FRANKS. ‘ 
or Frifian fhores. This event ‘uppened about the year 280. 
“Their countrymen, inftru@ed by t pow le to defpife 
‘the dangers of the fea, and a by the hope of -fimilar 
fuccefs, were led to purfue, in the indulgence of their enter- 
-priling {pirit, a new road to wealth and glory. When Pro- 
culus revolted and affumed the title of emper 2 at Cologne, the 
Franks at firit efpoufed his caufe, but afterwards abandoned 
oe and betrayed the ufurper into the emperor’s hands. 
m this pericd to the fourth year of Dioclefian they con- 
toued bee till joining mae Saxon pirates, they plundered 
the c { of Gaul, an oan an immenfe booty, and 
3 but Caraufius having, by 
te that two of Rvs 
kings or chiefs fubmitted to as cal requefted to be con- 
rmed by him in their refpeCtive oo ‘Maximian 
granted lands in the vicinity of Treves and Cambray to 
great numbers of the Franks and Las who had fubmitted 
themfelves ; thofe terzitories being. almoft quite deftitute of 
inhabitants. A few years after this tranfaction, the Franks 
reduced Batavia, and that part of Flanders which is watered 
by the river Efcaut ; 
ftantine the Great, ma 
themfelves had wafted, to pay the ufual tributes and taxes, 
as fubjects of the empire, and to ferv 
the Roman armies. From this period, A. D. 293, they 
continued quiet till the year 306, the firft year of Conftan- 
tine’s reign, when they feized the opportunity afforded them 
by his abfence in Britain to invade Gaul ; but the emperor, 
on his return, purfued them with dreadful havoc acrofs the 
Rhine, and took ma ners. Durmg Conftantine’s 
reign rath made alia into Gaul, which: drew 
very fev en Conftantius, in 
ind ae of civil dfcorda sot the Lie of the pits 
century, had abandone he ns of Germany the 
countries of Gal wk hich. Ril ich ledged the alecy of 
his rival, a numerous fwarm of Franks and Alemanni were 
invited to crofs the Rhine by prefents and promifes, byt 
hopes of fpoil, and by a perpetual. gra ant of all the territor ies 
which they fhould be able to fubdue 
lies-the emperor found it difficult to difmifs ; ing t 
the part of undifciplined robbers, they pillaged.45 flourite 
ing cities, and feveral towns and villages, and reduced man 
f esau to afhes. The German barbarians, abhorrin the 
of Brabant, which w E basen ty ae sppellation of 
Toxandria, a country oe woods and morafles that extended 
_the 
rmany ; and w count of their greed . 
intrepid valour, tage ever anor an the mo 
ef the barbarians. - Although eee were flrongly eau 
Vou. XV. 
gy 
28 eo 
- winter were as pleafant'to them ast 
e, when wanted, in- 
s 
“over a defolate country, w 
terrup 
By the ‘alliiremerits of rapine,: ie profelted a  diistereed 
e of war, which théy confidered as the fup h 
» the fhows of 
, f fpring.. In 
the month of December, A. D. 368; Julian attacked'a 
body of 600 Franks, who had thrown themfelves into two 
caftles onthe Meufe. Having, with inflexible ¢o onftancy, in 
the midft of that fevere feafon, fuftained a fiege of 54, 
effion of ane Grator 
con- 
ffrained the eet tribes to implore the. eae = to 
obey the commands, of their conqueror. eaty 
tifed by folemn oaths ; and perpetual infpeftors were ap- 
peinted to ‘ead among the Franks, with the authority of 
enforcing t ri€t obfervance of the conditions. ‘Towards 
the an pera of the sth century, the Franks diftin- 
guifhed their zeal and courage in the defence of oe Roman 
empire: whin the limits of Gaul and Germany were fhaken 
by the northern emigration the Franks bravely encouritered 
gle force of the Vandals ; and of thefe ee with 
their king Godigifelus, were flain on the field of bat 
this attachment to the Roman government, o 
the F 
n the laft years of ba 
eraperor Honorius, the Franks, as fait as the ‘Goths 
el Soha ieee permanent feat and sae in the 
provin reves, the, capital of Gaul, was pil- 
laged i thei lawlefs banks 3 andthe humble colony, which 
they fo long maintained in the diftri& of Toxandria in Bra- 
bant infenfibly maepret: along'the banks of the Meufe and 
Scheldt, till their spuetd oat power filled the whole extent of 
the Second, or Lowet 
but the ae of the 
the conquefts, the law 
have been juftly arraigned, fays Gibbon by the impartial fe- 
erity of modern criticifm. Pharamond, if w poi the 
-exiftence of fuch a {overeign among: the nae s fuc 
ceeded by his fon Clodion in the year 428, the fou sth. of the 
reign of Valentinian III. From the report of his {pies, the 
king of the Franks was informed that the defencelefs* ftate 
of. the fecond Belgic muit yield, on the flighteft attack, to 
the-valour of his fubjeés. ol “penetrated ‘the 
thickets and moraffes of the Carbonarian foreft, which is 
part of- the great foreft of tlie ‘Ardennes, that lay b between 
the Efcaut or Scheldt, and the Meufe ; occu upied 'T Tournay . 
ae Cambray, the only cities which exifted in the sth cen- 
tury, and extended his conquefts as far es the river Somme, 
ofe- Seah a popeloufets 
are the effe&ts of. more ap ion inne 
of his shite, Sait ‘of his i ‘the nuptial feaft .w 
ted by the unexpeGted arrival and affault of AXtius.._ 
«The Pra were oppreiled oa they ceidd recover = 
K 
