At the Battle of Cold River, after Theodosius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, encountered an ambush by the Western Roman Empire, he first sent the Goths forward to face the wooden walls the Western Roman Empire had long prepared.
It was an extremely poor strategy, so much so that it seemed Theodosius I was deliberately wearing down the Goths' strength.
In 375, the Huns launched a fierce assault on the Ostrogoths. The Ostrogoths began migrating westward, and the Visigoths followed them west. With the permission of the Roman Emperor Valens, they crossed south over the Danube and entered the Empire seeking refuge.
Yet Roman rule over the Goths was arbitrary and cruel, ultimately leading to the Visigothic uprising in 378. They quickly gained the support of the Ostrogoths, slaves within Rome, and some Huns, swiftly occupying Thrace and advancing toward Constantinople.
Although Valens suppressed the uprising, he died as well. Theodosius I, who succeeded him, organized the Goths into auxiliary forces, and they followed him to "Cold River."
The battle took place in September. The Bora, which ravaged the Adriatic Sea in winter, arrived on the second day of the battle. Theodosius I, positioned downwind, held a greater advantage than the Western Roman Empire. Not only did the wind scatter the Western Roman arrows, it also left their hastily constructed fortifications on the verge of collapse. The Eastern Roman Empire's army soon gained the upper hand.
Once victory had been won, perhaps the Goths could not help wondering what the previous day's brutal fighting had been for.
Attila never invaded Rome. Around the beginning of the fifth century, the Visigoths were already frequently raiding mainland Italy.
Around the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, the Germanic kingdoms established barbarian law codes. Yet the earliest