u8 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE greatest extent the Vandals held North Africa from the Atlantic to Tripoli, the Balearic Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, and for a brief interval Sicily. Under their rule Rome's ancient enemy, Carthage, became again the capital of an independent sea power. The varying extent of the Visi- gothic Kingdom in Gaul has already been set forth in speaking of the conquests of Clovis. The West Goths began to occupy Spain under their king, E uric , before 484, but it was a long time before their kingdom covered the entire peninsula. Petty independent Roman rulers held out here and there, and the Suevi in the Northwest were not con- quered and absorbed until 585. The Ostrogothic Kingdom under Theodoric included, besides Italy and Sicily, Pro- vence, the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic, and consid- erable territory northeast of Italy. The Burgundian and Vandal Kingdoms ended in 534; that of the Ostrogoths in 555. Those of the Visigoths in Spain and of the Franks in Gaul continued into the next period. Burgundy was added to the extensive Frankish dominions in 534, Provence in 536, and Bavaria in 555, but Brittany still remained inde- pendent. After Clovis, the Frankish territory tended to divide into three kingdoms ruled by different members or branches of the royal family : Austrasia on both sides of the lower Rhine, the original home of the Franks; Neustria, the region centering about Soissons or Paris which they had conquered from Syagrius; and third, Burgundy. Aquitania, once the Gallic kingdom of the West Goths, and Bavaria also tended to break away under separate rulers. In Britain the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were devastating, conquering, enslaving, and settling at this time, but as yet they had formed no kingdoms of any considerable size, but were divided into ten or a dozen little ones, of which we have almost no record. The Lombards, too, who did not enter Italy until the second half of the sixth century, will come into our story later. Not much, it is true, is known of any of these German states. There were hardly any contemporary historical writers. The Franks fare best in this respect and almost our
