ABSTRACT
Based on the Mediterranean, the Roman Empire forged Europe as far as the rivers Rhine and Danube - and, for lengthy periods, extensive lands beyond those boundaries - together with North Africa and much of the Near East into a unitary state which lasted for the best part of 400 years. The Huns were very much a new factor in the European strategic balance of power in the late fourth century. For the Roman imperial authorities, the first consequence of the arrival of Hunnic tribes on the fringes of Europe was the appearance in 376 of two substantial and separate Gothic groups, Tervingi and Greuthungi, on the banks of the Danube asking for asylum. The available sources are obviously fragmentary, but do nevertheless provide a coherent picture of the intrusion of Hunnic power into eastern Europe. Olympiodorus is the only historian likely to have provided essential information.
