Gothic War (376–382)

Abstract

A war waged by several Gothic groups (principally the Thervingi and the Greuthungi) against the Roman Empire from 376 until 382, when a treaty secured the Goths permanent settlement within the borders of the Roman Empire. The most detailed source for the war is book 31 of the history of Ammianus Marcellinus (covering the period 376 to 378). Though brief, the history of Zosimus covers the entire war. An oration by Themistius is also preserved, which describes the peace agreement in 382. The significance of the Battle of Adrianople (Hadrianopolis) and the war as a whole for the history of the later Roman Empire can be easily exaggerated; however, the mass settlement of Gothic peoples as a semiautonomous group within the traditional bounds of the Roman Empire in 382 was to mark a significant new epoch in Roman history.