Fritigern

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Fritigern

Fritigern, or Fritigernus (died ca. 380), was a Gothic

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
war-leader whose military victories in the Gothic War (376-382) extracted favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian

Gratian

Flavius Gratianus , known usually by the anglicised name Gratian, was a Western Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.He favoured the Christian religion against Roman polytheism, refusing the traditional polytheistic attributes of the emperors and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate....
in 382.

Fritigern against Athanaric?
Socrates Scholasticus

Socrates Scholasticus

Socrates of Constantinople was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c....
, Sozomen

Sozomen

Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christianity church....
, and Zosimus

Zosimus

Zosimus was a Byzantine Empire historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photios I of Constantinople, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury....
refer to conflicts between Fritigern and Athanaric

Athanaric

Athanaricus was king of several branches of the Thervings for at least two decades in the fourth century. His Gothic name, Athanareiks, means "king and athans "edel" s....
. Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Ancient Rome historian. His is the last major historical account of the late Roman empire which survives today....
and Philostorgius

Philostorgius

Philostorgius was a so-called Anomoeanism Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Very little information about his life is available; he was born in Borissus, Cappadocia to Eulampia and Carterius, and later lived in Constantinople....
do not record such conflicts.

According to Socrates, Fritigern and Athanaric were rival leaders of the (Therving) Goths.

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Fritigern, or Fritigernus (died ca. 380), was a Gothic

Goths

Gratian

Fritigern against Athanaric?

Socrates Scholasticus

Socrates of Constantinople was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c....
, Sozomen

Sozomen

Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christianity church....
, and Zosimus

Zosimus

Athanaric

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Ancient Rome historian. His is the last major historical account of the late Roman empire which survives today....
and Philostorgius

Philostorgius

Valens

Flamin Julius Valens was Roman Emperor , after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I. Valens, sometimes known as the Last of the Romans, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Adrianople, which marked the beginning of the fall of the Western Roman Empire....
and the Thracian field army intervened, Valens and Fritigern defeated Athanaric, and Fritigern converted to Christianity, following the same teachings as Valens followed. Sozomen follows Socrates' account.

According to Zosimus, Athanaric (Athomaricus) was the king of the Goths (Scythians). Sometime after their victory at Adrianople, and after the accession of Theodosius, Fritigern, Alatheus, and Saphrax moved north of the Danube and defeated Athanaric, before returning south of the Danube.

The earliest sources that mention Fritigern originate from the period in which Valens

Valens

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, attacked the Thervingi (367-369) and from the period in which the Huns

Huns

The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian Eurasian nomads or semi-nomads, who had established an empire in Eurasia. The Huns may have stimulated the Migration Period, a contributing factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire....
raided the Thervingi (ca. 376). In this period a civil war may have broken out between Fritigern and Athanaric

Athanaric

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heresy at the First Council of Nicea, later exonerated and then pronounced a heretic again after his death....
") Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
. Nevertheless, Athanaric seems to have won this war. This is deduced by historians from the fact that Athanaric would later lead the Thervingi in battle against the Huns in 376.

The Danube Crossing

The Thervingi however were not able to keep the Huns at bay, and were under increasing pressure from the Huns

Huns

The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian Eurasian nomads or semi-nomads, who had established an empire in Eurasia. The Huns may have stimulated the Migration Period, a contributing factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire....
who had already conquered their kinsmen, the Greuthungi. While Fritigern asked Valens to allow the Thervingi to cross the northern Roman border and settle in Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
or Thracia, with the Danube River and Roman frontier forts protecting them from the Huns, (thus this was a form of asylum

Right of asylum

Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecution for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereignty, a foreign country, or Christian Church sanctuary ....
), Athanaric and many of his followers retreated to Caucaland (probably Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountains, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crisana, Maramures, and Banat....
). Valens agreed to permit Fritigern's followers to enter the empire. In return, they would be subject to military service

Military service

Military service in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other military organization, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft ....
, but would be treated the same as other Roman subjects. As it turned out, neither happened.

During the fall of 376, the Romans helped Alavivus and Fritigern's people cross the Danube and settle in the province of Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
. However, many followers of Athanaric also slipped across the river, which increased Fritigern's problems in governing his people. In 377, a famine hit the areas settled by the Thervingi, and their appeals for help went unanswered. In fact, the Roman governors of the area, Lupicinus

Lupicinus

Lupicinus was a Roman Empire lieutenant of Valens in Thrace in the late fourth century AD. His reputed poor treatment of the Thervingi Goths under Fritigern lead to the Gothic Wars, and the Battle of Adrianople....
and Maximus

Maximus

Maximus is a name formed from the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest." It is therefore also a common noun, and may refer to any of the following:...
, treated them badly. They sold them food only at extremely high prices, which forced many Goths to sell their children as slaves. Also they invited several Therving leaders to a feast, in which they killed and took some Therving leaders hostage. Alavivus most likely remained a hostage, but Fritigern was able to escape and he became leader of the Thervingi. Soon he declared war on the Roman Empire.

Fritigern Against Valens

Fritigern led his people into battle (the Gothic War (376-382)). After a battle in 376 Lupicinus' troops were completely defeated, which meant that the total Roman territorial defense in the region vanished. As a consequence the Thervingi soon held sway over much of the neighboring, richer province of Thracia. The crisis continued into 378, and on August 9 of that year, Fritigern avenged his kinsmen's defeat of 109 years before at the Battle of Naissus

Battle of Naissus

The Battle of Naissus was the defeat of a Goths coalition by the Roman Empire under Emperor Gallienus near Naissus . The events around the invasion and the battle are an important part of the history of the Crisis of the Third Century....
by handing Rome its worst military defeat in centuries, at the Battle of Adrianople (378). Fritigern's victory soon led to the Thervings gaining control of much of the entire Balkan peninsula. Although his army lacked the siege instruments needed to take the Roman capital of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, they did raid Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, leaving only small areas of the country unravaged, including the city of Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
.

Fritigern continued to battle the Romans with mixed success for two years after his great victory.