What is the migration of peoples. The Great Migration of Nations: the greatest mystery of history

Reasons for the movement is ready

The great migration of peoples, contrary to popular belief, did not begin with the invasion of the Huns, but with the movement of the Goths, who migrated from the territory of Central Sweden, which was then called "Gothia" to the Black Sea coast in the II-III century AD. In the process of migration, more and more new tribes joined them: Gepids, Borans, Taifals, Heruls, Vandals, Skirs. They left only destruction in their path, and were the first to capture and ravage Rome under the leadership of King Alaric.

The Roman-German wars for the first time cast doubt on the continued existence of the empire. Having firmly established themselves in the Middle Danube Plain, which from now on became the center of the barbarian world, they regularly set out on new military campaigns against their powerful neighbor. One of the most successful conquests was the strategically important province of Dacia, between the rivers Danube, Tisza, Prut and Carpathians, which later became one of the main springboards for German invasions of the Empire.
But what was the very reason that gave rise to this bloody migration, which lasted, de facto, half a millennium: from the 2nd to the 7th centuries AD.

In fact, among historians there is still no consensus on this matter, therefore it is customary to single out a combination of factors.

First, according to the Gothic historian Jordanes, in the second century the Goths living in Scandinavia faced the problem of overpopulation. According to legend, the Gothic king Filimer decided to move to another area with his families: “When a great many people grew up there, and only the fifth king Filimir ruled after Berig, he decided that the army was ready to move from there with their families. In search of the most convenient areas and suitable places for settlement, he came to the lands of Scythia, which in their language were called Oyum.

Obviously, overpopulation alone could not raise such a powerful horde of barbarians, consisting not only of the Goths, but of many other tribes. According to the researchers, an important role was played by the general cooling or the “climatic pessimum of the early Middle Ages”, which was gaining momentum just at that time. The temperature dropped and the climate remained excessively humid. Worse, the glaciers were getting bigger – there were fewer forests, fewer game. The people were threatened with starvation, and infant mortality increased.

Changing weather conditions are often the root cause of important historical events. And the climatic pessimum of the early Middle Ages accompanied the entire history of the great migration, reaching its peak in 535-536.

And, of course, do not forget about the human factor. On the eve of the great migration, significant changes took place in the economic life of the Germans and Slavs. As a result, the stratification of society intensified. From the middle class stood out the top, not involved in productive labor. They were a tribal elite who needed prey to maintain their status, a role that the Roman Empire was ideally suited for.

Mass ethnic movements in Europe in the 4th-7th centuries, invasions of the territory of the Roman Empire by Germanic, Slavic, Sarmatian and other tribes. Great Migration accelerated the process of disintegration and death of the Western Roman Empire, the replacement of the slave system by feudalism throughout the empire. The main reason for the great migration of peoples was the intensified process of the decomposition of the tribal system among the tribes and nationalities that lived in the North. Europe and West. Asia, accompanied by the formation of large tribal unions, the emergence of classes, the growth of squads and the power of military leaders. The need for new lands was also caused by the extensive nature of agriculture and the rapid growth of the population. Many tribes began to leave the places of their former settlements in search of more favorable areas for life. Moving from Northern Europe and Western Asia to the south and southwest, they found themselves on the borders of the Roman Empire, passing along the Rhine and Danube, and then invaded the territory of the empire and began to settle within it. In the middle of the 3rd c. The Roman Empire was a fragile military-administrative association of tribes and nationalities seeking liberation from Roman oppression. The weakening of imperial power led to the emergence of usurpers and the isolation of the department. areas. The army was no longer the backbone of imperial power. Already in the 2nd century in the army there was a process of provincialization and "barbarization". Speaking about this process, F. Engels wrote: “It became the rule to admit freedmen and slaves, natives of the provinces and, in general, people of any rank to the legions ... Thus, the Romans in the army were very soon absorbed by the flow of barbarian to semi-barbarian, Romanized and non-Romanized elements. .. "(Marx K., Engels F. Soch. Ed. 2nd. Vol. 14, p. 25). Under these conditions, the army did not represent a serious military force to fight the enemies of the Roman Empire. The consequence of the socio-economic crisis of the empire was the frequent uprisings of slaves and columns. The fight against them diverted the attention and forces of the Roman government from protecting the borders, which were increasingly attacked by "barbarian" tribes. Started back in con. 2 - early 3 in. (the movement of East Germanic tribes - Goths, Burgundians, Vandals - from the North-West of Europe towards the Black Sea). The great migration of peoples reached a special intensity by the last third of the 4th century. (actually the Great Migration of Nations). In 375 the Huns, having conquered most of the Ostrogoths and other tribes, rushed to the west. Pressed by the Huns, the Visigoths crossed the Danube and, with the permission of the Roman government, settled within the Roman province of Moesia (the territory of modern Bulgaria) with the obligation to bear the military. service and obey the local authorities. In 377, the Visigoths raised an uprising against the Romans, which was joined by local slaves, columns, and the free population. In the battle of Adrianople, 378 the rebel army defeated the imp. troops, after which the uprising engulfed a part of the Balkan Peninsula. Only in 382 imp. Theodosius I managed to suppress the uprising and conclude peace with the Visigoths. In 395 the Roman Empire was officially divided into Western and Eastern. Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Empire. In the beginning. 5th c. the Visigoths revolted again and began a campaign in Italy; in 410 they took Rome. After a series of movements, the Visigoths settled in the south. Gaul (and then in Spain), having founded in 418 the Kingdom of Toulouse - the first "barbarian" kingdom on the territory of the Western Roman Empire. K ser. 5th c. most of the Western Roman Empire was captured by various (mainly Germanic) tribes, who formed their own states on its territory. The Vandals crossed in 429 to North Africa and founded their kingdom there (439). The Allemanns crossed the Rhine and occupied Ter. modern Southwest Germany, Alsace, most of Switzerland. Burgundy ca. 457 occupied the entire Rhone basin, forming the Burgundian kingdom with its center in Lyon. Franks to con. 5th c. finally conquered Eastern Gaul. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to migrate to Britain left by the Romans. The conquest of Britain lasted over 150 years, its indigenous population (Britons) put up stubborn resistance, but in the end a significant part of it was enslaved or destroyed, and some moved to Northwestern Gaul. Unable to resist the onslaught of the "barbarian" tribes, the weakened Roman Empire lost one province after another.
The Huns, who settled in Pannonia, devastated the Balkan Peninsula, moved under the leadership of Attila to Gaul. In 451, in the battle on the Kagpalunian fields, they were defeated by the combined army of the Romans, Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians and ousted from Gaul. In 452 Attila devastated northern Italy. In 455 the Vandals (from North Africa) captured and sacked Rome. After the invasion of the Vandals, the imperial power actually passed into the hands of the leaders of the "barbarian" detachments who were in the service of the Romans. The emperors became completely dependent on the mercenary units of the "barbarians". In 476, the last Roman emperor was overthrown by the leader of the mercenary detachment, Odoacer. The Western Roman Empire finally fell.
To con. 5th - 6th centuries include the last movements of the Germanic tribes. The Ostrogoths, who moved in 488-493 from Pannonia to Italy, formed their own state here; in 568, the Lombards, along with other tribes, invaded Italy, and a Lombard state arose in Northern and Central Italy. In the 6th - 7th centuries. V. p. n. entered the final phase. At that time, large migrations of various tribes took place on the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The main role in this process was played by the early Slavic tribes. The movement of the Slavs to the Balkan Peninsula was facilitated by the uprisings of the oppressed Rome. empire of the peoples. Under Emperor Justinian, a system of fortifications was built on the Danube to protect the northern borders of Byzantium, but these measures could not stop the onslaught of the Slavs. According to the Byzantines, the Slavs were armed with spears, bows and had shields. They sought to suddenly attack their enemies - they set up ambushes in gorges and wooded places. During the siege of Byzantine cities, the Slavs used stone-throwing machines and battering rams. All Byzantine authors emphasize the high fighting qualities of the Slavic warriors. In 577 ca. 100 thousand Slavs crossed the Danube without hindrance. In the 6th - 7th centuries. the navigation of the Slavs in the southern seas was widely developed. On their odnoderevka boats, the Slavs sailed in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), the Aegean, Ionian and Inner (Mediterranean) seas, captured merchant ships and attacked the coastal cities of Byzantium. By the middle of the 7th c. The Slavs settled almost throughout the entire territory of the Balkan Peninsula, subsequently forming their own states here: Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia.
Social results of the great migration of peoples were of great historical importance. The resettlement contributed to the fall on a vast territory. Mediterranean slave system, which has become a brake on societies and development. The slave-owning mode of production was replaced by a new, more progressive one - the feudal one. The great migration of peoples, accompanied by numerous wars and uprisings, played a significant role in the development of the foundations of the military art of the newly formed "barbarian" states of Western Europe. In the bourgeois historiography, the great migration of peoples is usually regarded as purely mechanical. geographic process. movements of tribes due to overpopulation, land tightness, etc. In many works on the great migration of peoples, the role of the Germanic tribes is exaggerated and the role of the Slavs, who had a great influence on the replacement of slaveholding relations with feudal ones in the Eastern Roman Empire, is ignored.
Lit .: Udaltsova Z.V. Italy and Byzantium in the VI century. M., 1959; Korsunsky A.R. The Visigoths and the Roman Empire at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century. - “News. Moscow State University. Series 9. History, 1965, No. 3. See also lit. at Art. Rome Ancient.
G.P.Mikhailovsky

Great Migration- a unique historical phenomenon of the transitional era. This is a special period of historical development, when in a significant historical space (no longer Antiquity, but not yet the Middle Ages), limited by specific chronological frameworks (II-VII centuries) and a certain territory (Europe, Asia, Africa), the interaction of barbarism and civilization reached its greatest intensive phase. The result was the birth of a new type of civilization. Seven centuries of resettlement determined the trends in the further development of Europe, gave a powerful impetus to the birth of new peoples, new states, new languages, a new socio-psychological and spiritual atmosphere, morality and ethics.

The first millennium of European history is full of important events connected with the crisis of the Roman state and the progressive movement of the Barbaricum. A significant part of the Old World experienced the era of the Great Migration of Nations. By the beginning of the Migration, the western and southern parts of the European continent were occupied by ancient civilization that existed within the state framework of the Roman Empire. In Central and Eastern Europe, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric, Iranian, and other tribes lived in the pre-state system. On the European continent, the Great Migration was marked by the movement of the Germans. Almost simultaneously with them, numerous nomadic tribes and tribal associations poured from Asia to Europe, causing significant movements among the local peoples.

Many peoples, in search of new habitats and easy money, left their homes and "set off on those great and fabulous journeys that laid the foundation for the formation of peoples in ancient and new Europe." The Roman Empire, torn apart by internal contradictions, became the object of aspirations of the barbarian tribes. At first it was the Germans, who were replaced by the Huns, and later the Avars and Slavs. During the Great Migration of Nations, the death of ancient civilization and the fall of the Roman Empire occurred. In its western part, "barbarian kingdoms" were formed, created by the Germans. In the east, the Byzantine Empire was formed, resigned to the loss of a significant part of its territory south of the Danube, occupied by the Slavs (and partly by the Turkic-speaking Bulgarians). The Germans and Slavs during the Migration settled in a vast territory from Britain, Gaul and Spain to the Gulf of Finland, the Upper Volga and the Don. A new medieval civilization was formed. As a result of the mixing of the Latinized population of the former Roman provinces with the barbarians, the Romanesque peoples were formed. All this had a significant impact on the ethnic map of Europe: many peoples disappeared from the face of the earth. The political and ethnic map of Europe, which took shape after the Great Migration of Peoples, basically continues to exist to this day, because the history of Europe has no longer known ethno-political metamorphoses like the Great Migration of Peoples.

The Great Migration of Peoples as a temporary "gap" between Antiquity and the Middle Ages is divided into three stages. The first (II-IV centuries) - "German", covers the time from the Marcomannic wars to the battle of Adrianople. The second (IV-V centuries) - "Hunnic", between the battle of Adrianople and the battle on the Catalaunian fields. The third stage (VI-VII centuries) - "Slavic", is associated with the movement of Slavic tribes in Eastern, South-Eastern and Central Europe. The stages of the Migration differ in the nature of the ethnic composition of the Migration participants, the position of the migrating tribes, the main accents of confrontation and interaction, the direction of migrations and their results.

Among the inert participants in the Great Migration can be attributed mainly to the inhabitants of the Roman world, all the peoples that inhabited the Roman Empire and its provinces. So, the inhabitants of Italy, practically without changing their habitats, experienced the powerful pressure of the Barbaricum and withstood more than one wave of migrations. A specific feature of the ethnic space of this region was already formed on the eve of the Great Migration. It consisted in the readiness of numerous peoples inhabiting the Apennine Peninsula for military and trade contacts with the Barbaricum tribes. This should also include the increased "internal", within the boundaries of the Roman state, the mobility of the population, associated with the seizure by Rome of a vast territory from the banks of the Rhine, from the Alpine mountains to the ocean coast, including the areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The organization of these territories into Roman provinces and their gradual Romanization led to the destruction of the ethnic isolation of Gaul and Spain. Here the ethnic space was eroded by the socializing orientation of Roman civilization.

Fragments of the disappeared Celtic world as a whole turned out to be aloof from active participation in the migration processes of the Great Migration. It is known that the Celts stubbornly resisted the Romans. However, they failed to resist the Germans. After a series of military failures, having lost part of the conquered lands, the Celtic population concentrated in Central Europe from Britain to the Carpathians. It is possible that some Celtic tribes were involved in campaigns, invasions and predatory expeditions of the Barbaricum tribes, especially at the first stage of the Migration of Peoples. The long raids of the Scots on the western shores of Britain, the gradual and methodical development of most of Caledonia by them is not a typical example of the migratory activity of the Celts in the Migration era.

Part of the ethnic space of the Great Migration of Peoples was the world of the Thracian, Illyrian and Greek tribes. They can also be attributed to the block of inert participants in the resettlement. The Thracians, Illyrians and Greeks were between the Celtic world in the west, the Germanic world in the north, and the Scythian-Sarmatian world in the east. Repeatedly, the areas inhabited by these tribes before and especially during the Great Migration period were the epicenter of many migrations. The main events of the first stage of the Migration (the Marcomannic wars in the 2nd century, the Gothic invasions of the Balkans in the 3rd century, the struggle of the tribes for Dacia after 270, the Sarmatian wars of the middle of the 4th century on the Middle Danube) were accompanied by the resettlement of migrating tribes in the Illyrian and Thracian world . Through the provinces of Noricum and Pannonia inhabited by Illyrians and Celts, rapid multi-ethnic migration flows moved to Italy for four centuries.

The population of Asia Minor and the Middle East also fit into the context of the ethnic space of the Migration era. Sea raids of the Black Sea tribes shook Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, Pontus, Asia, Kios, Rhodes, Crete, and Cyprus to their foundations. The tribes of the European Barbaricum penetrate deep into Asia Minor and come into close contact (not only hostile, but also peaceful) with the other ethnic world of local tribes. There is a clear unconditional connection between the first steps in the spread of Christianity among the Germans as a result of contacts with the inhabitants of Cappadocia. The role of the Asia Minor and Middle Eastern ethnic component in the Great Migration of Peoples can be defined as passive in relation to migration processes. But these tribes, being mainly "spectators" of the Migration, nevertheless gave it an additional impetus, contributing to the spread of Christianity in the barbarian world.

The aggressive, offensive position of the Barbaricum was not shared by all the tribes inhabiting it. The world of the Baltic tribes remained inert, indifferent to migrations. At the first stage of the Migration, the calm, measured life of these tribes, their closed, unpretentious way of life, were disturbed by the movements of the Goths to the south and the migration wave of the Sarmatian tribes to the region of the Middle Danube. There were no internal incentives for resettlement among the Balts. Only the migrations of neighboring peoples pushed them to minor movements. Being inert in the confrontation "the barbarian world - Roman civilization", the Balts played a significant role in stabilizing the special life cycle of individual regions of the Barbaricum.

Like the Balts, the Finno-Ugric tribes did not show migratory activity until the 6th century. Occupying large territories from the current regions of Western Belarus to the foothills of the Urals, they were not homogeneous. Different groups of tribes of this ethnic space intersected and interacted with leaders

Great Migration of Peoples - Germans and Huns. Some tribes became part of the "state of Ermanaric", others played a significant role in the process of ethnogenesis of the Western Huns. It should be noted that at the time when the Marcomannic Wars (166-180), which marked the beginning of the first stage of the Migration, were raging in Central Europe, in the steppes of the Southern Urals in the Iranian-speaking and Finno-Ugric ethnic space, the leader of the next stage of the Migration, the Huns, had already begun to form.

During the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, various Turkic tribes were concentrated in the vast expanses of the Great Belt of the Steppes, stretching from Pannonia to Transbaikalia. They created a special ethnic space. The territories over which the control of one or another nomadic community was established and with which these nomads identified themselves, were a kind of area of nomadic tribes. Unlike other barbarian worlds, the border of this area was not the border of the Turkic ethnic space. This boundary was the circle of people that made up this nomadic community, belonging to which was determined by polished norms of kinship. The Turkic barbarian world is a scattered spatial structure. The Eurasian steppe corridor is only one of the most important intercontinental arteries, along which various Hunnic tribes migrated to Europe, and later Avars and Bulgars. In the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, there was an idea that waves of nomads hostile to Roman civilization splashed out Meotida and Tanais. Ideas about the invasion of "barbarians" from the east dominated until the Renaissance. The nomads of the Turkic ethnic space in the era of the Great Migrations mastered various means of adaptation to the settled agricultural tribal worlds encountered on their way: periodic raids, regular robberies, imposed "vassalage", tributary.

A distinctive feature of the Slavic tribal space is its relative remoteness from the Roman world. Being on the periphery of the Barbaricum, the Slavic tribes nevertheless actively joined in the migration processes. It can be assumed that the migration processes among the Slavic tribes were a kind of adaptation to the previous migrations of other tribes and their results. Approaching the borders of Roman civilization, the Slavic tribes, not at first, did not strive, however, for interaction and extended contacts with this world. The subsequent activity of the Slavs in relation to the empire was largely provoked by the empire itself, as well as the emergence of the Avar tribes. The Slavic tribes, having begun to move south and completed their settlement on the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th-7th centuries, merged with the Thracians, Illyrians and Celts. They dissolved the Turkic-speaking Bulgars in their environment, made contacts with the Epirotes, Greeks and laid the foundation for the South Slavic ethnic groups.

And, finally, what are the reasons for the phenomenon called the Great Migration of Nations? Qualitative shifts in the economic life of the Germanic and Slavic tribes on the eve of the Great Migration led to an increase in social wealth and a large number of people not engaged in productive labor. The tribal elite felt the need to accumulate wealth, the means of obtaining which became campaigns in the Empire. These campaigns prepared the ground for subsequent migrations to the lands of the Roman state. At the same time, the Roman Empire played an active role, often stimulating the barbarians to migrate. The appearance of the Huns in Central Europe dramatically accelerated migration processes. The reasons for their resettlement are somewhat different than those of settled peoples. To a greater extent, they are connected with natural factors, the influence of which on nomadic societies is stronger than on agricultural ones.

eastern slavic rus old russian

"History is a witness of the past, the light of truth, a living memory, a teacher of life, a messenger of antiquity." (Cicero)

We will be a prosperous people if we master and inherit our history.

The first stage of the Great Migration of Peoples, called the Germanic, began in the 2nd century with the resettlement of the Goths, who migrated from the territory of Central Sweden along the Vistula to the Black Sea coast.

The chronicler Jordanes, himself a Goth by origin, tells of the migration of the Goths on three ships from Scandinavia across the Baltic Sea to the region of the lower Vistula. According to legend, “Once upon a time, the Goths came out with their king named Berig. As soon as they got off the ships and set foot on the ground, they immediately gave the nickname to that place. To this day, it is called Gotiskandza [the mouth of the Vistula] ... When a great multitude of people grew up there, and only the fifth king Filimir ruled after Berig, he decreed that the army of the Ready, together with their families, would move from there. In search of the most convenient areas and suitable places for settlement, he came to the lands of Scythia, which in their language were called Oyum. At the entrance to Scythia, they encountered not the Sarmatians and not the Alans, but sleeping. As winners from here already, they move to the extreme part of Scythia, adjacent to the Pontic Sea, and reach Meotida (Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov).

The story about the resettlement is ready on three ships is symbolic. Three ships, as it were, indicate the division of the Goths into three special tribes: Gepids, Vezegoths and Ostrogoths. Moreover, the division into Otrogoths and Vezegoths occurred later, already in the Black Sea region.

F. Engels describes the picture of the Great Migration of Nations in the following words: "Entire nationalities, or at least significant parts of them, went on the road with their wives and children, with all their property. Carts covered with animal skin served them for housing and for transporting women, children and meager household utensils; they also livestock men, armed in battle order, were ready to overcome any resistance and defend themselves from attacks; a military campaign by day, at night a military camp in a fortification built from wagons. Losses in people in continuous battles, from fatigue, hunger and disease during these transitions had to be huge. It was a bet not on life, but on death. If the campaign was successful, then the surviving part of the tribe settled on the new land; in case of failure, the resettled tribe disappeared from the face of the earth. Whoever did not fall in battle died in bondage».

The great migration of peoples began in the II century. AD, as a result of a passionary push. Passionary push - a micromutation that causes the appearance of a passionary trait in a population and leads to the emergence of new ethnic systems in certain regions. These definitions belong to the greatest mind of the twentieth century, Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov. In the main scientific study of his life, the work "Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth", L. Gumilyov introduces these concepts to explain the physical, social and historical phenomenon that he discovered while studying the processes of the origin and development of ethnic groups. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the processes of the birth, development and disappearance of ethnic groups proceed in the same way for all ethnic groups of the planet Earth during the Holocene epoch. L. Gumilyov's studies have shown that the lifetime of an ethnic group is finite, and according to Gumilyov's statistical calculations, the average is about 1200-1500 years. It turned out that the ability of ethnic groups to great accomplishments and numerous historical deeds decreases over time to almost zero. This graph shows that the number of historical events in the life of an ethnos per unit of time at the initial stage grows, reaching a maximum after about 300 years from the beginning of the ethno-formation process, and then disappears within about 1000 years.

Another characteristic typical sign of the life of an ethnos is the expansion of the territory of its habitat in the initial period of ethnoformation and the loss of this territory by the end of the life of the ethnos. The dynamics of change in the area of dwelling of the ethnos correlates with the graph of the passionary tension of the ethnic system. By the end of life, the ethnos loses its territorial acquisitions.

The Great Migration of Peoples was a combination of the movement of many tribes at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century AD. The Marcomannic wars (166-180) became a peculiar prerequisite for this process. It was during this period that the Germanic tribes of the Goths, Burgundians, and Vandals moved from the North-West of Europe to the Black Sea. At the turn of the 3rd century, they moved to the Black Sea steppes and became part of a huge union of tribes, which, in addition to them, also united the Thracian and Slavic tribes.

The territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea from the end of the 2nd century AD was part of the settlement of the Gothic tribes. Not only the Goths poured into the steppes of the Black Sea region. They only led the movement of a large number of Jastorf tribes from the territory of Poland, Germany, and even Denmark. Next to the Goths were Gepids, Borans, Taifals, Heruli, Vandals, Skirs. Their appearance everywhere was accompanied by pogroms. Migration to the south went in two directions and one of them was the provinces of the Roman Empire in the Balkans. The northeastern part of this region is open towards the Black Sea steppes and practically constituted an indivisible whole with them. These territories of the Balkans could be a place of influx and accumulation of alien tribes and were a springboard for the invasion of the Empire by many peoples. The north-eastern part of the region through the Danube went to the sea coast. From here, a path opened to the Aegean and Marmara Seas, the northwestern regions of Asia Minor and the southern coast of Pontus. It was a strategically important area for an invasion of the Empire.

The Scythian War (238-271) began - the war of the Roman Empire with a coalition of barbarian tribes that raided Asia Minor, Greece, Thrace and Moesia from the regions of the Northern Black Sea and Carpathians. Roman historians called this war the Gothic, after the most powerful tribe in this barbarian coalition. Goths, Taifals, Gepids, Peucins, Borans and Heruli attacked from land and sea, appearing everywhere. Once in the Northern Black Sea region, the Goths became neighbors of the Roman Empire, weakened by the political crisis. The riches of the Empire attracted the warlike Gothic leaders and their squads. In 238 AD, the Goths, together with the Carps, attacked the Roman city of Istros south of the mouth of the Danube. Then the Greek colonies of Olbia at the mouth of the Southern Bug and Tire at the mouth of the Dniester were destroyed. Capturing cities, the Goths plundered them, and captured the inhabitants. In 248, the Danube Goths, led by King Ostrogoth, launched another invasion of the Empire, with the help of numerous Taifals, Astrings and Karps, who were hostile to the Romans. As a result, Moesia and Thrace were devastated. Goths are divided into Visigoths (Eastern Goths) and Ostrogoths (Western Goths).

At the head of this double alliance was Ostrogoth's successor, King Kniva of the western Goths. In 250, a large number of Goths crossed the Danube, the border of the Roman Empire. Crossing the ice-bound river, the Goths divided into two armies. One reached Thrace (Bulgaria) and laid siege to its governor, Titus Julius Priscus, in Philippopolis, while Kniva himself moved east to the city of Nova. Trebonian Gallus, governor of Upper and Lower Moesia (Moldavia), forced him to retreat; then Kniva turned inland and laid siege to Nikopol on the Danube, where a large number of refugees had taken refuge. In the summer of 251, on the same campaign, Kniva attacked the Roman army, led by Emperor Decius, a decisive battle took place near the city of Abritt. The splendid Roman infantry, well trained, armed with short swords more handy than long swords, faced the skin-clad Goths. The Goths stabbed the Romans with spears, preventing them from joining the battle. Kniva used the "Scythian" tactics of retreat and soon unexpectedly ambushed the emperor at Beroi. Having managed to lead the Romans into the swamp, they deprived the legions of maneuverability. The Roman army was completely defeated, and the emperor Decius died.

Initially, the barbarian invasions were directed at the Balkan possessions of the Romans, but later the Goths and their allies turned their eyes to the rich cities of the coast of the Caucasus and Asia Minor.

The most important moment in relations between the Goths and the Romans was the conquest of the Crimean peninsula by the Ostrogoths around the middle of the 3rd century. Here the Goths asserted their power at sea. Sea expeditions on the Black Sea belonged to the Borans. In 256, many small ships of the Borans, sailing from the mouth of the Don, crossed the Sea of Azov and appeared in the Kerch Strait. The Bosporan authorities hastened to conclude a friendly agreement with the Borani and supplied them with sea vessels. The following year, the Goths, in alliance with the Borani, approached Phasis by sea, where they tried to rob the temple of Artemis, but were repulsed. They turned to Pitiunt, captured the city and many ships, reinforcing their flotilla with them. Then they went to Trebizond, which they took with a surprise night attack. The city was completely sacked, and the Borans and Goths returned home on ships heavily loaded with trophies and captives.

The news of the raid on Trebizond quickly spread among the Goths, both eastern and western. Their group, which controlled the mouth of the Dniester, now decided to create their own fleet. In the winter of 257-258 ships were built for them by captives and local laborers in Tire. In the spring of 258, the Dniester flotilla went down to the Black Sea and headed along the western coast. Their army simultaneously moved forward overland until they reached the Bosphorus, where they were ferried to Asia Minor by local fishermen. Having passed Thomas and Anchial, the Gothic flotilla reached the Greek Thessalonica and, having laid siege to them, the Goths left with rich booty. Upon learning of the approach of the barbarians, the imperial troops fled. The Goths plundered Chalcedon, after which they burned the rich Nicomedia, abandoned by the inhabitants. Nicaea, Kiy, Apameya and Prusa were also captured. The barbarians headed along the Asian coast of the Sea of Marmara to Cyzik, but were stopped by the flood of the Rindak River. Having loaded wagons and ships with booty, the Goths returned home.
Naval raids of the Goths and Borani during the Scythian war. Battle of Abrita in 251.

At the same time, the pirate raids of the Franks and Saxons on the coast of Gaul and Britain intensified. The tribal union of the Franks was formed north of the Main from the tribes of the Ampsivarians, Bructers, Hamavs, Hattuaries, Usipets, Tencters, Tubants. The troops of the Franks and Allemans began to constantly raid not only the border provinces (Upper and Lower Germany), but also deep into Gaul, reaching the Pyrenees and Northern Spain. In 259-260 Frankish attacks fell on the areas between the Rhine and Lahn. However, the main area of the breakthrough was the southern regions of the Dekumat fields, bordering Rezia.

Tribal alliances of Alemanni and Vandals captured the decumate fields (the most fertile lands between the Rhine, Danube and Neckar). Together with them, another enemy of Rome appears here - the Frisians, whose original habitat was the province of Friesland. In the I-II centuries. the friezes occupied considerable spaces from the delta of the Rhine to the river. Ems next door to hawks. In the III century, continuing to move east, the Frisians partially assimilated the Hawks. The counter wave of Franks, Angles and Saxons advancing from the east led to a partial displacement of the Frisian tribes. From the beginning of the 290s, the construction of a new defensive line began, and this was regarded as the final refusal to fight for the return of the Decumate fields and the consolidation of the Empire on the newly formed borders.

By the middle of the third century, the Goths controlled the entire northern coast of the Black Sea. The next invasion, also crowned with success, was made by the Goths in 262 and 264, crossing the Black Sea and penetrating into the interior provinces of Asia Minor. A major sea campaign is ready took place in 267. The Goths on 500 ships reached Byzantium (the future Constantinople). The ships were small vessels with a capacity of 50-60 people. A battle took place in the Bosporus, in which the Romans managed to push them out. After the battle, the Goths withdrew a little back to the exit from the Bosporus to the sea, and then, with a fair wind, went further to the Sea of Marmara and sailed on ships to the Aegean Sea. There they attacked the islands of Lemnos and Skyros, and then dispersed throughout Greece. They took Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Argos. During campaigns in Asia Minor, the Goths returned with a huge number of captives, for whom they later demanded a ransom. Among the latter there were many Christians. Together with them, Christianity spread among the Goths. But Arianism won a temporary victory over Orthodoxy.

Arianism- a trend in Christianity of the 4th-6th centuries, which was preached by the Alexandrian priest Arius (hence the German Aryanism). Denying the official teaching of the church about the unity of the essence of the Trinity, Arius argued that Jesus Christ is not equal to the Creator, was created by the will of the Father, is not eternal and is only an intermediary between God and people. The Arians converted the Germanic tribes of the Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, and Lombards to Christianity. Only a few decades later, the imperial power of Byzantium went over to the side of Western Christianity, banning Arianism in 381 at the II Ecumenical Council. Elements of Arianism entered some medieval and modern heresies (eg Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses).

The second wave of invasions of Rome began in 268, when a large naval armada of Goths and Heruli under supported by ground forces, she launched a military campaign against Byzantium, crossed the Dardanelles and made a devastating invasion of the Peloponnese. In addition to the Goths, a part of the Heruli, who came with the Goths to Meotida, played a role. The routes of movement of the Heruli (as well as other Germanic tribes), as well as the choice of allies by them, were not always determined only by predatory goals. Already from the middle of the III century. in the historical fate of the Heruli, a standard situation is seen when one tribe found itself in the sphere of influence of another, stronger one - in this case, the Goths. But the passionarity of the Heruli was so high that they did not lose themselves in the complex vicissitudes of their wanderings and after long journeys returned to their homeland again. In 269, a coalition of tribes consisting of Peucines, Greutungi, Austrogoths, Tervingi, Visi, Gepids, Heruli and some Celts, seized by a thirst for booty, invaded the Roman land and caused great devastation there. Perhaps some of these tribes wanted to settle within the Empire, for along with the warriors, their families also marched on the campaign. The campaign began from the mouth of the Dniester. The barbarians moved by land and by sea. The ground troops proceeded through Moesia. They failed to take Thomas and Markianopol by storm. At the same time, the fleet sailed to the Thracian Bosporus. An attempt to capture Byzantium was unsuccessful, but Cyzicus was taken by storm. Then the fleet entered the Aegean Sea and reached Athos. After resting on Athos, the siege of Thessalonica and Cassandria began. An attack was made on the coastal regions of Greece and Thessaly.

For several decades, the lands along the lower Danube, as well as the entire Balkan Peninsula, remained the scene of fierce struggle. The position of the empire improved only after the emperor Claudius II in 269 in the battle of city of Naisse (present-day Serbia) inflicted a heavy defeat on the main army of the Goths, and then defeated their fleet as well. Claudius managed to stop this large-scale German invasion and was the first of the Roman emperors to take the honorary title of Goth. At the cost of an extraordinary strain of forces, using military tricks, the Romans, after a stubborn battle, lured the enemy into an ambush with a feigned retreat. The survivors retreated towards Macedonia. The Roman cavalry continued their pursuit, driving the barbarians into the Gema mountains, where many of them starved to death. Another part of the barbarians managed to escape on ships. They continued their campaign, skirting the coast of Thessaly and Greece, reached the islands of Rhodes and Crete, but were unable to capture booty there. They decided to return home through Macedonia and Thrace, where they were caught by an epidemic of the plague. All the survivors were either enrolled in the Roman legions, or endowed with land and became peasants. After the battle of Naissus, the surviving Goths and their allied barbarians still disturbed eastern Thrace, attacking Nicopolis and Anchialus. The last centers of resistance were suppressed by the head of the entire Roman cavalry, Aurelian. The Romans are still victorious, but in general they cannot stop the advancement of the "savage people".

Imperial victories over barbarians in 269–270 were so significant that the year 270 entered the history of the Roman state as a time of triumph over the barbarians. Many prisoners were settled in Thrace, Moesia and Pannonia, where they carried out military service on the borders of the Empire. The flow of Sarmatian tribes rushed to the Middle Danube. Despite his successes, in order to stabilize the situation on the Danube front, the emperor surrendered in 270 the province of Dacia located north of the river (the territory between the Danube, Tisza, Prut and Carpathian rivers), in fact, ceded it to the Goths for settlement. Most likely, Aurelian did not consider the steps taken to be final, and the Roman army was about to return to their old places. This assumption is confirmed by the fortifications of the territories north of the Danube during the Tetrarchy, Constantine the Great or Justinian. Rome needed these territories both economically and strategically, but the realities of the 3rd century. were different. The fall of Dacia was a significant victory for all the barbarians, including the Germans. With the capture of Dacia, the Roman strongholds moved away from the vital areas inhabited by the bulk of the barbarian tribal world. Since that time, Dacia has become one of the strategically important springboards for German invasions of the Empire. In addition, Dacian resources were placed at the disposal of these tribes.

The departure of the Romans from Dacia opened up significant territories for the movements of the Germans. So, the Roman part of Moldova and Muntenia became the object of the expansion of the carp, and the Danube Goths also settled here. Free Dacians - Western Transylvania. The western part of the Banat turned out to be included in the zone of the possessions of the Sarmatian tribes on the Tisza. Taifals were located on the territory of Dacia in Oltenia, as well as in the upper reaches of the Seret. The Victuals established themselves in the Banat. The tribes settled in Dacia waged wars among themselves for dominance in the barbarian tribal world, for possession of the best lands. In 275, the tribes that lived on the shores of Meotida (the ancient name of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov) again opposed Rome. Their flotilla crossed the Meotida, entered Pontus through the Cimmerian Bosporus. The barbarians moved along the familiar path along the eastern coast of Pontus. Having reached Phasis, they fell upon the eastern and central regions of Asia Minor. The Roman fleet pursued and attacked the Goths. Around 269, the Goths were divided into the Ostrogoths, who occupied vast areas in the Northern Black Sea region, and the Visigoths, most of whom moved to the Balkans

. Throughout the 3rd century in the barbarian world, the process of regrouping forces was very active. Among the Germanic tribes, the process of uniting the tribes into large unions is taking place. These were organizations created exclusively for the war. Invasions into the Empire were carried out not for the purpose of mass resettlement of tribes, but for the purpose of capturing booty. The Alemanni from the upper reaches of the Rhine moved to the territory between the Rhine and the Danube and began to carry out frequent attacks on Gaul. In 261, they captured the Roman province of Rezia, invaded Italy and reached Mediolanum. The Alemanni managed to inflict a heavy defeat on the Romans near Placentia. Thereafter they threatened Central Italy and Rome itself. At the cost of incredible efforts, Emperor Aurelian managed to push the Alemanni over the Alps. The fight against these Germanic tribes was very tense. Some of the tribes - Vandals, Burgundians, Goths - in a fairly short time came close to the borders of the Empire. For predatory invasions, they often used not only separate mobile detachments of the squad, but united in coalitions of tribes. Burgundians and Vandals appear on the Upper Danube. The Vandals were a northeastern group of Germans, which included the Varins, Burgundians, Gutons and Carins, Silings, Asdings and Lakrings. In 276, the troops proclaimed emperor one of the closest associates of Aurelian, the Illyrian Probus (276-282). The new emperor managed to successfully repel the invasion of the Germanic tribes, Franks and Alemanni into Gaul. After that, he crossed with the troops across the Rhine and restored Roman dominance in the field of the Decumates.

During the III-IV centuries. among the Germanic tribes, a process of unification of tribes into large unions takes place. 1) An association of Anglo-Saxon tribes formed on the Lower Rhine and the Jutland Peninsula; 2) on the Middle Rhine - the Frankish alliance; 3) on the Upper Rhine - the Allemenian union, which included the Quads, Marcomanni, Sueves; 4) on the Elbe and beyond the Elbe - an alliance of the Lombards, Vandals, Burgundians. Alliances also arise to attack one tribe against another. At the end of the III century. fierce wars broke out among the Germanic tribes located beyond the Danube and the Rhine, which caused them great damage. “The Goths with difficulty expelled the Burgundians, on the other hand, the defeated Alamanni and at the same time the Tervingi arm themselves, the other part of the Goths, having joined the detachment of the Taifals, rushes against the Vandals and Gepids.” This stingy picture Jordan added the following stroke: the king of the Gepids "ravages the Burgundzons almost to the point of complete extermination." The Vandal tribe was the main rival of the Goths in the capture of convenient Dacian lands. Apparently, the Gepids also experienced a lack of land, and this aroused military activity in them, because in the zone of dense settlement it was impossible to obtain land in any other way. Some tribes that have been at the forefront of migrations for a long time either completely leave the historical scene (for example, the Bastarns) or begin to gradually fade into the background (Marcomanni, Quadi). There was a strengthening of the Sarmatian tribes on the Middle Danube. It is possible that the tension in the barbarian world was created by the Empire. She increasingly resorted to the tactics of neutralizing one tribe by another.

Already at the end of the first stage of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Middle Danube Plain became the center of the barbarian world, "the middle of the barbarian land." From here there were constant migration impulses. From the end of the 3rd century, the Goths gradually emerge as leaders of the tribal world. The Gothic tribes tried to extend their influence to the regions of Illyricum and pressed the Sarmatians. Constantine created a system of earthworks in the area between the Danube and the Tisza to keep the Goths from conflicts with the Sarmatians and from their invasions of Pannonia and Moesia. A rampart was built on the left bank of the Danube, crossing Banat, Oltenia and Muntenia. A bridge was built on the Danube connecting Esk with Sucidava, as well as camps and fortifications. Near Tutrakan, the Romans built a crossing, and on the left bank, which was called the “Gothic coast”, they built the fortress of Constantian Daphne. The protection of this section of the limes, as the most strategically important, Konstantin entrusted to his nephew Dalmatia.

In the IV century. The "Gothic question" was central to the Empire. It manifested itself especially clearly after the settlement of the Goths in Dacia. In 322, a treaty was concluded between Constantine the Great and the Visigoths granting the tribe the status of federates (allies) - this was the usual Roman policy of settling the federates as independent tribes while maintaining their social structure on Roman territory. According to a long Roman tradition, with the legions, detachments of allies acted as auxiliary units, that is, those who did not have Roman citizenship, but were obliged, on the basis of an agreement, to allocate soldiers to strengthen the Roman army. This manifested the weakness of the empire and disastrous for it. Indeed, the federates, for the most part, lived outside the borders of the Roman state and returned there after the termination of a particular military conflict or the completion of the task assigned to them by the Roman command. But the migration of federates to the territory of various provinces also took place throughout the entire IV century. This is the movement of the Sarmatians in the Danube region by Emperor Constantine, and Valens is ready, long before the Battle of Adrianople. Despite the fact that the Danubian Goths were federates, Constantine nevertheless took the most energetic measures to strengthen the limes. Surely there was no complete trust in the Goths.

In the 4th century, a huge Gothic kingdom was formed, created by King Germanarich (265 - 375). This power was one of the largest and most powerful states of that era. Territory

The huge Gothic state of Germanarich stretched from the south from the Black Sea coast to the Baltic coast in the north, and from the Urals and the Volga region from the east to the Elbe in the west. But this information about the size of Ermanaric's empire cannot be confirmed archaeologically. The northern border of the Chernyakhov culture at that time did not reach either the Baltic Sea or the Urals. Just as "Gothic" distinguishes between Ermanaric's "own peoples" of the Ostrogoths, and the peoples of Scythia and Germany conquered by him, there is also a difference between the area of \u200b\u200bsettlement of the Ostrogoths in the proper sense of the word, that is, the cultures of the Chernyakhov circle, and the sphere of influence of Ermanaric's power. Some researchers believe that these lands are similar to the territory of historical Russia.

The extent to which the state that existed on this territory was developed can be judged by the monumental Serpentine (Trayanov) ramparts. The total length of defensive ramparts, located from the Vistula to the Don, south of Kyiv in the forest-steppe, is about 2 thousand kilometers. .

The construction time of the Serpentine Ramparts is 2-6 centuries AD. period of existence of the Gothic state. The Serpent and Troyan ramparts were built by the Goths to protect against the nomadic Huns. During the Great Patriotic War, Nazi Germany used this theory to justify territorial claims to Ukraine and Crimea. For political reasons, after the war, the existence of a Gothic state in the Northern Black Sea region was denied by official Soviet history, only the fact of the migration of Gothic tribes through these territories was recognized.

During the reign of Germanaric, from the family of Amal, the Goths reached such power that they contested hegemony in Europe from Rome itself. The Ostrogoths stood at the head of the state, which included the Grevtungs, Visigoths (Visigoths), Vandals, Yazigs, Chuds, Mordvins and many other tribes. Carps, taifals also obeyed Germanaric, the “Rosomones” - “people grew up” were finally conquered, which is also confirmed by the “Book of Veles”: “And Ruskolan was defeated by Germanaric Goths.” The Azov Heruli resisted for a long time. Only after their duke was killed did the rest recognize Germanaric's authority. In 362, Germanaric strengthened his power in the southeast in the Kerch Strait and the Bosporan kingdom. The Bosporus, becoming an ally and vassal of Germanaric, bought up and resold the Gothic and Alanian captives. In order to penetrate into the land of the Wends - into the region of the upper Vistula - the Ostrogoths had to cross the lands of the Sclavens and Antes. Both the Sclaves and the Antes recognized the authority of Germanaric. The Wends were conquered without much difficulty, after which the Aesti (Balts) also recognized Germanarich as their overlord. (SUZEREN - a state in relation to which another state is in vassal dependence). Tribes recognizing the suzerainty of the Ostrogothic king: the Goltescythians, Tiudas, Inaunks, Vasinabronki, Mereno, Mordens, Imniskars, Rogs, Tadzans, Atouls, Navegos, Bubegens and Koldas, defeated and taxed, were part of the state.

In southeastern Europe in the early 370s, there were two major tribal unions - the Ostrogothic and the Sarmatian-Alanian. The Iranian-speaking Alans, the former Massagets, in the era of the Great Migration were the only non-German people who occupied part of Central Asia, the steppes between the Volga and the Don and the North Caucasus, they were a vast association of late Sarmatian tribes (Roxolans, Yazygs, Aorses, Siraks and others).

When the tribes of the Huns broke into the Northern Black Sea region from the east, the Alans were the first to take the blow, then the Ostrogoths of Ermanaric entered into a collision with a previously unknown formidable enemy. The Alans were a strong opponent, they had powerful fortresses, magnificent armored cavalry. The Huns had only light cavalry, but they brought with them from distant Mongolia an invention unprecedented in Europe, a huge compound bow. Arrows shot from such a bow pierced any armor at a distance of up to 700 steps. The Alans were unable to resist, they simply did not have time to attack the Huns, who shot them and their horses at a great distance. They surrendered and many became part of a large army, most of the Alans were destroyed, some retreated to the Caucasus, some crossed the Don and found shelter with the Goths.

The Goths gathered all their forces on the Don. However, their opponent made a deep detour. The legend says that the Huns, hunting for Taman, wounded a deer. And he, following the shallow water and swimming across the deep places, managed to get away from them in the Crimea, showing the way. The army of the Huns easily crossed the strait, and through the Crimea and Perekop broke into the rear of the Goths, crushing and destroying them. The Goths were completely defeated. Part of the Goths submitted to the Huns, part hid in the Crimea. The latter became subjects of Byzantium and lived in the Crimea until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Many retreated to the Roman Empire and ended up in Spain. The current Spanish nobility for the most part has Visigothic roots.

The Visigoths and Gepids retreated to the west, to their possessions. The Ostrogoths went north - to the Donets and the Desna, into the possession of the Rus. And the Heruli went over to the side of the Huns. (The old coat of arms of the Don Cossacks depicted a deer wounded by an arrow - perhaps the deer that brought the Huns to the Black Sea region and brought deliverance from the Goths).

The mighty state of the Goths perished because of the betrayal of its subjects and the cruelty of the ruler. One of the leaders of the Rosomon tribe, subject to the Goths, left Germanarich. The old king, who did not tolerate treason, was terrible in his rage, ordered that the leader's wife be torn apart by wild horses. The brothers of the deceased, Sar and Amii, avenged their sister. At the royal reception, they approached Germanaric and, drawing swords from under their clothes, pierced him. But they didn’t kill them: the guards managed to stab them before. However, Germanarich did not recover from his wounds.

In 375, disagreements arose among the Danubian Goths on a question that ultimately determined their historical fate. With the advent of the Huns, the Goths had to decide: to look for a place for resettlement within the barbarian world or to finally move to the Empire. Some saw the way of salvation in alliance with the Empire. A similar position was taken by the supporters of one of the leaders of the Goths - Fritigern. Others, led by Atanarih, in an independent fight against the Huns.

Part of the Gothic tribes accumulated north of the lower Danube. The lack of supplies in those places and the constant threat of Hun raids forced them to seek refuge in Roman territory south of the Danube, in eastern Thrace. The Goths sent an embassy to the emperor Valens with a request for a settlement on the lands of the empire. The emperor allowed the barbarians to cross the Danube with the intention of using their manpower to strengthen his army. The Roman commanders were supposed to ensure the disarmament of the Goths, but failed to fulfill the emperor's instructions.

In 376, the Goths, under the command of Fritigern and Alaviv, crossed the Danube and settled in Thrace, were baptized according to the Arian confession, since Valens was an Arian.

The Goths were supposed to be given land for cultivation and provisions for the first time, but due to the abuses of the Roman governor in Thrace, Lupicin's committee, the Goths experienced great hardships and, not receiving enough food, were forced to exchange their children for him. Even the children of the elders were taken into slavery, to which their parents agreed in order to save them from starvation. Many Visigoths, "tormented by hunger, sold themselves for a sip of bad wine or for a miserable piece of bread."

Hungry winter and harassment of Roman officials prompted the Goths to revolt, Riots break out in the camp of the federates - these people are used to solving everything by the power of the sword. The Visigoths began to ravage and plunder the Roman territories. In their murders, they did not make out either gender or age, they betrayed everything on their way to terrible fires, tearing babies from their mothers' breasts and killing them. Mothers were taken prisoner, widows were taken away, their husbands were slaughtered in front of them, adolescents and young men were dragged over the corpses of their fathers, and many old people were taken away, shouting that they had lived quite a long time in the world.

Under the walls of Marcianopolis, the embittered Goths killed a small Roman detachment of soldiers. The forces subordinate to Lupicin were defeated in the very first battle near Markianople.

The Goths were pushed back from Thrace to the lower Danube by the fresh forces of the Romans, where they defeated the Romans near Salicium. From there, the Goths again advanced into the center of plain Thrace, where they dispersed to plunder.

Emperor Valens spoke out against the rebels, and on August 10, 378, in the battle of Adrianople, the Romans suffered one of the worst defeats in their history. Emperor Valens and his commanders were killed, the remnants of the defeated army fled ...

The victory of the Visigoths was a key moment in the history of the fall of the Roman Empire, whose northern borders were now open. The Adrianople disaster was a turning point in the history of relations between the empire and the advancing barbarians. In a series of military clashes and treaties, entire Roman provinces in the Balkans and the Danube region actually came under the sole control of the Goths.

Having defeated the Romans near Adrianople, the Goths then, after an unsuccessful siege of Constantinople, scattered in detachments across Thrace and Moesia.

They were pushed back from Constantinople by an army under the command of the new emperor Theodosius. Given the difficult military and political situation of the empire, Theodosius made an agreement with the Goths, providing them with Illyria for settlement. Theodosius learned the military lesson of Adrianople.

The ensuing conclusion of the treaty of 382 and its consequences revealed to the Goths the simple truth that obtaining permission from the emperor to settle in the Empire does not at all mean obtaining land here. But at the same time, in order to have real power and weight under the emperor, this land is not at all obligatory to own. The paradoxical position of the empire was that, while holding back the onslaught of the barbarian tribes, it was forced to seek support in the barbarians themselves, which made its existence especially hopeless. The federate allies understood that the Romans were running out of power, and from allies they became clear enemies of the Roman Empire. In order to somehow keep them as allies, Rome was forced to constantly make new concessions.

Under Emperor Theodosius, the final migration of the bulk of the Goths to various provinces of the Roman Empire was completed. The first stage of the Great Migration of Nations has ended.

At the first stage of the Great Migration, mainly small and not very strong tribes (for example, Gepids, Bastarns) or parts of large tribes (for example, Greytungi) were accepted into the Empire. For the Empire, accepting entire tribes was far from safe. At first, the Empire managed to incorporate small doses of settlers. (INCORPORATE - combine, merge into one, contain, include, grow together; inclusion, communion, merging into one composition). They became the main force of the Roman army, its main and not very reliable support. But as the resettlement becomes a mass phenomenon, it loses control over this process.

However, at this time, most of the Germanic tribes could occupy Roman territory for a long time only in the status of federates. In essence, the Germanic settlers, calling themselves allies of Rome, created semi-independent formations on its territory. Already from the end of the 4th century, in an effort to settle in the Empire, they demanded not only land for settlement, but also the right to preserve their own internal organization and management after resettlement.

During the first stage of the Migration, not only the foreign policy and military "portrait" of the Germanic tribes changed. Events III-IV centuries. demonstrate changes in their economic and social life. Trade and military contacts with the Empire contributed to the development of the tribes, the progress of their handicraft and agricultural production, and the improvement of military affairs. As a result of the raids, the Germanic tribes significantly enriched their technical and technological knowledge by capturing Roman tools and using the experience of captive artisans. Crafts related to the provision of squads developed.

The degree of nobility was still determined primarily by origin, and not by merit. However, the property status of a person is becoming increasingly important. The material well-being of the nobility was created in two ways: through the exploitation of the labor of dependent persons and through military booty. The latter, in the conditions of predatory raids on the Empire and its neighbors, provided the greatest opportunities for strengthening the power positions of the nobility, especially the leaders of the tribes and the service strata associated with them.

THE GREAT MIGRATION OF PEOPLES- the movement of a number of tribes in Europe in the 4th-7th centuries, caused by the invasion of the Huns from the east in the middle of the 4th century AD.

One of the main factors was the climate change factor, which became the catalyst for many migrations. The Great Migration of Peoples is considered as one of the components of global migration processes. A characteristic feature of the resettlement was the fact that the core of the Western Roman Empire (including primarily Italy, Gaul, Spain and partly Dacia), where the mass of German settlers eventually went, by the beginning of the 5th century AD was already quite densely populated by the Germans themselves. Romans and Romanized Celtic peoples. Therefore, the great migration of peoples was accompanied by cultural, linguistic, and later religious conflicts between the Germanic tribes and the Romanized settled population. The great migrations laid the foundation for the formation and development of new states on the European continent during the Middle Ages.

And so the main reason for the migration of peoples was the cooling of the climate, in connection with which the population of territories with a continental climate rushed to areas with a milder climate. The peak of the resettlement fell on the period of a sharp cooling in 535-536. Crop failures were frequent, morbidity, child and senile mortality increased. Storms and floods led to the loss of part of the land on the coast of the North Sea and in southern England. In Italy in the VI century AD. there are frequent floods.

Bishop Gregory of Tours reports that in the 580s in France there were frequent heavy rains, bad weather, floods, mass famine, crop failure, late frosts, the victims of which were birds. In Norway in the VI century AD. 40% of farms were abandoned.

The French historian Pierre Richet points out that in the period 793 to 880, 13 years were associated with famine and floods, and 9 years with extremely cold winters and epidemics. At this time, leprosy is spreading in Central Europe.

During the pessimum, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the demographic decline occurred. The population of Southern Europe has decreased from 37 to 10 million people. In the VI century. AD the population of areas that previously belonged to the Western Roman Empire was greatly reduced. Along with wars, crop failures and epidemics were the reasons for the population decline. Many villages, mostly north of the Alps, were abandoned and overgrown with forest. Pollen analysis indicates a general decline in agriculture.

The new settlements founded in the 7th century AD are characterized by a new settlement structure and indicate a cultural break with the old tradition.

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Chronology of the great migration of peoples:

354 year. Bulgars are mentioned in the sources for the first time. Invasion of Europe from the east by the Huns - "the people of horsemen". Beginning of the Great Migration of Nations. Later, "the Huns tired the Alans with frequent skirmishes", subdued them.
375 year. The Huns destroyed the state of Germanarich's Ostrogoths between the Baltic and Black Seas. 400 year. The beginning of the settlement of the territory of modern Netherlands by the Lower Franks (it was inhabited by the Batavians and Frisians), which then still belonged to Rome.
402 year. The advance detachments of the Visigoth king Alaric, who invaded Italy, were defeated by the Roman army.
406 year. The displacement of the Franks from the Rhine by the Vandals, Alemanni and Alans. The Franks occupy the north of the left bank of the Rhine, the Alemanni occupy the south.
409 year. Penetration of the Vandals with the Alans and Suebi into Spain.
410 year. The capture and sack of Rome by the Visigoths under the command of King Alaric.
415 year. The displacement of the Alans, Vandals and Suebi from Spain by the Visigoths, who penetrated there in 409.
434 year. Attila becomes the sole ruler (king) of the Huns.
449 year. The capture of Britain by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians.
450 year. The movement of peoples through Dacia (the territory of modern Romania): Huns and Gepids (450), Avars (455), Slavs and Bulgars (680), Hungarians (830), Pechenegs (900), Cumans (1050).
451 years. Catalaunian battle between the Huns on the one hand and the alliance of the Franks, the Goths and the Romans on the other. The Huns were led by Attila, the Romans by Flavius Aetius.
452 year. Huns devastate northern Italy.
453 year. The Ostrogoths settle in Pannonia (modern Hungary).
454 year. The capture of Malta by the Vandals (from 494 the island was ruled by the Ostrogoths).
458 year. Vandal capture of Sardinia (until 533).
476 year. The overthrow of the last Western Roman emperor, the infant Romulus Augustulus, by the German commander Odoacer. Odoacer sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople. The traditional date for the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
486 year. King Clovis I of the Franks defeats the last Roman ruler in Gaul, Siagrius. Foundation of the Frankish state (in 508 Clovis makes Paris his capital).
500 year. Bavarians (bayuvars, marcomanni) penetrate from the territory of modern Czech Republic to the territory of modern Bavaria. Czechs occupy the territory of modern Czech Republic. Slavic tribes penetrate the Danubian provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). Having occupied the lower reaches of the Danube (about 490), the Lombards captured the plain between the Tisza and the Danube and destroyed the powerful state of the East German tribe of the Heruls existing there (505). The Bretons, expelled from England by the Anglo-Saxons, move to Brittany. Scots penetrate into Scotland from Northern Ireland (in 844 they create their own kingdom there).
VI century. Slavic tribes populate Mecklenburg.
541 years. Totila, who became the king of the Ostrogoths, wages war with the Byzantines until 550, during which he captures almost all of Italy.
570 year. The Asian nomadic tribes of the Avars create a state on the territory of modern Hungary and Lower Austria.
585 year. The Visigoths subjugate all of Spain.
600 year. Czechs and Slovaks, who are dependent on the Avars, inhabit the territory of modern Bohemia and Moravia.
VII century. The Slavs occupy the lands east of the Elbe with the partial assimilation of the German population. Serbs and Croats penetrate the territory of modern Bosnia and Dalmatia. Mastering significant regions of Byzantium.

After the Great Migration of Peoples, the Western Roman Empire fell and "barbarian kingdoms" were formed - the barbarians "cultivated", some of them became the forerunners of modern European states.

During the great migration of peoples, on the one hand, during the wars, many nationalities and tribes were destroyed - for example, the history of the Huns was interrupted. But on the other hand, thanks to the great migration of peoples, new cultures were formed - having mixed up, the tribes borrowed a lot of knowledge and skills from each other. However, this resettlement caused significant damage to the emerging culture of the northern tribes and nomadic peoples. So, many tribes of the indigenous peoples of Northern Europe were mercilessly destroyed, the ancient monuments of these peoples - obelisks, burial mounds, etc. were plundered.