In these conditions they started to live and mix together with the free
dacians. This culture is called Santana de Mures in
Romania and Cerneahov in
Rep. of Moldavia.
Peace is too
good to last too long isnt it. Soon the huns arrive from the east and start to threaten the goths. The tribes ruled by Ermanarich are defeated (these are called by the
romans the ostrogoths because they were the eastern
part of the goths, however in culture there is no distinction between the two)
The remaining Goths try to resist. Their main ruler was Athanaric. They sort of fortify the central moldavian highlad by constructing a
limes. However soon they fight. The traditionalists ruled by Athanaric choose to stay and resist. The pro-romans ruled by Frithigern and Alaviv want to seek
help from
Valens. In the end they leave the land and
cross the danube. The condition was for them to
act as any other
roman subject.
The goths of Athanaric cant hold too much. They retreat in the Buzau hills
area. Here many treasures were found including the very royal treasure it seems. It was found in 1837 consisted in 22 pieces. Today only 12 survive and
weight 19 kg of gold. Wonderful vases, platters and
fibulas decorated with precious stones. One piece is incribed with runic letters and can be read as "gutani hailag" which means "sacred, of the goths"
Soon Athanaric flees too. In 381 he arrives at
Constantinople where he is nicely received but soon dies.
What happened to the goths that crossed the Danube earlier ? First of all they werent too happy to
act as
roman citizens and pay taxes. In addition the local authorities gave them a hard time and spoiled them. Soon a famine starts and they
HAD to rise after their receive no
help. Combined with anarchic groups of the ostrogots and maybe even huns looking for early pray, the Balkans are in flames again. Emperor
Valens loses the battle of Adrianopole, and
his life too.
Still,
Theodosius was able to settle them down afterwards. Frithigern died, and so much pressed by the huns, Athanaric
comes to
Constantinople as said above. The
peace lasted until 395, when the new
king Alaric rebells again. Alaric was now an actual
part of the
roman army and just helped crush the usurpation of
Eugenius. Being in the
west he sees the opportunity to invade the badly defended
Italy so that is what he did.
Hope I didnt bore you to death with common knowledge but maybe it will be interesting for some.