47. The age of migrations: the Visigoths.

Communal system of Germ. tribes stopped existing, large tribal unions were formed. This caused the great migration of peoples.

The Goths remained in Dacia until 376, when one of their leaders, Fritigern, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. Here, they hoped to find refuge from the Huns. Valens permitted this, as he saw in them "a splendid recruiting ground for his army." However, a famine broke out and Rome was unwilling to supply them with the food they were promised nor the land; open revolt ensued leading to 6 years of plundering and destruction throughout the Balkans, the death of a Roman Emperor and the destruction of an entire Roman army.

The Battle of Adrianople in 378 was the decisive moment of the war. The Roman forces were slaughtered and the Emperor Valens was killed during the fighting. Adrianople shocked the Roman world and eventually forced the Romans to negotiate with and settle the barbarians within the empire's boundaries, a development with far reaching consequences for the eventual fall of Rome.

The new Emperor Theodosius I settled Visigoths on Balkan Peninsula and gave them the best lands. They adopted Christianity in its form “Arianism”.

The Visigoths are allowed by the Romans to settle south of the Danube, but Roman demands soon provoke them into rebellion. At Adrianople, in AD 378, they inflict a shattering defeat on a Roman army. Two thirds of the Romans are killed, including the emperor, Valens, whose body is never found.

The relationship between the Roman empire and its barbarian neighbours changes dramatically. The next emperor, Theodosius, hands over the province of Moesia to the Visigoths, according them the status of foederati - federates, or allies, granted land within the empire which they, in return, are expected to defend against other barbarians. But there is an implicit danger to Rome. The loyalties of the tribesmen are to their own leaders.

From AD 395 the Visigoths become restless. They have a new ruler, Alaric, who wants more funds from the Romans, better territory, a more honourable place within the empire. In pursuit of these rather generalized aims he leads an army southwards into Greece, much of which is plundered.

By 401 Alaric and the Visigoths are in Italy. After several campaigns (and a fruitless bribe in 407 of some 2000 kilograms of gold) the Visigoths reach Rome. Their siege is twice lifted by negotation, but in 410 they enter the city. They are the first enemy intruders for exactly eight centuries - since the arrival of Celts in Rome in 390 BC.

When the Visigoths leave Rome, they are laden with plunder but they have not destroyed the city. Alaric moves on south, intending to invade Africa, but he dies later in the year, still in Italy. His people wander north again into France and move briefly through the Pyrenees into Spain. In 418 they return to southwest France, or Aquitaine, where they are offered land again as Roman federates.