In 376 AD, an alarming number of Visigoths erupted on the Danube frontier and overflowed into the northern Roman provinces of the Balkans. The recent arrival of a new invader in Eastern Europe, originating from the steppes of Central Asia, was at the origin of this massive spontaneous migration. In fact, the Huns had invaded and destroyed the kingdom of the Ostrogoth, located in present-day Ukraine, causing hundreds of thousands of them to flee to the West. This significant demographic shift disrupted their immediate neighbours, the Visigoths, who had settled in the region of the ancient Roman province of Dacia, present-day Romania, just north of the Danube. This demographic pressure, combined with the fear of the Huns, caused this massive
