ame of the Roman Empire, but in reality for the advantage
of the German nations which had already conquered it. Twenty-four years
afterward the very name of Roman Empire disappeared with Augustulus, the
last of the emperors of the West.

Thirty years after the battle of Chalons the Franks settled in Gaul were
not yet united as one nation; several tribes with this name, independent
one of another, were planted between the Rhine and the Somme; there were
some in the environs of Cologne, Calais, Cambrai, even beyond the Seine
and as far as Le Mans, on the confines of the Britons. This is one of
the reasons of the confusion that prevails in the ancient chronicles
about the chieftains or kings of these tribes, their names and dates,
and the extent and site of their possessions. Pharamond, Clodion,
Meroveus, and Childeric cannot be considered as kings of France and
placed at the beginning of her history. If they are met with in
connection with historical facts, fabulous legends or fanciful
traditions are mingled with them; Priam appears as a predecessor of
Pharamond; Clodion, who passes for having been the first to bear and
transmit to the Frankish kings the title of "long-haired," is
represented as the son, at one time of Pharamond, at another of another
chieftain named Theodemer; romantic adventures, spoilt by geographical
mistakes, adorn the life of Childeric.

All that can be distinctly affirmed is that, from A.D. 450 to 480, the
two principal Frankish tribes were those of the Salian Franks and the
Ripuarian Franks, settled, the latter in the east of Belgica, on the
banks of the Moselle and the Rhine; the former toward the west, between
the Meuse, the ocean, and the Somme. Meroveus, whose name was
perpetuated in his line, was one of the principal chieftains of the
Salian Franks; and his son Childeric, who resided at Tournai, where his
tomb was discovered in 1655, was the father of Clovis, who succeeded him
in 481, and with whom really commenced the kingdom and history of
France.

Clovis was fifteen or sixteen years old when he became king of the
Salian Franks of Tournai. Five years afterward his ruling passion,
ambition, exhibited itself, together with that mixture of boldness and
craft which was to characterize his whole life. He had two neighbors:
one, hostile to the Franks, the Roman patrician Syagrius, who was left
master at Soissons after the death of his father AEgidius, and whom
Gregory of Tours calls "king of t