Christianity and the Late Roman Empire

[Alanus]

Imperial missionary activity had relatively little role in the Gothic conversions.

There may have been Christians in Dacia and Scythia, and there definitely were Christians elsewhere who were captured and enslaved by Gothic and Herulian raiders. Wulfila was the son or grandson of slaves. Within a couple generations they had been thoroughly Gothicized.".. As fas as I know, the main evidence for an imperial role is the supposed conversion on the Danube, but that's iffy, and I suspect that many including Fritigern had already converted, and there were propaganda reasons to attribute Gothic 'errors' to Valens' 'errors'.

Hello, Marja

That appears to be spot-on, and we can't get your observations from Heather & Matthews or Kulikowski. If we read "between the lines" of Socrates Scholasticus, Zosimus, and Sosiman, we almost get the picture; that is, Fritigern was already Christianized prior to the Danube crossing.

We read that Fritigern leads "Roman" troops (or cavalry) into Gothia to fight Athanaric. This would be the second Gothic persecution of Christians. At exactly the same time, Junius Soranus retrieves the Bones of the Martyrs. I wrote a novel on this subject (Forging the Blade) but dealt only with the Arian element to keep the story simple. But in actuality, I believe Fritigern and Soranus retrieved bones of both Arian and Orthodox Christians. Soranus was a Cappadocian (as was Bishop Ulfilas to the third generation), and the Church fathers sent the bones to Cappadocia. We discover that the Gothic Arian Church celebrated October 25th in "honor of Fritigern and the Martyrs." There were two persecutions, the first (by Aoric) driving Ulfilas and 6-8,000 Goths into Mosia Secunda, the second persecution beginning in 369-70... a backlash by Athanaric for the closure of all trading ports, with the exception of one, by Valens.

This info, from Scholasticus and his copyists, places Fritigern as a man of integrity... and it gives him just cause in his later actions against Lupicinus and Maximus (the same Maximus who probably killed Theodosius the Elder, then later sent to Britain for his surly behavior in Mosia). :whistle: