For half a century, from c. 320 to c. 370, Germanic Gothic tribes were the dominant foreign power north of the Roman empire's lower Danube frontier. Relations between the two were often strained, if always close. Between c. 370 and 425, however, the non-Germanic and originally nomadic Huns pushed a series of Gothic (and other) groups across the Roman frontier, and at the same time began to consolidate their own power north of the Danube. By the end of this period, the Roman state had thus had to accommodate itself to two separate if linked developments: the existence of large bodies of autonomous Goths within its own borders, and the rise of the Hunnic empire in central Europe.

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The physical culture of the Gothic world before the arrival of the Huns has been illuminated by numerous excavations in the Ukraine, Moldavia and Romania, which have identified the period of Gothic domination of these lands with the so-called Sîntana de Mureş-Černjachov culture (henceforth Černjachov culture). The documentary evidence for the Goths before c. 370, while limited in absolute terms, is also richer than that available for any of the Roman empire's other European neighbours. Historical narratives are provided by the Anonymus Valesianus, Eunapius of Sardis and, above all, Ammianus Marcellinus. A further dimension is added to these narratives by a series of speeches made before the emperor Valens and the senate of Constantinople by the orator Themistius. In addition, Ulfilas created a Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible in the middle of the fourth century.