18.3 Europe: a.d. 301 to 400

Europe

Back to Europe: A.D. 201 to 300

Southern europe

Eastern mediterranean islands

At the end of the century Crete and most of the Cyclades passed from Roman to Byzantine control. (Ref. 38 )

Greece

Greece remained an integral part of the Byzantine Empire and in this period was intimately connected with the activities of the upper Balkans. After the Visigoths were victorious at Adrianople in 378 they subsequently tried to settle in Greece (396-399) but after the Athenians paid them a large ransom, they wandered back north and west toward Italy.

Upper balkans (please also see russia and asia minor, this chapter)

There was much migratory activity and inter-tribe fighting in the Balkan area. The Ostrogoths had suffered a military defeat on the Dniepner by the Huns and as they retreated westward they in turn pushed the Visigoths ahead of them. One group of the latter, under Athanaric, went on into Pannonia (Hungary) while a second group under Fritigens appeared on the lower Danube and asked Emperor Valen's permission to enter Dacia. The request was granted but famine in 377 resulted in the Goths raiding south.

Joined by some Ostrogoths, some federati

At the end of the century there were three powerful groups prowling through the Balkans. We have mentioned in an earlier paragraph that as the dead Theodocius' troops returned from Italy they raided through this area up to the walls of Constantinople. The Visigoths, after raiding Greece went to Epirus on the Adriatic and renewed an alliance with the eastern Roman government, and as just noted above, the Huns were foraging into the area from the east. (Ref. 229 , 127 )

Although a proto-Germanic tongue was probably spoken simultaneously with Sanskrit, early Greek and other early languages, the Gothic translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas in this century is the earliest satisfactory record of a Germanic language. Having been taken to Constantinople in his younger years as a hostage, he mastered Latin and Greek, invented a special alphabet on the Greek pattern and returned to his Visigothic people on the lower Danube preaching the Arian creed which then spread throughout the Germanic tribes. His Bible is virtually the only source of knowledge of the original Gothic language which sired all the Germanic tongues, including Runic. (Ref. 168 )