Aoric

Last updated March 10, 2019

Aoric (Latinized Aoricus) was a Thervingian Gothic king ( reiks and kindins ) who lived in the 4th century.^[1]^[2] Aoric was son of Ariaric and father of Athanaric, he was raised in Constantinople, where a statue was erected in his honour.^[3] He was recorded by Auxentius of Durostorum leading a persecution of Gothic Christians in 347/348. Herwig Wolfram noted that "alliteration, variation, and rhythm in the line of names Athanaric, Aoric, Ariaric resemble the 'ideal type' of Hadubrand, Hildebrand, Heribrand". He considered the similarities and comparison suggested that all three kings were members of the Balti dynasty.^[4]

The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains 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, as well as the late Roman Empire or the early Byzantine Empire.

The Goths were an East Germanic people, two of whose branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire through the long series of Gothic Wars and in the emergence of Medieval Europe. The Goths dominated a vast area, which at its peak under the Germanic king Ermanaric and his sub-king Athanaric possibly extended all the way from the Danube to the Don, and from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

Reiks is a Gothic title for a tribal ruler, often translated as "king".

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The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the older Goths. The Ostrogoths traced their origins to the Greutungi – a branch of the Goths who had migrated southward from the Baltic Sea and established a kingdom north of the Black Sea, during the 3rd and 4th centuries. They built an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Ostrogoths were probably literate in the 3rd century, and their trade with the Romans was highly developed. Their Danubian kingdom reached its zenith under King Ermanaric, who is said to have committed suicide at an old age when the Huns attacked his people and subjugated them in about 370.

The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, or what is known as the Migration Period. The Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient. The Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. After the Visigoths sacked Rome, they began settling down, first in southern Gaul and eventually in Hispania, where they founded the Visigothic Kingdom and maintained a presence from the 5th to the 8th centuries AD.

The Battle of Nedao was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454 between Huns and their former Germanic vassals. Nedao is believed to be a tributary of the Sava river.

The Thracian Goths, also known as Moesogoths or Moesian Goths, refers to the branches of Goths who settled in Thrace and Moesia, Roman provinces in the Balkans. These Goths were mentioned in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.

The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Gothic people of the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Thervingi, another Gothic people, from west of the Dniester River. They may be the same people as the later Ostrogoths.

The Battle of Thermopylae in 254 was the successful defense of the pass of Thermopylae by local Greek militia under Marianus, the Roman proconsul of Achaea, during an invasion of the Balkans by the Goths.

The Taifals or Tayfals were a people group of Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fragmented history, for the most part in association with various Gothic peoples, and alternately fighting against or for the Romans. In the late fourth century some Taifali were settled within the Roman Empire, notably in western Gaul in the modern province of Poitou. They subsequently supplied mounted units to the Roman army and continued to be a significant source of cavalry for early Merovingian armies. By the sixth century their region of western Gaul had acquired a distinct identity as Thifalia.

Vidigoia was a Thervingian Gothic warrior. His name means either "the man from the forest zone" or "the forest-barker/wolf".

Balamber may have been a ruler of the Huns, mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" and tells us the story of Balamber crushing the kingdom of Ostrogoths in the 370s, somewhere between 370 and more probable 376 AD.

Herwig Wolfram is an Austrian historian. Professor emeritus at the University of Vienna, from 1983 until 2002 he was Director of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research. He is considered one of the foremost experts on the history of the Germanic tribes and his works on the Goths and the Germanic peoples are widely cited by historians across the globe.

The belagines were written laws which, according to Jordanes, were given to the Goths by Dicineus / Dekaineos, the Dacian-Getic legislator, Zalmoxian priest at the time of Burebista.

Two main outbreaks of persecution of Christians by the 4th-century Gothic authorities are recorded, in 347/8 under Aoric and between 367 and 378 under Aoric's son, the iudex (kindins) Athanaric. The persecution of Christians under Athanaric shows that Christians were still a minority among the Tervingi in the 370s, but that they had become numerous enough to be considered a threat to Gothic culture. It is remarkable that Athanaric did not persecute Christians in general, but specifically converted Goths, while Christian foreigners were left alone. Athanaric's motive was thus the protection of the Gothic nation and its gods and not the persecution of Christianity as such.

Kindins is a Gothic word that is identified by some scholars as the vernacular title for what may have been a political or judicial position among the 4th century Goths, identified in Greek and Latin sources as a "judge". Patrick J. Geary described the position as a "super-royal judge".

Ariaric also known as Ariacus was a 4th-century Thervingian Gothic pagan ruler He was succeeded by Geberic. In 328, Constantine the Great constructed a bridge across the Danube and built fortifications in the territory of Oltenia and Wallachia. This caused a migration of the Thervingi and Taifali to the west into Tisza Sarmatian controlled areas. The Sarmatians joined forces with Constantine, who appointed his son Constantine II to campaign against the Goths in late winter 332, reportedly resulting in the deaths of approximately one hundred thousand people due to the weather and lack of food. Ariaric was forced to sign a treaty or foedus with Constantine in 332. Yet some scholars dispute that this treaty was a foedus, but more like an act of submission.

Wingurich or Winguric, also known as Wingureiks, Wingourichos, also Jungeric was a Gothic reiks under the Thervingian chieftain Athanaric who played a prominent role in the Gothic persecution of Christians. Around 375 he burned Gothic Christians to death in the Crimea, who were later sanctified as martyrs by the Christian church.

Atharid was a Gothic chieftain under the Thervingian leader Athanaric. He was the son of Athanaric's sub-king Rothesteus, and played a leading role in the killing of the Christian saint Sabbas the Goth.

The Siege of Thessalonica in 254 was the successful defense of the city of Thessalonica by local Roman militia during an invasion of the Balkans by the Goths.

References

↑ Carole M. Cusack (1998). Rise of Christianity in Northern Europe, 300-1000. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-0-304-70735-5 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.
↑ Thomas S. Burns (1 February 1991). A History of the Ostro-Goths. Indiana University Press. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-0-253-20600-8 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.
↑ Patrick J. Geary (2003). The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton University Press. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-0-691-11481-1 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.
↑ Herwig Wolfram; Thomas J. Dunlap (1 March 1990). History of the Goths. University of California Press. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-0-520-06983-1 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.

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[Cusack1998-1] Carole M. Cusack (1998). Rise of Christianity in Northern Europe, 300-1000. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-0-304-70735-5 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.

[Burns1991-2] Thomas S. Burns (1 February 1991). A History of the Ostro-Goths. Indiana University Press. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-0-253-20600-8 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.

[Geary2003-3] Patrick J. Geary (2003). The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton University Press. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-0-691-11481-1 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.

[WolframDunlap1990-4] Herwig Wolfram; Thomas J. Dunlap (1 March 1990). History of the Goths. University of California Press. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-0-520-06983-1 . Retrieved 6 January 2013.