Information about Thervings

The Thervingi or Tervingi 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).

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.

Gothic War (367-369)

In 367, the Roman Emperor Valens attacked the Thervingi north of the Danube river. However, he was unable to hit them directly, because apparently the bulk of the Goths retreated to the Montes Serrorum (which is probably the south Carpathians). Ammianus Marcellinus says that Valens could not find anyone to fight with (nullum inveniret quem superare poterat vel terrere) and even implies that all of them fled, horror-struck, to the mountains (omnes formidine perciti... montes petivere Serrorum). In the following year, the flooding of the Danube prevented the Romans from crossing the river. In 369, Valens penetrated deep into the Gothic territory, winning a series of skirmishes with Greuthungi (and possibly Thervingi, too). A peace was concluded afterwards.^[1] Further reading for this episode: Heather, Peter, 1996, The Goths, Oxford, Clarendon Press, p. 62; Heather, Peter, 1991, Goths and Romans 332-489, Oxford, Clarendon Press, p. 86; Heather, Peter & Matthews, John, 1991, Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp. 17-26.

Gothic War (376-382)

Main article: Gothic War (376-382)

The Thervingi remained in western Scythia (probably modern Moldavia and Wallachia) 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.

Social Structure

Archaeology

Main article: Chernyakhov Culture

In time and geographical area, the Thervingi and their neighbors the Greutungi coincide with 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.^[2] Most settlements are open and unfortified; some forts are also known.

Burial Practices

Sîntana de Mureş cemeteries are better known than Sîntana de Mureş settlements.^[3]

Sîntana de Mureş 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.^[4]

Religion

Main articles: Germanic paganism, Gothic Christianity, and Germanic Christianity

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.^[5]

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. This belief was in opposition to the tenets of Catholicism, which achieved a religious monopoly in the late 4th and 5th century.

Language

Main article: Gothic language

The Gothic language is the best-attested language of the Thervingi, though some scholars have suggested that other languages were also spoken in the area.

Leaders

Pagan kings

• Athanaric (369–381)
• Rothesteus (underking)^[6]
• Winguric (underking)^[7]

Rebel leaders

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

References