On August 9, 378 CE, the Eastern Roman army, led by Emperor Valens, attacked and routed a Gothic army camped close to the town of Adrianople.

• The battle is widely regarded as the beginning of the Roman Empire's demise in the fifth century.

During the 370s CE, people were moving from Mongolia to Eastern Europe.

• The Chinese drove the Huns out of Mongolia.

• From 372 to 376, the Huns ended up driving the Goths westward, starting with the Volga and Don rivers, then from the Dnieper.

• This drove the Goths in to Danube River and the Eastern Roman Empire.

• Emperor Valens permitted the Goths to settle in the empire as long as they agreed to join the Roman army because they were fleeing the Huns and needed a place to shelter.

The Romans consented to supply the Goths.

• Greedy and dishonest Roman officials attempted to take advantage of the circumstance by either charging the Goths for supplies that should have been provided for free or by refusing to provide any at all.

• In 377, the Romans attacked the Visigoth leaders during a meeting between the Visigoth leadership and Roman authorities.

• Some of the leaders made their way away, allied themselves with the Ostrogoths, and started plundering Roman settlements in Thrace.

Roman forces eventually prevailed and surrounded the Gothic forces in July and August of 378.

• The majority of the Goths were eventually captured and taken to a bay not far from Adrianople.

• To deal with the Goths, the Eastern and Western emperors had agreed to cooperate.

• Valens and Gratian decided o attack the Goths.

• On August 9, Valens launched his attack from Adrianople against the Gothic wagon camp before his infantry had finished deploying.

• As the Roman cavalry accused the camp, the Gothic cavalry returned from their raids in the surrounding countryside and charged the Roman cavalry, routing it from the battlefield.

• The combined power of Gothic calvary and infantry then attacked and massacred the Roman infantry.

• Two-thirds of the Roman army, including the emperor, were slain by the Goths.

Theodosius I became the new emperor in 383.

• Many Goths were driven north of the Danube River by Theodosius, while others were allowed to settle in the Roman territory as Roman citizens.

• This put an end to the Goths' problems in a short time, but it also created issues for the Western Roman Empire.

• The Eastern Roman Empire regained a source of fighters for its army with the peace. Later, some of these troops will rise and rebel against Rome.

• In 401, Alaric, the Gothic leader, led a Goth-Roman army to invade Italy.

• In 402, the invasion was shifted and in 403, Alaric decided to finally stop casualties.

• The peace only persisted until 409 when Alaric invaded Italy once more.

• On August 24, 410 CE, he finally conquered and sacked Rome.