It is the first time the name of Franks appears in history; and it indicated no particular, single people, but a confederation of Germanic peoplets, settled or roving on the right bank of the Rhine, from the Main to the ocean.  The number and the names of the tribes united in this confederation are uncertain.  A chart of the Roman Empire, prepared apparently at the end of the fourth century, in the reign of the emperor Honorius—­which chart, called tabula Peutingeri, was found among the ancient MSS. collected by Conrad Peutinger, a learned German philosopher, in the fifteenth century—­bears, over a large territory on the right bank of the Rhine, the word Francia, and the following enumeration:  “The Chaucians, the Ampsuarians, the Cheruscans, and the Chamavians, who are also called Franks;” and to these tribes divers chroniclers added several others, “the Attuarians, the Bructerians, the Cattians, and the Sicambrians.”

Whatever may have been the specific names of these peoplets, they were all of German race, called themselves Franks, that is “freemen,” and made, sometimes separately, sometimes collectively, continued incursions into Gaul—­especially Belgica and the northern portions of Lyonness—­at one time plundering and ravaging, at another occupying forcibly, or demanding of the Roman emperors lands whereon to settle.  From the middle of the third to the beginning of the fifth century the history of the Western Empire presents an almost uninterrupted series of these invasions on the part of the Franks, together with the different relationships established between them and the imperial government.  At one time whole tribes settled on Roman soil, submitted to the emperors, entered their service, and fought for them even against their own German compatriots.  At another, isolated individuals, such and such warriors of German race, put themselves at the command of the emperors, and became of importance.  At the middle of the third century the emperor Valerian, on committing a command to Aurelian, wrote, “Thou wilt have with thee Hartmund, Haldegast, Hildmund, and Carioviscus.”

Some Frankish tribes allied themselves more or less fleetingly with the imperial government, at the same time that they preserved their independence; others pursued, throughout the empire, their life of incursion and adventure.  From A.D. 260 to 268, under the reign of Gallienus, a band of Franks threw itself upon Gaul, scoured it from northeast to southeast, plundering and devastating on its way; then it passed from Aquitania into Spain, took and burned Tarragona, gained possession of certain vessels, sailed away, and disappeared in Africa, after having wandered about for twelve years at its own will and pleasure.  There was no lack of valiant emperors, precarious and ephemeral as their power may have been, to defend the empire, and especially Gaul, against those enemies, themselves ephemeral, but forever recurring; Decius, Valerian, Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, and Probus gallantly withstood those repeated attacks of German hordes.  Sometimes they flattered themselves they had gained a definitive victory, and then the old Roman pride exhibited itself in their patriotic confidence.  About A.D. 278, the emperor Probus, after gaining several victories in Gaul over the Franks, wrote to the senate: