<P> "To Aetius, now consul for the third time: the groans of the Britons ." And again a little further, thus:--"The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us, we are either slain or drowned ." The Romans, however, could not assist them...</P> <P> The Visigoths passed another waymark on their journey to full independence; they made their own foreign policy, sending princesses to make (rather unsuccessful) marriage alliances with Rechiar of the Sueves and with Huneric, son of the Vandal king Genseric . </P> <P> In 439 the Vandals moved eastward (temporarily abandoning Numidia) and captured Carthage, where they established an independent state with a powerful navy . This brought immediate financial crisis to the Western Empire; the diocese of Africa was prosperous, normally required few troops to keep it secure, contributed large tax revenues, and exported wheat to feed Rome and many other areas . Roman troops assembled in Sicily, but the planned counter-attack never happened . Huns attacked the Eastern empire, and </P> <P> the troops, which had been sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled from Sicily; the garrisons, on the side of Persia, were exhausted; and a military force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and the soldiers the duty of obedience . The armies of the Eastern empire were vanquished in three successive engagements...From the Hellespont to Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, (Attila) ravaged, without resistance, and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia . </P>

The impact of the collapse of the western roman empire on europe