400 – 410s

Events in the 400s 1

• 406 Rhine crossing — barbarians flood into Gaul On the night of 31 December 406 AD, the Rhine freezes solid and vast numbers of Germanic peoples — Vandals, Suebi, Alans and Burgundians — cross into Roman Gaul. The Rhine frontier, Rome's western defence line for four centuries, collapses in a night. Within three years these peoples have spread across Gaul, Spain and North Africa. The western empire loses its tax base and its ability to defend its borders. The sequence of events that will end the empire has begun.