Gothic War ( 376 – 382 ) The Gothic War is the name given to a Gothic uprising in the eastern Roman Empire in the Balkans between about 376 / 7 and 382 . The war , and in particular the Battle of Adrianople , was a major turning point in the history of the Roman Empire , the first barbarian invasion in a series of events over the next century that would see the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . Background . In the summer and fall of 376 , tens of thousands of displaced Goths and other tribes arrived on the Danube River , on the border of the Roman Empire , requesting asylum from the Huns . Fritigern , a leader of the Thervingi , appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube , where they hoped to find refuge from the Huns , who lacked the ability to cross the wide river in force . Valens permitted this , and even helped the Goths cross the river , probably at the fortress of Durostorum ( modern Silistra ) , Bulgaria . Valens promised the Goths farming land , grain rations , and protection under the Roman armies as foederati . His major reasons for quickly accepting the Goths into Roman territory were to increase the size of his army , and to gain a new tax base to increase his treasury . The selection of Goths that were allowed to cross the Danube was unforgiving : the weak , old , and sickly were left on the far bank to fend for themselves against the Huns . The ones that crossed were supposed to have their weapons confiscated ; however , the Romans in charge accepted bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons . Outbreak . With so many people in such a small area , famine struck the Goths , and Rome was unable to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land ; they herded the Goths into a temporary holding area surrounded by an armed Roman garrison . There was only enough grain left for the Roman garrison , and so they simply let the Goths starve . The Romans provided a grim alternative : the trade of slaves ( often children and young women ) for dog meat . When Fritigern appealed to Valens for help , he was told that his people would find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople . Having no alternative , some of the Goths trekked south in a death march , losing the sickly and old along the path . When they finally reached Marcianople ' s gates , they were barred by the city ' s military garrison and denied entry ; to add insult to injury , the Romans unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the Goth leaders during a banquet . Open revolt began . The main body of Goths spent the rest of 376 and early 377 near the Danube plundering food from the immediate region . Roman garrisons were able to defend isolated forts but most of the country was vulnerable to Gothic plunder . The War . In late winter 377 war began in earnest and would last for six years before peace would be restored in 382 . The remaining Goths moved south from the Danube to Marcianople , and next appeared near Adrianople . The Roman response was to send a force under Valens to meet and defeat the Goths . In 378 Valens moved north from Constantinople and was defeated ( and himself killed ) at the Battle of Adrianople ( 378 ) ( modern Edirne ) . The victory gave the Goths freedom to roam at will , plundering throughout Thrace for the rest of 378 . In 379 the Goths met only light Roman resistance and advanced north - west into Dacia , plundering that region . In 380 the Goths divided into Terving and Greuthung armies , in part because of the difficulty of keeping such a large number supplied . The Greuthungi moved north into Pannonia where they were defeated by western emperor Gratian . The Tervingi under Fritigern moved south and east to Macedonia , where they took " protection money " from towns and cities rather than sacking them outright . In 381 , forces of the western Empire drove the Goths back to Thrace , where finally in 382 , peace was made on October 3 . Consequences . By the end of the war , the Goths had killed a Roman emperor , destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans , much of which never recovered . The Roman Empire had for the first time negotiated a peace settlement with an autonomous barbarian tribe inside the borders of the Empire , a situation that a generation before would have been unthinkable . The lesson was not lost on other tribes , as well as the Goths themselves , who would not remain peaceful for long . Within a hundred years the Western Empire would collapse under the pressure of continued invasions as the Empire was carved up into barbarian kingdoms .