language, clothing, hairstyle, behaviors, and all the other elements that go into a sense
of identity. Germanic ethnicities were often in flux as tribes came together and broke
apart (and Roman ethnic identity also changed, for example as some began to sport
Germanic clothing).
Consider the Goths. Their “ethnogenesis”—the ethnicities that came into being
and changed over time—made them not one people but many. If it is true that a
group called the “Goths” (Gutones) can be found in the first century in what is today
northwestern Poland, that does not mean that they much resembled those “Goths”
who, in the third century, organized and dominated a confederation of steppe peoples
and forest dwellers of mixed origins north of the Black Sea (today Ukraine). The
second set of Goths was a splinter of the first; by the time they got to the Black Sea,
they had joined with many other groups. In short, the Goths were multiethnic.
Taking advantage—and soon becoming a part—of the crisis of the third century,
the Black Sea Goths invaded and plundered the nearby provinces of the Roman
Empire. The Romans responded at first with annual payments to buy peace, but soon
they stopped, preferring confrontation. Around 250, Gothic and other raiders and
pirates plundered parts of the Balkans and Anatolia (today Turkey). It took many
years of bitter fighting for Roman armies, reinforced by Gothic and other
mercenaries, to stop these raids. Afterwards, once again transformed, the Goths
emerged as two different groups: eastern (later, Ostrogoths), again north of the Black
Sea, and western (later, Visigoths), in what is today Romania. By the mid-330s the
Visigoths were allies of the Empire and fighting in their armies. Some rose to the
position of army leaders. By the end of the fourth century, many Roman army units
were made up of whole tribes—Goths or Franks, for example—fighting as
“federates” for the Roman government under their own chiefs.
This was the marriage.
It fell apart, however, under the pressure of the Huns, a nomadic people from the
semi-arid, grass-covered plains (the “steppeland”) of west-central Asia. The Huns
invaded the Black Sea region in 376, attacking and destroying its settlements like
lightning and moving into Romania. The Visigoths, joined by other refugees driven
from their settlements by the Huns, petitioned Emperor Valens (r.364–378) to be
allowed into the Empire. He agreed. Barbarians had long been settled within the
borders as army recruits. But in this case the numbers were unprecedented: tens of
thousands, perhaps even up to 200,000. The Romans were overwhelmed,
unprepared, and resentful. About two centuries later the Gothic historian Jordanes
recalled a humanitarian crisis:
