« l’Empire du Couchant » par « l’alliance avec les barbares ». Foedera et foederati au temps d’Aetius (425-454) : pour une lecture renouvelée de la diplomatie et de la stratégie du patrice Aetius en Occident. Deuxième partie : Considérations stratégiques

Defend “The Empire of the West” by an Alliance with the Barbarians. Foedera and Foederati in the Time of Aetius (425-454): For a Re-reading of Aetius’ Diplomacy and Strategy in the West. Part Two: Strategic Considerations

The present study continues the analysis of the diplomacy deployed by general Aetius from 425 to 454. It is devoted to the strategic aspects of the diplomacy and the policy of the patrice. After abandoning his Hunnic alliance, Aetius benefited, from the 430s, with the Franks and then, after 439, with the Goths of Aquitaine, two gentes foederatae who became his main allies in the defense of the Pars Occidentis. These gentes, reinforced by other Germanic gentes established in the Empire (Burgundians) or maintained on the imperial margins (Alamanni, etc.) participated in the protection of the patrician and offered him foederati to accompany him on his expeditions and serve in his mobile army of intervention. Integrated – with other gentes – into a strategic defense system for the Western Empire centered on Gaul, theses gentes defend the imperial order against its internal enemies (rebellious gentes, bagaudae, etc.) and its external enemies (Attila). In an Empire lacking resources and weakened by the loss of Africa conquered by the Vandals, Aetius chose to defend, with his gentes foederatae, Gaul as a central piece in maintaining the territorial unity of Pars Occidentis and suffering from Hunnic pressure from 440, he refused to multiply the fronts by engaging in Africa because the Western strategic dilemma prevented him from dispersing his forces by taking the risk of a maritime expedition towards Africa while the Huns threatened the continental provinces. If the strategic system founded by Aetius on his alliance with – in particular – the Franks and the Goths, was able to be maintained, it nonetheless contained weaknesses linked to the personalization of political and diplomatic relations between the gentes and the person of the patrice as the events of 454-455 revealed. The gentes, Goths and Franks, whose roles had continued to grow during the time of Aetius and thanks to their alliance with the latter, were to become major in the destinies of Pars Occidentis in these last years.