The Goths Cross the Danube (376) / The Fall of Rome #1

[Music] the year is 378 is the Roman Empire is one of the largest states that the world has ever known from the windswept shores of the Atlantic to the crystal waters of the Red Sea some 70 million people live and die under the rule of just two individuals for the most part the dark days of the third century are in the past now divided into two politically aligned but autonomous parts one based in Rome the other in Constantinople the Empire is prosperous once more [Music] capable of fielding hundreds of thousands of soldiers and accumulating a staggering amount of wealth from the Scottish marches to the deserts of Arabia all roads still lead to Rome in fact for the majority of Roman citizens all they have ever known is peace and prosperity yet somewhere out there beyond the Danube and the Rhine rivers are naturally imposing frontiers of the Roman world studded with the watchful eyes of border forts and legionary Garrison's unseen forces stir forces have threatened the very existence of the known world out there in the dark forests and ominous mountains of the east a monster is on the way [Music] in 369 AD the renowned Roman statesman and orator thermos Gnaeus relates a historic meeting taking place on the Danube on the one side stood the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire protect with all the pomp and imperial regalia forfeiting his position and accompanied by his elite retinue of soldiers Valens was rode out into the deep waters of the river huge fortified castles and strongholds along the shore clearly visible behind him brutal siege engines and the steel of the Roman war machine glistening proudly in the heat of the day as far as the Roman people were concerned the man the Emperor was going to meet came from a different world entirely behind Valens lay civilization towns cities prosperity wealth home out there across the Danube they barbarism fierce tribes of pagan warriors eking out a living on the scraps thrown to them by the Romans so it had been for hundreds of years so it had been for as long as anyone could remember so it had always been the man Valens was going to meet was the leader of one of those tribes he was a fan Erik the / king of the turval Guillen Goths the closest tribe of that nation of people which now dominated all of the lands from the Carpathian Mountains to the Black Sea the Goths had been known to the Romans to close to two centuries by this time a fan Eric's ancestors had been launching occasional campaigns against them since the late second century so much so that by the year 320 the lower Danube was known as the Gothic bank though Valens had much to be confident about that day in time all had been defeated by the might of Rome fierce long-haired warriors from the north a fan Eric's man had been threatening the frontier since the mid 360's launching raids across the Danube and generally making a nuisance of themselves in Thrace as far as the misty us was concerned very much putting his own political spin on events for the people of the empire Valens was here to subjugate and to force a peace treaty out of this beleaguered and recently defeated foe the emperor had first sent his armies out across the river two years earlier in 367 and since then had been attempting to bring the Goths to heel by burning their villages and laying waste to the countryside with limited success before finally forcing them into an inconclusive battle which had led to the meeting on the river what firma steais leaves out of his narrative however is that when a fan Erick and his household warriors approached the Emperor on their own rowing boats it may have in fact been difficult to differentiate between the two bands of men both used similar equipment a similar steel armor and even similar metalwork adorning their bodies it's even possible that at least some of Valens his men were Goths themselves or at least a related Germanic people the Romans having employed barbarians in their armies for centuries by this time a tradition that would continue for more than a thousand years to come in fact the fighting on the Danube in the 360's had begun not as a result of the Goths propensity for violence but as a result of a Roman civil war [Music] placed onto the eastern throne by his elder brother Valentinian in 364 Valens his rule was unstable at the best of times almost as soon as he received the Imperial regalia of Constantinople a usurper rose up to overthrow him that contender just so happens to be a family member of valence his cousin procopius in 365 earthen Eric had been encouraged by procopius to send 3000 of his men over the frontier to fight on his behalf against the recently crowned valence a fan Eric's only mistake was in picking the wrong side in the conflict after which Valens crossed over the river to lay waste to a thinner ex kingdom out of revenge despite all of the misty as his grand rhetoric of civilized Roman and uncultured barbarian while Valens is legionaries found when they crossed over the danube might have surprised the landed elites of gaul and hispania [Music] living in such close proximity to the Romans for so long had inevitably rubbed off on those living beyond the frontier especially the closest tribes such as the Goths by the mid 4th century the Tov in GI loosely translated as people of the forest and their growth on Gihon neighbors loosely meaning people of the steppe dominated the region politically rather than one homogeneous ethnic group the Goths were more akin to a Germanic warrior elite ruling over and alongside Iranian and Latin speaking peoples the previous inhabitants of the area in return for keeping the region in order and preventing attacks across the frontier these powerful warlords with private armies received Roman subsidies and Roman coin some even built Roman style villas complete with terracotta roofs stained glass windows and marble pillars others began manufacturing Roman style goods in some instances of such a high quality that when they were first discovered by archaeologists they were originally thought to be Roman made by the late fourth century when the Goths raided into Roman territory they weren't motivated by territorial expansion they came as client kings looking for a better deal [Music] the simplified narrative of Roman and barbarian as presented by thermos Deus belays the complicated truth of the matter rather than a total victory over the Goths as presented to the Roman people the meeting and 369 was in fact more of a coming to terms for both sides ever the wily toned spin-doctor the misty us also leaves out the fact that it was arguably the Romans who had sparked the violence in the first place when procopius invited the Goths over the border and then when Valens cut off food exports and trade that had been in place for decades as part of a deal made by his predecessor Constantius in the 330s in short the meeting on the Danube was simply the latest diplomatic overture between Roman and goth in a lengthy relationship dating back nearly two centuries [Music] rather than civilized Roman and primitive barbarian the reality of the situation was different the Empire hadn't grown so large without making a few mortal enemies along the way the most powerful of these being Persia ruled over by the sustain Ian Shah shop or the second in 367 just as Valens made his peace treaty on the Danube shapour launched himself headlong into Roman Caucasia with a colossal army of tens of thousands of professional warriors quite frankly Valens had bigger fish to fry than a few thousand romanized barbarians living beyond the Balkans he desperately needed to pull his men out of the Danube e'en frontier and relocate them to the east and in order to do so he had to come to terms with a thany wreck the only way to do this was to restore the privileges that had previously been given to the Goths several decades earlier by Constantius far from a total victory as recorded by thermus dias the meeting on the Danube was in fact more of a face-saving exercise a PR spectacle and compromise that could be presented to the Senate as a victory the win reality was anything but [Music] ominously for the Romans as valens legionaries left the frontier behind them that autumn riding hard towards Asia Minor and the Mesopotamian frontier beyond for the most part earth an Eric's fighting capabilities remained intact the world from which a fan Eric and his warriors had sprung was on the face of it a very different world from that of valence by the fourth century AD certain areas of the Empire particularly in the East had already been home to literate City dwelling societies the thousands upon thousands of years complex bureaucracies and infrastructures dating back millennia having grown up on the Fertile shores of the Mediterranean the world beyond the frontier however which the Romans had kept at bay since the days of Julius Caesar through centuries of brutal warfare against the Germanic tribes were still almost entirely preliterate had no large cities to speak of and as far as the average Roman citizen was concerned was populated by primitive brutes incapable of appreciating the civilized facets of society due to their animalistic nature by the fourth century however the truth was anything but perhaps imperceptible at first glance to the average Roman unseen technological innovations and societal changes had transformed the world beyond the frontier during the second third and particularly the fourth centuries ad many historians and archaeologists agree that a mass population explosion seems to have taken place amongst the Germanic tribes of Europe and recent archaeological evidence may help us shed some light on the origins of this boon it's thought that a revolution in agricultural techniques may have in part led to this boom in population it only took a few generations and a handful of hard winters but before long this new rise in population led to a deficit in food which in turn kick-started a series of migrations and displacements that would eventually lead the Goths to the very gates of Rome itself originally thought by many to have hailed from as far north as Scandinavia the archaeological evidence now suggests that the Goths probably emerged out of the forests of modern-day northern Poland in around the 1st and 2nd centuries ad this was a brutal time warring clans and competing tribes ever spurred on into movement and warfare in search of food and plunder though the exact details of the Exodus remain shrouded in the past the Goths seemed to have begun moving southwards from around 100 AD their journey wouldn't be an easy one the frontier world they moved into was a violent mixing bowl of tribes and nations pitted in seemingly perpetual warfare against one another and the Romans to the south innumerable tribes that migrated into the area before most of whom were now in undated and subjugated by others only the strongest cultures survived like so many before and so many to follow one of those cultures came riding into Europe on horseback from the wild steps of the east from around the 1st century BC a new threat arrived on the plains north of the Black Sea an Iranian speaking people of semi-nomadic horse warriors the Sarmatian hordes came spilling out onto the eastern half of the Empire bringing death in their wake [Music] salvations remained a very real threat for centuries to come though in the second century AD they were finally landed a devastating blow by the philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius when he waged a lengthy series of campaigns against both them and a rolecall of other Germanic tribes in a series of conflicts known as the macro manic Wars after the main German tribe in question the entire Danube frontier was set on fire by these conflicts though after the dust had finally settled a mass reconfiguration of the tribes had taken place the Goths relative newcomers on the scene were one of the big winners of the reshuffle the sarmatians along with the Dacian speaking copy people of the Carpathian Mountains were some of those who lost out devastated by the war and now finding themselves increasingly subjugated by the fur clad men of the north by the early 200s the Goths had arrived on the shores of the Black Sea a far more temperate climate with more fertile lands and opportunities than their original homeland their journey had been a long and a hard one fraught with Wars and battles along the way now long lost to the realm of legend but soon enough they managed to assert themselves as the new overlords of the region ruling over a myriad population of subject people's such as sarmatians and Asians of course it didn't take long for them to come head to head with Rome all things considered the 3rd century was one of the most catastrophic of any faced by the Roman Empire during its nearly 500 year long history in 217 AD the murder of the tyrant Caracalla became the catalyst for a lengthy series of internal troubles later referred to as the anarchy of the third century but threatened to destroy any semblance of authority within the now massive state from Hispania to arabia a roll call of usurpers and generals rose up to claim either the imperial title or some small corner for themselves to govern in the east vast swaths of land broke away under a dynasty centred on the trading metropolis of Palmyra in the West a line of Romano Gallic aristocrats declared themselves breakaway emperors and perhaps worst of all on the Rhine and the Danube frontiers barbarians came flooding over on masse to lay waste to the frontier provinces in 238 alone six different figures laid claim to the Imperial title amidst a dizzying array of civil conflicts fought all over the Empire it was amidst this confusion and chaos that the first concrete mention of Goths occurs in the Roman sources raiding the city of hysteria at the mouth of the Danube before being paid off to leave clearly impressed by the rich cities and settlements they found on the southern flank the Goths continued to capitalize upon the crisis sweeping down through the Balkans in the two 50s to 60s and to 70s to seize plunder and captives as well as launching daring Seabourn raids across the Black Sea to do the same in Asia Minor finally in 269 AD a decisive blow was landed upon the invaders at the Battle of nasus with the future emperor or alien leading the decisive cavalry charge that shattered the Gothic force according to the historians awesome us writing 200 years later some 50,000 Goths were either killed dispersed throughout the empire as slaves or taken to the amphitheaters to be torn apart by wild animals the amusement of the masses for the Romans the psychological impact of this victory was so powerful that the Emperor Claudius became known to posterity as Claudius the second gothic Asst Maximus or conqueror of the Goths for the Goths whilst the defeat at nicest may have been demoralizing in the short term their strength was by no means broken they'd been fighting on Roman turf and their own lands remained largely untouched it did however represent the beginnings of a shift in consciousness the leaders that began to come to the fore in the aftermath of the 270's increasingly came to admire the Roman Way of life and in time to emulate it troubles with the breakaway Palmyra in Empire in the east and the Gallic Empire in the West was so urgent that the victory at nicest could only serve as a temporary relief for the troubled Empire in 271 after a lien repelled yet another gothic invasion he ordered a full-scale retreat of everything on the northern side of the Danube beginning the abandonment of the entire province of Dasia a land that would soon become gothic territory [Music] between 285 and 320 a slew of new Emperor's most notably Diocletian began settling vast numbers of Dacian speaking carpi people over the frontier to within the empire the borders were now in place for good and for the most part the will of the Goths to fight had been subdued they wouldn't trouble the Romans again for fifty years and when they did they were a different power altogether [Music] over the next century though the Danube always separated them trade and cultural exchange flourished between Roman and goth Christian missionaries even began to make significant headway before long many within the gothic warrior aristocracy came to appreciate the Roman Way of life the Goths had been trading with Romans for decades and now far from barbarous brutes they would make their own versions of Roman items archaeological sites near the Black Sea dating from the 4th century suggests the existence of a class of Gothic Master craftspeople producing precious metallic items pottery and even glassware in Roman Styles no gothic coins were minted yet with Roman ones were used in abundance representing a significant shift away from the barter society that held sway before hunt eventually it was these Germanic peoples that would keep alive the torch of Roman civilization well into the early Middle Ages despite the past that they had to play in its violent demise by the latter half of the fourth century though to the Roman people living far from the frontier the people beyond were still lawless barbarians the reality was different and a reckoning was on the way the Goths now dominated all of the lands between the Black Sea and the Carpathian Mountains when they reappear in the Roman sources in the early 320s the Goths arrived as mercenaries to the Eastern Emperor likes Aeneas under a king named Alec ah the tavern Gian's found themselves on the losing side of a power struggle for the imperial throne unfortunately for aleca licinia's his rival just so happens to be one of the most powerful emperors in history he was Constantine the Great the founder of Constantinople and the first Christian Roman Emperor upon defeating his rival at the bloody battle of Chrissa palace in 324 Constantine headed over the Danube to seek his revenge and live sinesses gothic allies soon forcing them into submission and taking hostages in truth most of the Goths had had little to do with the Civil War yet they suffered at Constantine's hands nonetheless according to the Roman historian amar Gnaeus Marcellinus athaan Eric's father Eric was one of those young noblemen taken into captivity living out his formative years in Constantinople this was a time-honored tradition dating back centuries usually intended to pacify and romanize barbarian tribes though rather than Roman ice earth an Eric's father who was already well aware of the sophisticated Roman way of life it apparently made him despise his hosts upon his return to the tavern gions according to later writers he made his son swear an oath that he would never set foot on Roman soil [Music] in the 360s the tavern Gian Goths now under the rule of a thany wreck again became involved in a Roman civil war though once more they picked the losing side and shortly afterwards suffered the consequences in 364 the Emperor Valens severed trade and food exports beyond the Danube and launched a scorched earth campaign culminating in his meeting with a fan Erich in 367 as far as he was concerned as he rode back across the river that summer a fan Erich had succeeded in restoring the status quo though little did he know it at the time as he returned back to his heart Lance he was going to hear of a rising new threat from the east a threat that in time would change everything [Music] out on the steps once held by the sarmatians new groups of warriors had been cited rumors abounded of entire villages and outlying settlements simply disappearing smoldering ruins left in their wake is the only evidence of the terrible fate handed out to those poor souls like the sarmatians before them these were horse backed warriors with strange alien features skulls purposely deformed from birth and faces ritually scarred in order to terrify their enemies [Music] much to the horror of the Goths living around the Black Sea the Huns had arrived [Music] in the east meanwhile both 371 Valens had made significant gains against his Persian enemies going some way to what solidifying the borders and ensuring the rich Roman cities of the East remains defended though by 375 shapour was back forcing the Emperor to draw all of his resources and prepare a huge army for the coming war by the end of 375 rumors began to trickle over the Danube ian's frontier of heavy fighting taking place to the north of the Black Sea these were strange tidings trouble usually came from the Northwest towards modern-day Poland not from the northeast towards modern-day Ukraine the last major trouble to come from that way had been the Sarmatian horsemen sweeping away all before them in the first century AD but that was centuries ago after the reconfiguration of the tribes that foreshadowed the arrival of the Goths in the third century there had been relative stability in the region for the most part the rumors were probably laughed off especially for the officials further to the east after all they had much more pressing matters to be concerned with in the form of chapels Persian war machine finally when a group of Gothic ambassadors arrived at valence as regional capital of Antioch having journeyed for more than 1500 kilometers they told him in person of what was happening beyond the Danube it immediately became clear that the stability previously wrought by the Goths had now broken up entirely the Huns had thundered out of the steppe sweeping away all before them of routing almost the entirety of the gothic warrior elite along with hundreds of thousands of their subjects and now to Valens is abject horror the Goths were attempting to cross the Danube faced with shoppers impending onslaught Valens simply couldn't get to the Danube in time to oversee the situation forced to make a difficult decision and fearing the chaos that might follow should he refuse the request of the Goths he gave orders that provided they convert to Christianity surrender their weapons upon arrival and agree to military service the turf Indians would be allowed over though in retrospect this decision may seem reckless in reality settling refugees within the borders of the Empire was far from unusual in fact a constant stream of people's have been absorbed and settled into the empire since its very earliest days the Dacian carpi people been a recent example on the danube and over in the western empire the franks being established as a buffer state to the other Germanic peoples another these newcomers often provided excellent manpower for the military the Franks in particular serving is mostly loyal auxiliaries for a century to come and ultimately taking up the torch of Roman civilization after the final collapse of Imperial administration in Gaul similarly if the situation were to go bad it would be relatively simple to wipe these groups out of existence the Limor grantees for example a tribe of sarmatians allowed to cross over into the empire in the mid 4th century have been annihilated by the Valens is predecessor Constantius and later in 409 when the scary tribe had been similarly allowed to enter they were either enslaved or massacred surveillance this new situation likely seemed little different to those that had come before and besides he had the Persians to face delegating to his subordinate in the Balkans new perkiness and perhaps wishing to use the Goths as manpower for his war in the east Valens allowed the entirety of Indian nation to cross over the border in 376 surrendering their weapons as they came somewhere between a hundred and two hundred thousand Tove inghean Goths crossed over into Roman territory east of the Carpathians to be settled in temporary camps in return for food and shelter they would provide military service and those that hadn't already done so would convert to the Aryan Christianity favored by valence to the Roman people as usual auratus and rhetorician z' such as thermos Dias would present the arrival of the Goths as a surrender to the might of the Empire in truth however for reasons that aren't entirely clear the toven gr was settled in large enough groups so that they retained their political and cultural unity potentially in a place of their own choosing race for historian Peter Heather this suggests that they probably arrived on much better terms than usual the difference in 376 potentially being the existence of other more powerful enemies that the Romans would have to contend with first in the form of the sassanids and then the Hunts as the long lines of Goths passed over the Roman border defenses that year neither side fully trusted the other but for now they were forced into an uneasy alliance in order to further demonstrate the power of Rome Valens seems to have given express orders to block the passage of the other gothic tribe behind the turf in VI the gray of thingie ins who had faced the worst of the Chanukah tax in the previous year and then braved hundreds of miles from east of the de Nesta River in modern Ukraine since then for better or for worse for the time being they remained on the other side of the Danube fully armed and ready to defend themselves when the tov engi i finally arrived in Thrace to set up the new way of life the former High King a fan Eric was nowhere to be seen he was still on the other side of the river with just a handful of followers making a stand against the Huns in the Carpathian Mountains in gothic Society only the strongest ruled and in the wake of a slew of defeats in the wake of the Hunnic invasions a new ruler had arisen to lead the Goths in his place his name was fritter gur and he was probably already an Aryan Christian when the Huns arrived and it had been his plan to cross into Roman territory little did the Romans know that once fritter goon was across the river nothing would ever be the same again you

Channel: History Time

Views: 371,034

Rating: 4.8385997 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie, goths, cross the danube, goths cross the danube, fritigern, athanaric, valens, gothic wars, romans, late roman empire, fall of the roman empire, collapse of the western roman empire

Id: p0WnRODVby0

Length: 38min 6sec (2286 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 21 2018