19.3 Europe: a.d. 401 to 500  (Page 5/7)

Their bows were reflex, composite

The contemporary description of the physiognamy of the Huns are undoubtedly influenced by the extreme terror they produced in those about to be attacked, but there is no question but what they were a short, thick-limbed people with flat noses, the latter having been produced in infancy by binding, to deform the developing skull. It has been surmised that this allowed the wearing of a special helmut with a flat nose-piece extension, in later life. In addition, the male's faces were early scarred by intentional knife cuts, so that beards could not grow in the mature, scarred faces. These old healed cuts and scars, with their resulting flat, ugly faces certainly did not detract from the overall impression of the devil incarnate. (Ref. 127 )

Czechoslavakia

About A.D. 400 the Lombards (Langobards) drove from the Elbe eastward and southward, appearing about 430 in Bohemia and later moving into Moravia and Austria. The Rugians crossed the Danube south from Bohemia but were annihilated by Odoacer who had taken over Dalmatia on the death of the Western Emperor in 480. A confederacy of Suevic bands, the Bavarians and Marcomanni now occupied Bohemia. (Ref. 136 ) The Bavarians, of course, were later to move west into Germany, but the Slavs who stayed and settled permanently in Bohemia were the ancestors of later day Czechs, Vlachs and Slovaks. It was only after the retreat of the Huns that the full extent of the Slav migration would be realized. (Ref. 137 )

Switzerland

In this century Switzerland was invaded by the migrating Alemanni and Burgundii so that finally the domain of the latter stretched from Switzerland south to the Mediterranean. The Huns then almost annihilated these Burgundians in their westward raids in the middle of the century with the remnants remaining under Roman domination near Geneva. (Ref. 137 , 127

Western europe

Spain and portugal

The Franks, Burgundians and Alemanni who had annexed the left bank of the Rhine, allowed the Alans, Vandals and Suevi to cross the Pyrenees and seize land along the Atlantic seaboard of Spain. They went to the Straits of Gibralter and some even crossed to the African Coast and the old Romano-Hispanic ruling classes were overthrown. Later in the century, after having made a treaty with Emperor Honorius, about 100,000 Visigoths under King Wallia, successor to Alaric and Ataulf, entered Spain and nearly exterminated the Alans and the Siling Vandals. The Suevi and the Asding Vandals retired to the northwest corner of the peninsula and the northern areas of the Basques was never taken. (Ref. 136 ) Some of the Vandals retreated to Andalusia in the south, from which they later continued their conquest of North Africa. Finally there were about 200,000 Visigoths against a native population of some 6,000,000, but the former were much more mobile and dynamic and easily controlled Spain. (Ref. 211 , 127 , 196 ) Under Theodoric II (453-466) the Visigoths finally defeated the Suevi at Oporto and then broke with the Roman Empire. Euric (466-484), brother of Theodoric II, completed the conquest of the peninsula, but lost the original Visigothic home base in Gaul to the surging Franks who detested the Visigoths because of their Arianism. (Ref. 196 )