The Goths settle in Oium, c. 180–230

The Goths settle in Oium

At the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries Gothic groups moved from the lower Vistula to the southeast and settled in the land that Jordanes calls Oium, reaching the Black Sea coast by the 230s.

Date

c. 180 – c. 230year known, approximate · duration: ≈ 50 years

Place

Oium (Dnieper region?)approximate locationtoday: Ukraine (location debated) · Eastern Europe

Route

Lower Vistula (Wielbark culture) → Volhynia and Polesia → Oium (Dnieper region?) → Lower Dnieper and the Black Sea coast

Participants

Goths

Threads

Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)

Also known as

Gothic migration to the Black Sea; Переселение готов в Причерноморье; Aujom

Jordanes’ Getica (551) preserves a Gothic migration tradition: under King Filimer the Goths left the Vistula region, crossed a river whose bridge collapsed behind them and came into the fertile land of Oium (probably “the land of waters”), where they defeated the Spali and pushed on towards the Black Sea. Archaeologically the movement is traced by sites of the Wielbark culture, which appear in Volhynia and further south from the late 2nd century.

Jordanes gives no usable date, and his story mixes legend with memory; the approximate dates here are archaeological. Oium has been placed in Volhynia and the Pripyat marshes, on the Middle Dnieper, or on the left bank of the lower Dnieper, so the marker is approximate. From their new homeland the Goths raided the Roman provinces from the 230s, and in the lands they came to dominate the multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture took shape.

Connections

Consequences

Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430 · Eastern Europe

Related events

Battle of Abritusbetween June and August 251 · Balkans and Anatoliafrom the lands north of the Black Sea the Goths invaded the empire and in 251 killed Emperor Decius

Adjacent events in the thread

Roman–Bosporan War45–49 · Eastern Europe

Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430 · Eastern Europe

Sources