Visigoth: Encyclopedia II - Visigoth - Early history

Visigoth - Early history

The Visigoths first appeared in history as a distinct people in the year 268 when they invaded the Roman Empire and swarmed over the Balkan peninsula. This invasion overran the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum and even threatened Italia itself. However, the Visigoths were defeated in battle near the modern Italian-Slovenian border that summer and then routed in the Battle of Naissus that September. Over the next three years they were driven back over the Danube River in a series of campaigns by the emperors Claudius II Gothicus and Aurelian. However, they maintained their hold on the Roman province of Dacia, which Aurelian evacuated in 271.

Settled in Dacia, the Visigoths adopted Arianism, a branch of Christianity that believed that Jesus was not an aspect of God in the Trinity, but a separate being created directly beneath God. This belief was in opposition to the tenets of mainstream Catholicism, which achieved a religious monopoly in the 4th and 5th century. The Iberian Visigoths adhered to Arianism until 589, when King Reccared (Recaredo) converted his people to Catholicism. For the role of Arianism in Visigothic kingship, see the entry for Liuvigild.

They remained in Dacia until 376, when one of their two 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, who lacked the ability to cross the wide river in force. Valens permitted this, and even helped bring the Visigoths over the river. In return, Fritigern was to provide soldiers for the Roman army. Valens promised the Visigoths farming land, grain rations, and protection under the Roman armies. His major reason to quickly accept the Goths into Roman territory was, of course, to increase the size of his personal army. The selection of which of the Goths might cross the Danube was unforgiving— the weak, old, and sickly were left on the far bank to fend for themselves against the Huns. The ones that crossed were meant to have their weapons confiscated, but the Romans in charge accepted bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons.

However, a famine broke out in the lands settled by the Visigoths a year later, and Rome was able to supply them with neither the food they were promised nor the land - they herded the Goths into a temporary holding area, often compared to a World War II concentration camp. There was only enough grain left for the Roman garrison, and so they simply let the Visigoths starve. However, the Romans provided a grim alternative: the trade of children for dog meat. When Fritigern appealed to Valens for help, he was told that his people would find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople. Having no alternative, the Goths trekked across the Balkan landscape in a death march, losing the sickly and old along the path. When they finally reached Marcianople's gates, they were barred out by the city's military garrison and denied entry. Rioting ensued, which had the following consequences: a) The Visigoths were able to match Rome's military technology through their raiding, b) The Goths were able to obtain the necessary food in this manner, and they grew in number, and c) Valens, after a victorious campaign in Persia, was forced to trek directly from the Persian Wars to a battle with the Goths.

The Battle of Adrianople on August 9, 378 erupted. Acting on a false message, Valens was completely unaware of the Goths' numbers. To add to the blazing August heat the Goths set the fields ablaze, and managed to box the Roman infantry in the center of the battlefield so as to only have to fight one Roman army at a time. The Roman forces were slaughtered; the Emperor Valens died during the fighting.

The new emperor, Theodosius I, made peace with Fritigern in 379, and this peace held essentially unbroken until Theodosius died in 395. In that year, the Visigoths' most famous king, Alaric I, took the throne, while Theodosius was succeeded by his incapable sons: Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west.

Over the next 15 years, occasional conflicts were broken by years of uneasy peace between Alaric and the powerful German generals who commanded the Roman armies in the east and west, wielding the real power of the empire. Finally, after the western generalissimo Stilicho was murdered by Honorius in 408 and the Roman legions massacred the families of 30,000 barbarian soldiers serving in the Roman army, Alaric declared war. With Alaric and his army at the gates of Rome, Honorius still refused to come to terms, so Alaric sacked the city on August 24, 410. While Rome was no longer the official capital of the Western Roman Empire (it had been moved to Ravenna for strategic reasons) its fall severely shook the empire's foundations.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki