he West, although the army also
acclaimed as emperor his four-year-old brother, Valentinian II.

*The Gothic invasion, 376 A. D.* Meanwhile Valens, who exercised the
imperial power in the East, had been involved in protracted struggles with
the Goths along the lower Danube and with the Persians, whose attempt to
convert Armenia into a Persian province constituted a threat too dangerous
to be ignored. Peace had been established with the Goths in 369, but in
376 new and unexpected developments brought them again into conflict with
the Romans.

The cause lay in the westward movement of the Huns, a nomadic race of
Mongolian origin, whose appearance in the regions to the north of the
Black Sea marks the beginning of the period of the great migrations. In
375 A. D. they overwhelmed the Greuthungi, or East Goths, and assailed the
Thervingi, or West Goths. Unable to defend themselves, the latter in 376
sought permission to settle on Roman territory to the south of the Danube.
Valens acceded to their request upon the condition of their giving up
their weapons. The reception and settlement of the Goths was entrusted to
Roman officers who neglected to enforce the surrender of their arms, while
they enriched themselves by extorting high prices from the immigrants for
the necessities of life. Thereupon, threatened by starvation, the Goths
rebelled, defeated the Romans, and began to plunder the country (377
A. D.). The news of this peril summoned Valens from the East, but Gratian
was hindered from coming to the rescue by an incursion of the Alemanni
into Gaul. However, as soon as he had defeated the invaders he hastened to
the assistance of his uncle. Without awaiting his arrival, Valens rashly
attacked the Goths at Hadrianople. His army was cut to pieces, he himself
slain, and Goths overran the whole Balkan peninsula (378 A. D.).

*Theodosius I, the Great, 378 A. D.* To meet this crisis, Gratian
appointed as Augustus, Theodosius, the son of the Theodosius who had
distinguished himself as a general under Valentinian I, but who had fallen
a victim to official intrigues at the latter's death. The new emperor
undertook with vigor the task of clearing Thrace and the adjoining
provinces of the plundering hordes of Goths. By 382 he had forced them to
sue for peace and had settled them on waste lands to the south of the
Danube. There they remained as an independent people under their native
rulers, bound, however, to supply contingents to