Gothic War (376–382)
Fleeing the Huns, the Thervingian Goths were admitted across the Danube in 376; ill-treated by Roman officials, they rebelled, destroyed the eastern army at Adrianople and in 382 were settled inside the empire as allies under their own leaders.
- Date
- 376 – 3 October 382start: year known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 6 years
- Place
- Durostorum (crossing of the Danube)approximate locationtoday: Silistra, Bulgaria · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Roman Empire, Goths, Fritigern, Valens, Theodosius I, Huns
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Crossing of the Danube; Переправа готов через Дунай
In 376 the Tervingi under Fritigern and Alavivus, driven from their lands by the Huns, asked Valens for refuge and crossed the Danube, probably near Durostorum; the Greuthungi followed without permission. The commanders Lupicinus and Maximus profiteered from the famine among the refugees, and an attempt to seize the Gothic leaders at a banquet in Marcianople turned hunger into open war. The Goths defeated Lupicinus, fought the Romans to a draw at Ad Salices (377) and in 378 annihilated Valens’s army at Adrianople.
Theodosius I, made emperor of the East in 379, could not defeat them outright. The peace of 3 October 382 settled the Goths in the Balkans as foederati — autonomous allies obliged to serve in the army — a precedent for the barbarian kingdoms later formed on Roman soil.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- The Huns conquer the Alans and the Greuthungic. 370 – 376 · Eastern Europethe Goths fleeing the Huns crossed the Danube into the Roman Empire in 376
Consequences
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central EuropeAlaric’s Visigoths grew out of the Goths settled in 382
Includes
- Battle of Adrianople9 August 378 · Balkans and Anatolia
Same participants
- Vinitharius’ war with the Antes of Bozbetween 375 and 380 · Eastern Europevia Huns
- Edict of Thessalonica27 February 380 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Roman Empire
- Battle of the Catalaunian Plains20 June 451 · Western and Central Europevia Huns
Same place
- Siege of Dorostolon23 April 971 – July 971 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395
- End of Roman rule in Britain383–410
- Crossing of the Rhine31 December 406
Eastern Europe
- Vinitharius’ war with the Antes of Bozbetween 375 and 380
- The Huns conquer the Alans and the Greuthungic. 370 – 376
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Gothic War (376–382)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Готская война (377—382)
- Wolfram H. History of the Goths. — Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
- Буданова В. П. Готы в эпоху Великого переселения народов. — М.: Наука, 1990.
- Wikidata: Q1366196