Greuthungi | EPFL Graph Search

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The Greuthungi (also spelled Greutungi) were a Gothic people who lived on the Pontic steppe between the Dniester and Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Tervingi, another Gothic people, who lived west of the Dniester River. To the east of the Greuthungi, living near the Don river, were the Alans. When the Huns arrived in the European Steppe region in the late 4th century, first the Alans were forced to join them, and then a part of the Greuthungi. Alans and Goths became an important part of Attila's forces, together with other eastern European peoples. Many Greuthungi, together with some Alans and Huns, crossed the Lower Danube to join a large group of Tervingi who had entered the Roman Empire in 376. These peoples defeated an imperial army in the Battle of Adrianople in 378, and came to a settlement agreement within the Roman empire by 382 AD. The original tribal names of the Goths fell out of use within the empire. Many of the 382 settlers appear to have become an important component of the Visigoths who formed under Alaric I. Based upon interpretations of the Getica by the 6th century writer Jordanes, although it never mentions the Greuthungi, the Greuthungi are strongly associated with both the Gothic king Ermanaric, and the later Amal dynasty who were among Attila's Goths. After the collapse of Attila's empire, the Amals founded the Ostrogothic kingdom in the Roman Balkans. Name of the Goths The root greut- is probably related to the Old English greot, meaning "gravel, grit, earth", thus implying that the name refers to a geographical region where the Greuthungi lived. It has been argued, for example by Herwig Wolfram, who agrees with the older position of Franz Altheim that this is part of a body of evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea — both before and after Gothic settlement there.

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Related concepts (16)

Athanaric

Athanaric or Atanaric (Athanaricus; died 381) was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths (Thervingi) for at least two decades in the 4th century. Throughout his reign, Athanaric was faced with invasions by the Roman Empire, the Huns and a civil war with Christian rebels. He is considered the first king of the Visigoths, who later settled in Iberia, where they founded the Visigothic Kingdom. Athanaric made his first appearance in recorded history in 369, when he engaged in battle with the Roman emperor Valens and ultimately negotiated a favorable peace for his people.

Fritigern

Fritigern (fl. 370s) was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrianople during the Gothic War (376–382) led to favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382. Fritigern appears in the Latinized form Fritigernus. The Gothic name is reconstructed as *Frithugairns "desiring peace". The Germanized name under which Fritigern is honored in the Walhalla temple (1842) is Friediger.

Thervingi

The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dniester, and they also had significant interactions with the Roman Empire. They were one of the main components of the large movement of Goths and other peoples over the Danube in 376, and they are seen as one of the most important ancestral groups of the Visigoths.