Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries.
According to a proposal made by Moritz Schönfeld in 1911, and still widely cited, the name Tervingi was probably related to the Gothic word "triu", equivalent to English "tree", and thus means "forest people".
In contrast, the name of the other Gothic people known from this period, the Greuthungi, may mean "steppe-people", with an etymology connected to a word for sand or gravel.
These words are traditionally edited by modern editors to include well-known peoples: "Peuci, Grutungi, Austrogoti, Tervingi, Visi, Gipedes, Celtae etiam et Eruli".
After mentioning Moorish peoples fighting each other, it turns to Europe where two different conflicts are described in a way which makes it unclear which conflict the Tervingi were involved in: "The Goths utterly destroy the Burgundians, and again the Alamanni wear arms for the conquered, and the Tervingi too, another group of Goths, with the help of a band of Taifali join battle with the Vandals and Gepids".
After that time, substantial numbers of valuable Roman gold medallions were distributed in Gothic territories from Netherlands to Ukraine, and have been discovered by archaeologists.
[13] In 367, the Roman Emperor Valens attacked the Thervingi north of the Danube river in retribution for their having supported the usurper Procopius, who had died in 366.
Ammianus Marcellinus says that Valens could not find anyone to fight with (nullum inveniret quem superare poterat vel terrere) and even implies that all of them fled, horror-struck, to the mountains (omnes formidine perciti... montes petivere Serrorum).
In 369, Valens finally penetrated deep into the Gothic territory, winning a series of skirmishes with Greuthungi, who are mentioned here for the first time in a classical record.
Athanaric who was, in this passage, described by Ammianus as their most powerful judge "iudicem potentissimum" (implying he was a leader of the Greuthingi) was compelled to flee, and then make a peace agreement in the middle of the Danube, promising to never set foot on Roman soil.
[15] The Thervingi remained in western Scythia (probably modern Moldavia and Wallachia)[citation needed] until 376, when one of their leaders, Fritigern, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube.
This spread fast enough that several Therving kings and their supporters persecuted the Christian Thervingi, as attested by the story of Wereka and Batwin, and many of whom fled to Moesia in the Roman Empire.
[10] On the other hand, another recent interpretation of the Notitia is that the two names, Vesi and Tervingi, are found in different places in the list, "a clear indication that we are dealing with two different army units, which must also presumably mean that they are, after all, perceived as two different peoples".
[23] Wolfram believes that the terms Thervingi and Greuthungi were older geographical identifiers used by each tribe to describe the other - exonyms for the traditional territory.
