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.[1] 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.
The root greut- is probably related to the Old Englishgreot, meaning "gravel, grit, earth", thus implying that the name refers to a geographical region where the Greuthungi lived.[2][3]
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.[4]
More specifically, Wolfram argues that the name Greuthungi may indicate that they lived on gritty steppes or "pebbly coasts", and should be seen as contrasting with the Tervingi Goths, whose name may be related to the English word "tree" and indicate a forest origin.[5]
Another proposal is that the name of the Greuthungi goes back to a time when Goths apparently lived near the Vistula, and that the name is connected to the Polish place-name on that river, Grudziądz.[6][7]
It has also been proposed that the name Greuthungi has pre-Pontic Scandinavian origins, earlier than the Vistula settlement.[4] Wolfram for example notes that J. Svennung, has proposed that it may mean "rock people", and refer to a rocky homeland west of the Gauts in what is today Götaland in southern Sweden.[4]
It has also been noted by some scholars, starting with Karl Müllenhoff in the 19th century, that in a list of peoples living on the island of Scandza, Jordanes listed "Mixi, Evagre, and Otingis" among those who "live like wild animals in rocks hewn out like castles".[8] Müllenhoff proposed that the last part referred to the Greutungi, but no consensus has arisen to explain all the names of peoples in this list.[9]
The Historia Augusta text concerning the Emperor Probus (died 282), mentions the Greuthungi together with Vandals and Gepids, who were supposedly settled in Thrace, together with 100,000 Bastarnae. While the Bastarnae remained faithful, the other three peoples broke faith and were crushed by Probus, according to this account.[10] In the Historia Augusta article for Emperor Claudius Gothicus (reigned 268-270), the following list of "Scythian" peoples is given who had been conquered by that emperor when he earned his title "Gothicus": "peuci trutungi austorgoti uirtingi sigy pedes celtae etiam eruli". These words are traditionally edited by modern to include well-known peoples: "Peuci, Grutungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi, Gipedes, Celtae etiam et Eruli".[11]
The first event which can confidently be ascribed to the Greuthungi was much later, in the 369 campaign against the Goths by Emperor Valens, in retribution for the support of the usurper Procopius (died 366). This was described by Ammianus Marcellinus writing in the 390s, decades later.[12] Valens crossed the Lower Danube at Novidunum and went deep into Gothic territory where he came across the warlike people called the Greuthungi. Their apparent leader Athanaric who was, in this passage, described by Ammianus as their most powerful judge "iudicem potentissimum", was compelled to flee, and then make a peace agreement in the middle of the Danube, promising to never set foot on Roman soil. This same Athanaric is later described by Ammianus as a judge of the Tervingi, raising questions about the nature of the distinction between the Tervingi and Greuthungi. Ammianus specifically describes the Greuthungi as Goths.[13]
The Greuthungi were next mentioned by Ammianus as defeated by the invading Huns in the early 370s.[14] The Huns first plundered and recruited the Alans of the Don river (the classical Tanais) and then attacked the domain of the warlike monarch King Ermenric, who was apparently king of the Greuthungi, who eventually committed suicide.
Jordanes in his history of the Goths, the Getica, written about 551, does not mention the Greuthungi, but instead writes as if the Ostrogoths and Visigoths of the 5th and 6th centuries already existed in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Jordanes does on the other hand describe a single large Gothic empire until the late 4th-century, ruled by Ermanaric. In contrast, Ammianus Marcellinus, himself writing in the late 4th-century, mentions Ermanaric as the Greuthungi leader, implying that his kingdom was not as large as that described by Jordanes.[15][16]
According to Ammianus, the defense against the Huns and Alans continued under a new king Vithimer, who also had Hunnic allies on his side. After he died, the defense was led by two generals Alatheus and Saphrax, while Videricus, Vithimer's son, was a boy. In the meantime, Athanaric, now described by Ammianus as leader of the Tervingi, first moved to the Greuthungi position at the Dniester to block the westward movement of the Huns but was defeated, and then moved his people into a more defensible position further west near the Carpathians.
In 376 a large part of the Tervingi were allowed to cross the Lower Danube entering the Roman Empire with weapons, under the command of Fritigern, who had split from Athanaric. As tensions rose, Alatheus and Saphrax also crossed with Greuthingi and their king Videricus, despite their requests for permission having been rejected. Athanaric, who was apparently with them before they crossed, moved instead to a mountainous and forested region called Caucalanda, forcing Sarmatians out of the area. Alans and Huns also crossed in 377. The displacement of the Goths into the Balkans peninsula led to the Gothic War of 376–382 during which the Greuthungi of Alatheus and Saphrax were allied with the Tervingi of Fritigern. Greuthungi cavalry contributed to the decisive Gothic victory at the Battle of Adrianople of 9 August 378. In 382 there a more lasting settlement agreement was made for the large number of Goths to settle peacefully in the Balkans, and contribute to the Roman military. Unfortunately, the details of this agreement are now unclear.
In 380, some of the Greuthungi under Alatheus and Saphrax appear to have separated from the main force of the Tervingi, invading the Diocese of Pannonia in the Northern Balkans, but were defeated by Emperor Gratian. The outcome of this invasion is unclear, it is possible that they were defeated and dispersed by Gratian, or that they reached a separate peace agreement and settled in Pannonia.[17]
Several sources report more Greuthungi who were still outside of the empire in 386, under a leader from outside the Empire named Odotheus. He gathered large forces north of the Lower Danube, including peoples from far away. He attempted to cross the river, but was massacred by a Roman general named Promotus.[18]
It appears to be these Greuthungi were then settled in Phrygia and rebelled in 399-400. They are referred in a poem by Claudian which describes the Ostrogoths and Greuthungi inhabiting that land together, and fighting for the Roman military, ready to be aroused by some small offense, and return to their natural ways.[19] The poem associates this rebellious squadron (alae) in Phrygia with the Roman general of Gothic background, Tribigild. Claudian uses the term Ostrogoth once, and in other references to this same group he more often calls them Greuthungi or "Getic" (an older word, used for Goths generally in this period). Zosimus also mentioned Tribigild and the barbarian forces based in Phrygia, and their rebellion against the eunuch Eutropius the consul (died 399). Gainas, the aggrieved Gothic general sent to fight him, joined forces with him after the death of Eutropius. Zosimus believed that was conspiracy between the two Goths from the beginning.[20]
In contrast, the Amal dynasty, around whom the later and better-known Othogothic kingdom formed, were in neither of these groups who entered the Roman Empire in the 4th century, because into the 5th century they were apparently Gothic leaders within Attila's Hunnic Empire.
Archaeology
In time and geographical area, the Greutungi and their neighbours, the Thervingi, correspond to parts of the archaeological Chernyakhov culture.
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.[21]
Burial practices
Chernyakhov cemeteries include both cremation and inhumation burials in which 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.[22]
Relationship with Ostrogoths
The Tervingi were first attested by 291, indicating that different Gothic peoples already had distinct identities and names by that time.[23] The Greuthungi are first named by Ammianus Marcellinus, writing no earlier than 392 and perhaps later than 395.[23] The earliest events where he describes the Grethungi were in the 360s.[13] The Ostrogoths, are also first mentioned in a poem by Claudian which describes the Ostrogoths and Greutungi inhabiting the land of Phrygia.[24][25]
Despite such records which seem to show the Ostrogoths and Greutungi as distinct, according to Herwig Wolfram, the primary sources either use the terminology of Tervingi/Greutungi or Vesi/Ostrogothi and never mix the pairs.[23] When the names were used together, Wolfram argues that it is significant that the pairing was always preserved, as in Gruthungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi.[5]
The nomenclature of Greuthungi and Tervingi fell out of use shortly after 400.[23] In general, the terminology of a divided Gothic people disappeared gradually after it entered the Roman Empire.[5] Wolfram believes that because the term Greuthungi was a geographical identifier the terminology dropped out of use after the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions.[5][26] In support of this, Wolfram cites Zosimus as referring to the group of "Scythians" north of the Danube who were called "Greuthungi" by the barbarians north of the Ister in 386.[27] Wolfram concludes that these were in fact the Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest.[27] according to this understanding, the Greuthungi and Ostrogothi were more or less the same people.[26]
That the Greuthungi were the Ostrogothi is an idea derived from the medieval writer Jordanes.[28] He identified the Ostrogothic kings from Theodoric the Great to Theodahad as the heirs of the Greuthungian king Ermanaric. Although Jordanes' explanation of the family succession is in direct conflict with the more reliable and contemporary information of Ammianus, there has been a long tradition of scholarly attempts to reconcile the two accounts, but these have not succeeded in creating any consensus.[29]Peter Heather for example has written that the "Ostrogoths in the sense of the group led by Theoderic to Italy stand at the end of complex processes of fragmentation and unification involving a variety of groups - mostly but not solely Gothic it seems - and the better, more contemporary, evidence argues against the implication derived from Jordanes that Ostrogoths are Greuthungi by another name".[30]
The Goths were Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe.
The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under Theodoric the Great.
The Visigoths were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the command of Alaric I. Their exact origins are believed to have been diverse but they probably included many descendants of the Thervingi who had moved into the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had played a major role in defeating the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and Alaric's Visigoths varied, with the two groups making treaties when convenient, and warring with one another when not. Under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy and sacked Rome in August 410.
Fritigern 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.
The Gepids were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion and language of the Goths and Vandals.
Ermanaric was a Greuthungian Gothic king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia inhabited by the Goths at the time. He is mentioned in two Roman sources: the contemporary writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, and in Getica by the sixth-century historian Jordanes. He also appears in a fictionalized form in later Germanic heroic legends.
Alatheus and Saphrax were Greuthungi chieftains who served as co-regents for Vithericus, son and heir of the Gothic king Vithimiris.
The Amali – also called Amals, Amalings or Amalungs – were a leading dynasty of the Goths, a Germanic people who confronted the Roman Empire during the decline of the Western Roman Empire. They eventually became the royal house of the Ostrogoths and founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom.
Farnobius was a Gothic chief who was killed in a battle with the Roman army of Frigeridus while trying to cross the mountains from Thrace into Illyricum.
Between 376 and 382 the Goths fought against the Eastern Roman Empire, one of several Gothic Wars in Roman history. This conflict included a catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, and is commonly seen as a part— albeit a part of disputed significance— of the century of events leading to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi 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.
The Goths, Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians were East Germanic groups who appear in Roman records in late antiquity. At times these groups warred against or allied with the Roman Empire, the Huns, and various Germanic tribes.
Odotheus was a Greuthungi king who in 386 led an incursion into the Roman Empire. He was defeated and killed by the Roman general Promotus. His surviving people settled in Phrygia.
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.
Balamber was ostensibly a chieftain of the Huns, mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" and writes the story of Balamber crushing the tribes of the Ostrogoths in the 370s; somewhere between 370 and more probably 376 AD.
Boz was the king of the Antes, an early Slavic people that lived in parts of present-day Ukraine. His story is mentioned by Jordanes in the Getica (550–551); in the preceding years, the Ostrogoths under Ermanaric had conquered a large number of tribes in Central Europe, including the Antes. Some years after the Ostrogothic defeat by the invading Huns, a king named Vinitharius, Ermanaric's great-nephew, marched against the Antes of Boz and defeated them. Vinitharius condemned Boz, his sons, and seventy of his nobles, to crucifixion, in order to terrorize the Antes. These conflicts constitute the only pre-6th century contacts between Germanics and Slavs documented in written sources.
Vithimiris was a king of the Greuthungi, ruling for some unspecified time in the area of present-day southern Ukraine. He succeeded to Ermanaric, meaning that he probably reigned in 376. Ammianus Marcellinus, the only known source on him, states that after Ermanaric's death he tried to resist the Alani, who were allied with the Huns, with the help of other Huns hired as mercenaries. He did so "for some time", but eventually, "after many defeats", he died in battle. It is then assumed that he most probably ruled in 376, possibly also in 375.
Athanaric or Atanaric was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths 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.
The history of the Huns spans the time from before their first secure recorded appearance in Europe around 370 AD to after the disintegration of their empire around 469. The Huns likely entered Western Asia shortly before 370, from Central Asia: they first conquered the Goths and the Alans, pushing a number of tribes to seek refuge within the Roman Empire. In the following years, the Huns conquered most of the Germanic and Scythian tribes outside of the borders of the Roman Empire. They also launched invasions of both the Asian provinces of Rome and the Sasanian Empire in 375. Under Uldin, the first Hunnic ruler named in contemporary sources, the Huns launched a first unsuccessful large-scale raid into the Eastern Roman Empire in Europe in 408. From the 420s, the Huns were led by the brothers Octar and Ruga, who both cooperated with and threatened the Romans. Upon Ruga's death in 435, his nephews Bleda and Attila became the new rulers of the Huns, and launched a successful raid into the Eastern Roman Empire before making peace and securing an annual tribute and trading raids under the Treaty of Margus. Attila appears to have killed his brother, and became sole ruler of the Huns in 445. He would go on to rule for the next eight years, launching a devastating raid on the Eastern Roman Empire in 447, followed by an invasion of Gaul in 451. Attila is traditionally held to have been defeated in Gaul at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, however some scholars hold the battle to have been a draw or Hunnic victory. The following year, the Huns invaded Italy and encountered no serious resistance before turning back.
The Gothic War took place between the years 248 and 249, as well as in the year 253. Within this war, a series of battles occurred and plundering was carried out by the Goths and their allies in the eastern territory of the Roman Empire, specifically in the Balkans. With the cessation of the payment of tribute previously made by the Roman emperor Philip the Arab to the tribes beyond the Danube, the Goths and their allies, led by King Ostrogotha and his subcommanders Argedo and Gundericus, moved towards the Roman border and began a series of attacks, including against the fortified city of Marcianopolis in Thracia. After these actions, the Goths withdrew with their spoils of war.
On the connection to the 386 Greuthungi see Heather, Peter (1988). "The Anti-Scythian Tirade of Synesius' "De Regno"". Phoenix. 42 (2): 156. doi:10.2307/1088231. JSTOR1088231.
↑ Heather, Peter (2007), Barnish; Marazzi (eds.), Linguistic and Literary Traces of the Ostrogoths, The Ostrogoths from the Migration Period to the Sixth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology, vol.7, p.404, ISBN9781843830740
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