Third century The Thervingi were possibly among the Goths who invaded the
Roman Empire in the year 268. This invasion overran the
Roman provinces of
Pannonia and
Illyricum and even threatened
Italia itself. However, the Goths were defeated in battle that summer near the modern
Italian-
Slovenian border 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. In the problematic
Historia Augusta article for Emperor Claudius Gothicus (reigned 268-270), the following list of "
Scythian" peoples is given who had been conquered by the emperor when he earned his title "Gothicus": "
peuci trutungi austorgoti uirtingi sigy pedes celtae etiam eruli". These words are traditionally edited by modern editors to include well-known peoples: "
Peuci, Grutungi, Austrogoti, Tervingi, Visi, Gipedes, Celtae etiam et Eruli". This was therefore sometimes argued to be the first record of the Tervingi. However, apart from the reconstructions needed, historians today believe this document was made around 400, and thus 100 years later.). It was traditionally ascribed to
Claudius Mamertinus. This panegyric can be interpreted in different ways. After mentioning Moorish peoples fighting each other, it turns to Europe where two different conflicts are described in a way which makes it unclear which conflict the Tervingi were involved in: "The Goths utterly destroy the
Burgundians, and again the
Alamanni wear arms for the conquered, and the Tervingi too, another group of Goths, with the help of a band of
Taifali join battle with the
Vandals and
Gepids". The passage is normally interpreted as explaining to the reader that the Tervingi were a type of Goth, and involved in the second of the two conflicts, fighting against Vandals and Gepids. Another almost certainly third century record of the Tervingi is in the
Breviarium of
Eutropius from 369. He wrote that the province of
Dacia now (
nunc) contained Taifali, Vicotali, and Tervingi. However, once again the texts which have survived have major variants: Terbingi, Tervulgi, Terviginti and Τερβίται (Tervitai). In 367, the Roman Emperor
Valens attacked the Thervingi north of the Danube river in retribution for their having supported the
usurper Procopius, who had died in 366. However, he was unable to hit them directly, because apparently the bulk of the Goths retreated to the
Montes Serrorum (which is probably the south Carpathians).
Ammianus Marcellinus says that Valens could not find anyone to fight with (
nullum inveniret quem superare poterat vel terrere) and even implies that all of them fled, horror-struck, to the mountains (
omnes formidine perciti... montes petivere Serrorum). In the following year, the flooding of the Danube prevented the Romans from crossing the river. In 369, Valens finally penetrated deep into the Gothic territory, winning a series of skirmishes with Greuthungi, who are mentioned here for the first time in a classical record.
Athanaric who was, in this passage, described by Ammianus as their most powerful judge "
iudicem potentissimum" (implying he was a leader of the Greuthingi) was compelled to flee, and then make a peace agreement in the middle of the Danube, promising to never set foot on Roman soil. In later parts of his text however, Ammianus describes Athanaric as a judge (
iudex) of the Tervingi, who was attacked by Greuthungi who had joined the
Huns.
Gothic War (376–382) The Thervingi remained in western
Scythia (probably modern
Moldavia and
Wallachia) until 376, when one of their leaders,
Fritigern, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. The vision that there, they hoped to find refuge from the Huns, is today contested by historians. It is more likely that they settled because of peace negotiations following the first Gothic War. Valens permitted this. However, a famine broke out and Rome was unwilling to supply them with the food they were promised nor the land; open revolt ensued leading to 6 years of plundering and destruction throughout the Balkans, the death of a Roman Emperor and the destruction of an entire Roman army. The
Battle of Adrianople in 378 was the decisive moment of the war. The Roman forces were slaughtered; the Emperor Valens was killed during the fighting, shocking the Roman world and eventually forcing the Romans to negotiate with and settle the Barbarians on Roman land, a new trend with far reaching consequences for the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire. ==Archaeology==