Migration Period

The Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman kingdoms.

Quotes

• A multitude, like which the populous North
  Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass
  Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous Sons
  Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
  Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; rev. 1674), Book I

• Ravaged cities rolling smoke
  Thick on cornfields dry and black,
  Wave his banners, bear his yoke.
  Track the lightning, and you track
  Attila. They moan: ’tis he!
  Bleed: ’tis he! Beneath his foot
  Leagues are deserts charred and mute;
  Where he passed, there passed a sea.
    Attila, my Attila!
  • George Meredith, "The Nuptials of Attila", IX, in Ballads (1887)