Athan'aric

Athan'aric, a prince of the Western Goths, whose settlements lay on the north bank of the Lower Danube, in the 4th century. He fought three successive campaigns with the Emperor Valens, but was finally defeated in 369. When the Huns advanced towards Europe, Athanaric attempted to secure the eastern borders of his kingdom; but the Huns defeated the Goths, and advanced in great force into the plains of Dacia. When, in 376, the Western Goths had settlements granted them by the Romans on the south of the Danube, Athanaric, with a part of his people, refused to accompany them, and removed to the west. In 380, however, he was obliged to retire, when he accepted the hospitality of the empire at the hands of Theodosius. At this time died Fritigern, king of the Goths, who had settled on the south of the Danube; and Athanaric, being made king of the whole Western Gothic nation, concluded a treaty incorporating that people with the other subjects of the empire. He died at Constantinople in 381.