In North Africa Genseric the Vandal established a powerful dominion, and set about preparing an invasion of Italy by sea. In 455 (the last year of the reign of Valentinian III.) his army of Vandals and Moors attacked Rome, which was again given over to pillage. Its wealth and treasures were transported to Carthage, and with them the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem; these had been brought to Rome in A.D. 70 by Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem. For twenty years after Genseric's achievement Roman Emperors existed in little else than name, the real power being in the hands of a barbarian officer. In 476 the last Emperor was deposed by Odoacer, the king of the Heruli, a tribe which, issuing from the shores of the Baltic, made successful inroads into Italy and occupied much of the country. Odoacer was, at the request of the Roman Senate, given the reins of government by the eastern Emperor Zeno, and news was despatched to the court at Constantinople that no longer was there an Emperor of the west. Subsequently, in 493, Odoacer was slain by Theodoric, the king of the =Ostrogoths=, who then became predominant in the Italian peninsula. The Ostrogoths (_i.e._, Eastern Goths) had broken off from the main body of their nation, and after settling south of the Danube moved into the province of Dalmatia. Northern Limits of the Empire. Other Germanic tribes, in addition to those named above, firmly established themselves within the northern limits of the Empire. Of these, two are worthy of mention, the =Alemanni=, who occupied most of what is now Switzerland and districts northward, and the =Lombards=, who settled in north Italy and the territory north-east of it. The Ten Kingdoms not Formed by the Germanic Invasions. There have been various attempts to identify with the ten prophetic kingdoms the states formed from the western half of the Roman Empire by the Germanic tribes from the north. Such attempts fail from the standpoints both of history and of prophecy. To group the tribes so as to make ten kingdoms out of them is, of course, possible in several ways, for there were at least eighteen such tribes. Accordingly lists put forward differ considerably. But such grouping is manifestly arbitrary. Again, since these invading nations occupied only the western half of the Empire, the above allocation of the ten kingdoms necessarily leaves the eastern half out of consideration, and therefore excludes the land of Palestine from this stage of the prophetic forecast. Now the prophecies concerning the times of the Gentiles are invariably focussed upon the Jews and their land. The dealings of God with the Jews form the pivot of His dealings with other nations. Thus no scheme of prophetic exposition relative to this subject is to be regarded as Scriptural which excludes Palestine from its scope. To endeavour to make the Word of God square with facts of history is to tamper with Scripture and to run the risk of obscuring its meaning and force.