Greuthungi
The Greuthungi (also spelled Greutungi) were a Gothic people who lived on the Pontic steppe between the Dniester and Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries.
Many Greuthungi, together with some Alans and Huns, crossed the Lower Danube to join a large group of Tervingi who had entered the Roman Empire in 376.
The root greut- is probably related to the Old English greot, meaning "gravel, grit, earth", thus implying that the name refers to a geographical region where the Greuthungi lived.
[2][3] It has been argued, for example by Herwig Wolfram, who agrees with the older position of Franz Altheim that this is part of a body of evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea — both before and after Gothic settlement there.
[4] Wolfram for example notes that J. Svennung, has proposed that it may mean "rock people", and refer to a rocky homeland west of the Gauts in what is today Götaland in southern Sweden.
These words are traditionally edited by modern to include well-known peoples: "Peuci, Grutungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi, Gipedes, Celtae etiam et Eruli".
[10] The Historia Augusta text concerning the Emperor Probus (died 282), mentions the Greuthungi together with Vandals and Gepids, who were supposedly settled in Thrace, together with 100,000 Bastarnae.
[11] The first event which can confidently be ascribed to the Greuthungi was much later, in the 369 campaign against the Goths by Emperor Valens, in retribution for the support of the usurper Procopius (died 366).
Their apparent leader Athanaric who was, in this passage, described by Ammianus as their most powerful judge "iudicem potentissimum", was compelled to flee, and then make a peace agreement in the middle of the Danube, promising to never set foot on Roman soil.
In 376 a large part of the Tervingi were allowed to cross the Lower Danube entering the Roman Empire with weapons, under the command of Fritigern, who had split from Athanaric.
The displacement of the Goths into the Balkans peninsula led to the Gothic War of 376–382 during which the Greuthungi of Alatheus and Saphrax were allied with the Tervingi of Fritigern.
In 382 it is thought that there was a more lasting settlement agreement was made for the large number of Goths to settle peacefully in the Balkans, and contribute to the Roman military.
In 380, some of the Greuthungi under Alatheus and Saphrax appear to have separated from the main force of the Tervingi, invading the Diocese of Pannonia in the Northern Balkans, but were defeated by Emperor Gratian.
They are referred in a poem by Claudian which describes the Ostrogoths and Greuthungi inhabiting that land together, and fighting for the Roman military, ready to be aroused by some small offense, and return to their natural ways.
Claudian uses the term Ostrogoth once, and in other references to this same group he more often calls them Greuthungi or "Getic" (an older word, used for Goths generally in this period).
Although Jordanes' explanation of the family succession is in direct conflict with the more reliable and contemporary information of Ammianus, there has been a long tradition of scholarly attempts to reconcile the two accounts, but these have not succeeded in creating any consensus.
