Barbarian Settlement in the West (notes) The Later Roman Empire The Alamanni had penetrated across the Rhine and far into Gaul. See Ammianus's account of the battle with Silvanus. Julian defeated the Alamanni, crossed the Rhine and attacked the Franks. Romans were not always welcomed into towns. Ammianus suggests that the barbarians could not lay siege to towns successfully yet many were taken. After the invasion of 363 new incursions came from across the Rhine. Ammianus describes Valentian I's meeting with the Alamannic chieftain Macrianus in 374. The Danube was an area of conflict, as were the Balkans. Constantius II campaigned on the Danube against Sarmatians and Quadi in 358. Valens campaigned on the Danube in 367-9 defeating the Gothic leader Athanaric. Ammianus viewed the greatest Roman disaster in the west as the defeat of Valens at Adrianople in 378. By 354 the Franks and other West Germans such as the Alamanni were already a factor to be reckoned with, some Franks had achieved high-ranking positions in the Roman army. In the fourth century the Tervingi moved west, by the 4th century they controlled large areas of the territory north of the Black Sea, between the Danube and the Don, they too served in the Roman army. These Goths were displaced by the westward and southwards movement of the Huns, who came from central Asia. Ammianus and Jerome describe them as animalistic and shocking. The eastern Goths Ammianus calls the Tervingi, Valens allowed them to cross into Roman territory in 376. Valens thought the Goths would serve in the Roman army, yet they revolted in Thrace. Valens led an army against them and was severely defeated by Visigoths and Ostrogoths at Adrianople. Theodosius I included many Goths in the army he raised in the Balkans and pushed the remainder of them back towards the Danube in 379. Gratian recognised a Gothic confederacy in Panonnia in 380, while Theodosius made a treaty with the Goths in October 382, assigning them lands in northern Dacia and Thrace, between the Danube and the Balkan mountains in return for military service under their own leaders, they were settled as a group and exempt from taxation and to receive a yearly payment. They were not allowed to marry Roman citizens and Visigoths protected the frontier along the lower Danube. Alaric emerged as a leader of the Visigoths in the late 4th century. There were separate eastern and western governments. Alaric constantly demanded cash and food payments and the post of magister militum. Stilicho made a treaty with him in 407. The eastern government turned against the use of barbarian generals and the around this time. Alaric rejected Stilicho's offer of 4,000 pounds of gold and Stilicho fell from power in 408. Alaric invaded Italy and blockaded Rome. The Senate then paid Alaric a great deal more than Stilicho had offered but Alaric marched on Rome again. The Goths sacked Rome in late August 410. A large group of Vandals, Sueves and Alans crossed the frozen