The Franks were themselves Norsemen, who afterwards settled in Gaul and
became the forefathers of the modern French. So Rome was now
threatened by a naval league of hardy Norsemen, from the Black Sea,
through the Mediterranean, and all the way round to that "Saxon Shore"
of eastern Britain which was itself in danger from Norsemen living on
the other side of the North Sea. Once more, however, the Romans won
the day. The Emperor Constantius caught the Franks before they could
join Carausius and smashed their fleet near Gibraltar. He then went to
Gaul and made ready a fleet at the mouth of the Seine, near Le Havre,
which was a British base during the Great War against the Germans.
Meanwhile Carausius was killed by his second-in-command, Allectus, who
sailed from the Isle of Wight to attack Constantius, who himself sailed
for Britain at the very same time. A dense fog came on. The two
fleets never met. Constantius landed. Allectus then followed him
ashore and was beaten and killed in a purely land battle.
This was a little before the year 300; by which time the Roman Empire
was beginning to rot away, because the Romans were becoming softer and
fewer, and because they were hiring more and more strangers to fight
for them, instead of keeping up their own old breed of first-class
fighting men.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44