tribal confederation · Poland, Lithuania and Russia

Greuthungi

290 CE – 376 CE (approx.)

The eastern Goths of the Ukrainian steppe, whose realm under Ermanaric was shattered by the Huns and set off the great migrations.

Origins

Goths moving south-east from the Vistula reached the lands north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century, the land Jordanes called Oium. By the late 3rd century the Greuthungi, the 'steppe people', had emerged east of the Dniester, separate from the Tervingi to their west, and are linked to the Chernyakhov culture.

Rule and society

Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Greuthungi as ruled by kings, and their king Ermanaric was remembered as a mighty warrior whose dominion took in many peoples. Their society combined farming villages with a warrior aristocracy that raided and traded with the Roman world. Most remained pagan, though Gothic Christianity was spreading.

Decline and legacy

When the Huns attacked around 375, Ermanaric took his own life and his successor Vithimiris fell in battle. Many Greuthungi submitted to the Huns, while others under Alatheus and Saphrax crossed the Danube in 376 and helped crush the Romans at Adrianople in 378. Their descendants formed part of the later Ostrogoths.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Greuthungi. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/greuthungi
MLA
“Greuthungi.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/greuthungi. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Greuthungi.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/greuthungi.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Greuthungi’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/greuthungi (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻