THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 113
The Long Peace with the West Goths
7-14. The Long Peace with the West Goths
During this time of military activity the defences along the whole line of the Rhine were strengthened. The existing castles and watch- towers were improved and many new ones were built; indeed a vigorous development of this old and well-tried system of frontier defence is the special merit of Valentinian. Taken generally, his reign marks a revival of the strength of the Empire, inward as well as outward, and the results of his work upon the Rhine could be felt for a generation after his death. Thus his son and successor, Gratian (375-383), found for the most part his ways made plain and a more peaceful situation obtaining on his arrival in Gaul than that which had confronted his father ten years earlier.
Nevertheless he too had to draw the sword against the Alemans, who — mainly the tribe of the Lentienses — in the spring of 378 crossed the Rhine with a considerable force. A battle took place near Argentaria (Horburg near Colmar) in which the Romans gained a complete victory, destroying the greater part of the enemy. Thus, here on the Rhine frontier the year 378 brought the Romans once more a complete success — the same year which in the East witnessed the breakdown of the Roman military power and the disastrous fall of the Emperor Valens.
In contrast to the Rhine countries, the Danubian provinces had, since the death of the Emperor Probus, enjoyed comparative peace. The power of the most dangerous neighbour of the Empire, the Goths, had been crippled for a long time, as we have seen, by Claudius and Aurelian, and more especially by the dissensions and struggles between the different tribes. The East Goths in particular had, since the close of the third century, been fully occupied with their own affairs, and completely disappeared for nearly a century. In the fourth century it is always the western division, the Tervingi, of whom we hear; as is indeed natural, seeing that their conquest of Trans-Danubian Moesia under Gallienus had made them the immediate neighbours of the Empire.
No events of any great importance on the Danubian frontier are recorded down to the time of Constantine. True, all inscription of Diocletian and his colleagues of a date shortly before 301, celebrates a victory over hostile tribes on the lower Danube, which doubtless means the Goths, but these battles can hardly have been of any considerable importance. On the other hand Constantine frequently had trouble with the Goths. After some inroads in 314 the frontier defences were strengthened by the building of the fortress Tropaeum Traiani (Adamelissi). The removal of troops from the frontier during preparations of Licinius for another civil war gave the signal at the beginning of 323 for a new incursion of the Goths. Thanks to the rapid advance of Constantine — which brought him into his colleague's territory — the invaders were intercepted before they had done any great damage, and after severe losses, including the death of their leader, Rausimod, were forced back across the Danube.
After the end of the civil war Constantine strove with unwearying zeal to improve the defences of the frontier. The line was protected by castles, and although the number of the frontier troops to whom was especially assigned the duty of garrisoning them — the milites limitanei or tiparienses — was considerably reduced, there was no diminution, but, on the contrary, a distinct increase of military security, gained by the creation at the same time of a mobile field force. So strong did the Roman Empire feel itself at this period that towards the close of the reign of Constantine it even ventured to interfere in events on the further side of the Danube where the Goths and Taifali were encroaching on the Sarmatians who occupied the tract between the Theiss and the Danube. In response to an appeal of the Sarmatians for help, the Emperor's eldest son Constantine crossed the river at the head of an army and, in conjunction with the Sarmatians, thoroughly routed the Teutons (20 April 332).
Doubtless in consequence of this defeat, which clearly brought home to them the military superiority of the Empire, the warlike ardour of the Tervingi and Taifali was extinguished for a long time. Their impulse to expand, the driving force of all their undertakings, was exhausted for the present. The barbarians began to busy themselves with agriculture and cattle-raising.
As regards their relation to the Empire, former conditions were reversed. By the treaty of peace concluded after their defeat they nominally surrendered their independence and recognised the suzerainty of the Roman government, being pledged as foederati, in return for yearly subsidies (annonae foederaticae), to share in the defence of the frontier, and in case of war to serve as auxiliary troops. The peace continued for more than thirty years. From time to time there may have been slight disturbances of the peace — of this, indeed, there is inscriptional evidence from the period of the joint rule of the three sons of Constantine (337-340), but on the whole both sides strictly observed their compact.
During this long period of peace the West Goths underwent a revolution, primarily religious but one which in its consequences affected the whole mental, social, and political life of the people — the introduction of Christianity. As early as the second half of the third century Christian teaching had obtained an entrance among them through Cappadocian prisoners, taken in the sea expeditions against Asia Minor. There is no reason to doubt this fact, and it is equally certain that a century later there were among the Goths representatives of the most various schools of belief, Catholics, Arians, and (since about 350) Audians.
Accordingly, the beginnings of Christianity among the Goths of the Danube reach far back, and its diffusion among them took place under the most various and independent influences. Of a conversion of the nation there can be no question, at least as far down as the middle of the fourth century. Their conversion only begins with the appearance of Ulfila.
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