Thervings

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The Thervingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire (or early Byzantine Empire).

Contents 1 Early history 1.1 Gothic War (367-369) 1.2 Gothic War (376-382) 2 Social Structure 3 Archaeology 3.1 Settlement Pattern 3.2 Burial Practices 4 Religion 5 Languages 5.1 Pagan kings 5.2 Rebel leaders 6 References

[edit] Early history

The Thervingi first appeared in history as a distinct people in the year 268 when they invaded the Roman Empire. This invasion overran the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum and even threatened Italia itself. However, the Thervingi 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. However, they maintained their hold on the Roman province of Dacia, which Aurelian evacuated in 271.

[edit] Gothic War (367-369)

In 367, the Roman Augustus Valens attacked the Thervingi north of the Danube river.

[edit] Gothic War (376-382)

Main article: Gothic War (376-382)

The Thervingi remained in Dacia^{[citation needed]} 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. Here, they hoped to find refuge from the Huns. 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 Roman Empire.

[edit] Social Structure

[edit] Archaeology

Main article: Chernyakhov Culture

[edit] Settlement Pattern

Chernyakhov settlements cluster in open ground in river valleys. The houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, and stall-houses. The largest known settlement (Budesty) is 35 hectares.^[1] Most settlements are open and unfortified; some forts are also known.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Burial Practices

Sintana de Mures cemeteries are better known than Sintana de Mures settlements.^[2]

Sintana de Mures cemeteries show the same basic characteristics as other Chernyakhov cemeteries. These include both cremation and inhumation burials; among the latter the head is to the north. Some graves were left empty. Grave goods often include pottery, bone combs, and iron tools, but almost never any weapons.^[3]

[edit] Religion

The original religion of the Thervingi is unknown.

Roman prisoners brought Christianity to the Thervingi. This spread fast enough that several Therving kings and their supporters persecuted the Christian Thervingi, many of whom fled to Moesia in the Roman Empire. Wulfila translated the Bible into Gothic during this exile.^[4]

Settled in Dacia, the Thervingi adopted "Arianism," a branch of Christianity that believed that Jesus was not an aspect of God in the Trinity, but a separate being created directly beneath God.^{[citation needed]} This belief was in opposition to the tenets of Catholicism, which achieved a religious monopoly in the late 4th and 5th century.

[edit] Languages

Main article: Gothic language

[edit] Pagan kings

• Athanaric (369–381)
• Rothesteus (underking)^[5]
• Winguric (underking)^[6]

[edit] Rebel leaders

• Alavivus (c.376)
• Fritigern (c.376–c.380)

[edit] References

1. ^ Heather, Peter & Matthews, John, 1991, The Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp. 52-54.
2. ^ Heather, Peter & Matthews, John, 1991, Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, p. 54.
3. ^ Heather, Peter & Matthews, John, 1991, Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp. 54-56.
4. ^ Philostorgius, Church History, book 2, chapter 5.
5. ^ Passion of St. Saba
6. ^ Martyrology of Batwin and Wereka