ABSTRACT
The embassy which came to the Sacred Court of Valens Augustus, emperor of the East, at Antioch in Syria in the spring of 376 was certainly important, but on the surface at least its substance was not unusual. The Tervingian Goths (later known as Visigoths),1 under their chieftains Alavivus2 and Fritigern,3 were encamped en masse on the northern bank of the Danube, opposite the Roman diocese of Thrace (Bulgaria and European Turkey, map II), and respectfully begged the emperor to grant them lands to settle within the empire, on the customary conditions of submission to Roman rule and the supply of fighting men for the imperial armies.4 They explained that they had been driven from their homelands, after very fierce fighting, by new and savage invaders, the Huns. A fearsome, demonic picture was painted of these ugly nomad warriors who were so primitive they dressed in skins, had no houses nor land but seemed to live on horseback, and whose cavalry was irresistible.5 They had defeated the Alans,6 and in alliance with the survivors had overwhelmed the Greuthungian Goths,7 driving them from their fertile lands westwards to the river Dneister.8 The Huns and their Alan allies then attacked the Tervingi, who were unable to withstand this combined assault and were compelled to migrate.9
