This page needs to be proofread.

30 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS that time with a great army." So much the historian mentioned above wrote about the Franks. Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whom we have already men- tioned, in his story of the capture and destruction of Rome by the Goths, says: "Meantime when Goare had gone over to the Ro- mans, Respendial, king of the Alamanni, turned the army of his people from the Rhine, since the Vandals were getting the worse of the war with the Franks, having lost their king Godegisil, and about 20,000 of the army, and all the Vandals would have been exterminated if the army of the Alamanni ^ had not come to their aid in time." It is surprising to us that when he names the kings of the other nations he does not name the king of the Franks as well. However, when he says that Constantine, after seizing imperial power, commanded his son Constantius to come to him from the Spains, he speaks as follows: "The tyrant Constantine summoned from the Spains his son Constans, also a tyrant, in order to consult with him about their general poHcy; and so Constans left at Saragossa his court and his wife, and gave Geron- tius charge over all in the Spains, and hastened to his father with- out breaking his journey. And when they met, many days passed and there was no danger from Italy, and Constantine gave himself up to gluttony and urged his son to return to Spain. And while Constans was sending his troops forward, being still with his father, news came from Spain that Maximus, one of his cHents, had been given imperial authority by Gerontius, and was securing a fol- lowing of the barbarians. Alarmed at this, they sent Edobeccus forward to the German tribes, and Constans and Decimus Rusticus, now a prefect, — he had been master of the offices, — hastened to the Gauls, with the intention of presently returning to Constantine with the Franks and Alamanni and all the soldiers." Again, when he writes that Constantine was being besieged, he uses these words: "The fourth month of the siege of Constantine was scarcely yet under way, when news came suddenly from farther Gaul that lovinus had assumed royal state, and was threatening the besiegers with the Burgundians, Alamanni, Franks, Alans, and all his army. So the attack on the walls was hastened, the city opened its gates, and Constantine surrendered. He was sent

  • Alamanni for Alani,