE VANDALS AND ALANS
3. This tribe was, like the Burgundians and Lombards, a branch of the
ancient Sue'vi, and inhabited that part of Germany which lies between
the Elbe and the Vis'tula.
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