Athanaric
Encyclopedia
Athanaric was king of several branches of the Thervingian
Goths
for at least two decades in the fourth century. His name, Athanareiks, means "Year King" or "King for the Year" comes from the Gothic
word Athni meaning "year" and the Gothic Reiks meaning "king."
A probable rival of Fritigern
, another Therving war chief, Athanaric made his first appearance in recorded history in 369, when he engaged in battle with the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens
and ultimately negotiated a favorable peace for his people.
During his reign, the Thervings were divided by religious issues. Many of them had converted to Arian
Christianity
during the third and fourth centuries, but Athanaric continued to follow the old Germanic
pagan
religion. Fritigern, his rival, was an Arian and had the favor of Valens, who shared his religious beliefs.
, Sozomen
, and Zosimus
refer to conflicts between Fritigern and Athanaric. Ammianus Marcellinus
and Philostorgius
do not record such conflicts.
According to Socrates, Fritigern and Athanaric were rival leaders of the (Therving) Goths. As this rivalry grew into warfare, Athanaric gained the advantage, and Fritigern asked for Roman aid. The Emperor Valens
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.
, who had recently conquered the Greuthungs and were now pressing the Thervings then living in Dacia
. Athanaric's people were left to their fate, but many of them found their own way across the river, as well.
. According to Jordanes
, he negotiated a peace with the new emperor, Theodosius I
, that made some Thervings foederati
, or official allies of Rome allowed to settle on Roman soil as a state within a state.
Orosius
(Historiae adversum paganos 7, 34) and Zosimus
(New History 4, 34, 3-5) affirm this, but a more reliable source, Ammianus Marcellinus
(Res gestae 27, 5, 10) tells us an entirely different story. According to him, Athanaric was banished by his fellow tribesmen and forced to seek asylum on the Roman territory. Cf. Themistius
(oratio 15, 190-1), who likewise describes Athanaric as a supplicant and a refugee. Clearly, Athanaric was by then no authority to negotiate with; he was welcomed by Theodosius in Constantinople only because the Emperor wished to make a lasting impression on the Tervingi, who were still fighting the Romans.
A few weeks later, Athanaric died. A peace and a treaty with those Tervingi (or Visigoths), who still fought the Romans in Thrace
, was concluded in 382
and it lasted until Theodosius' death in 395.
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi 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...
Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
for at least two decades in the fourth century. His name, Athanareiks, means "Year King" or "King for the Year" comes from the Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
word Athni meaning "year" and the Gothic Reiks meaning "king."
A probable rival of Fritigern
Fritigern
Fritigern or Fritigernus was a Tervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrinaople the Gothic War extracted favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian in 382.-War against Athanaric:...
, another Therving war chief, Athanaric made his first appearance in recorded history in 369, when he engaged in battle with the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
and ultimately negotiated a favorable peace for his people.
During his reign, the Thervings were divided by religious issues. Many of them had converted to Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
during the third and fourth centuries, but Athanaric continued to follow the old Germanic
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology is a comprehensive term for myths associated with historical Germanic paganism, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, and other versions of the mythologies of the Germanic peoples...
pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
religion. Fritigern, his rival, was an Arian and had the favor of Valens, who shared his religious beliefs.
Athanaric against Fritigern?
Socrates ScholasticusSocrates Scholasticus
Socrates of Constantinople, also known as Socrates Scholasticus, not to be confused with the Greek philosopher Socrates, was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c. 380: the date of his death is unknown...
, Sozomen
Sozomen
Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christian church.-Family and Home:He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine....
, and Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
refer to conflicts between Fritigern and Athanaric. Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
and Philostorgius
Philostorgius
Philostorgius was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Anomoeanism questioned the Trinitarian account of the relationship between God the Father and Christ and was considered a heresy by the Orthodox Church, which adopted the term "homoousia" in the Nicene Creed. Very little...
do not record such conflicts.
According to Socrates, Fritigern and Athanaric were rival leaders of the (Therving) Goths. As this rivalry grew into warfare, Athanaric gained the advantage, and Fritigern asked for Roman aid. The Emperor Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
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.
Athanaric in Caucaland
In 376, Valens permitted Fritigern's people to cross the Danube River and settle on Roman soil to avoid the HunsHuns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, who had recently conquered the Greuthungs and were now pressing the Thervings then living in Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
. Athanaric's people were left to their fate, but many of them found their own way across the river, as well.
Athanaric in the Roman Empire
In 381, Athanaric unexpectedly came to the East Roman capital of ConstantinopleConstantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. According to Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
, he negotiated a peace with the new emperor, Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
, that made some Thervings foederati
Foederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
, or official allies of Rome allowed to settle on Roman soil as a state within a state.
Orosius
Orosius
Paulus Orosius , less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Christian historian, theologian and student of Augustine of Hippo from Gallaecia...
(Historiae adversum paganos 7, 34) and Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
(New History 4, 34, 3-5) affirm this, but a more reliable source, Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
(Res gestae 27, 5, 10) tells us an entirely different story. According to him, Athanaric was banished by his fellow tribesmen and forced to seek asylum on the Roman territory. Cf. Themistius
Themistius
Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a...
(oratio 15, 190-1), who likewise describes Athanaric as a supplicant and a refugee. Clearly, Athanaric was by then no authority to negotiate with; he was welcomed by Theodosius in Constantinople only because the Emperor wished to make a lasting impression on the Tervingi, who were still fighting the Romans.
A few weeks later, Athanaric died. A peace and a treaty with those Tervingi (or Visigoths), who still fought the Romans in Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, was concluded in 382
382
Year 382 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antonius and Syagrius...
and it lasted until Theodosius' death in 395.