Gothic and Vandal warfare

The Goths, Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians were East Germanic groups who appear in Roman records in Late Antiquity. At times these groups warred against or allied with the Roman Empire, the Huns, and various Germanic tribes.

The size and social composition of their armies remains controversial.

In the 3rd Century, some Germanic people of the Baltic Sea (associated with the Wielbark culture) followed the Vistula, Bug, and Dnestr rivers and settled among the Dacians, Sarmatians, Bastarnae, and other peoples of the Black Sea steppes. These Germanic people brought their name and language to the Gothic people who emerged in the 3rd century (associated with the Chernyakhov Culture).

At the same time, other Germanic people of the Baltic Sea (associated with the Przeworsk culture) followed other trade routes to the middle-Danubian plains (Vandals) or the Main river (Burgundians).

Horse nomads with bow-armed cavalry armies, including the Sarmatians (or Iazyges, Roxolanni, Taifali, and Alans) had long ruled the plains north of the Danube and the steppes north of the Black Sea (since about 1200 BC). (The Goths and Vandals were mainly farmers with infantry armies). In some areas, the Sarmatians, Taifali, and Alans preserved their dominance until the Huns arrived.

The Gothic people had divided into two or more groups by the end of the 3rd Century. These groups lasted from the late 3rd Century to the late 4th Century. The Thervingi lived between the Danube and the Carpathians west of the Dnestr river; the Greuthungi, and possibly other groups, lived east of the Dnestr river.

Jordanes, a mid 6th Century historian describes a large Greuthung kingdom in the late 4th century, but Ammianus Marcellinus, a late 4th Century historian, does not record this. Many modern historians, including Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, doubt that it was ever particularly extensive (and suggest one or more smaller kingdoms).

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