The Gothic victory at Adrianople was a terrible blow, both logistically and psychologically for both halves of the Empire, but the Romans recovered relatively quickly. To begin with, Fritigern was actually defeated by his own victory. While the Goths were under threat from several powerful Roman armies the Tervingian was able to hold together his alliance of Gothic refugees. After the victory over Valens, however, the united Gothic army began to break up as different chiefs went their separate ways. The need for food was paramount and Alatheus and Saphrax parted company from their Tervingian allies, making their way west, where they may have been settled in Pannonia or were possibly defeated and scattered by the Western Emperor Gratian. The war dragged on, with the new Eastern Emperor Theodosius suffering a major defeat at the hands of the Tervingians in 380 and was almost himself captured by Fritigern's warriors. For two more years the campaign against the Goths bogged down into stalemate and finally, on October 3, 382 AD, Theodosius accepted the inevitable.

Realising that he simply could not defeat the Tervingians, he entered into a treaty with them. They became foederatii of the Eastern Empire - allies who could be called upon for military service and who were granted land to settle within the Empire in return. They settled as an autonomous Gothic 'state within a state' in the northern dioceses of Dacia and Thrace, along the Danube frontier and they were to become the people later known as the Visigoths. It was these people who later rebelled once more against the Romans under Alaric and eventually marched on the Western Empire, sacked Rome itself and established a long lasting kingdom in Gaul and Spain, setting a precedent for their Greuthungian/Ostrogothic cousins who later established an even more powerful kingdom in Italy.

In many ways the victory at Adrianople in 378 and the subsequent *foedus* treaty of 382 were significant turning points in the end of the Roman Empire. From this point on the security of the frontiers was breached and the Romans were forced to deal with the Germanic invaders within their territory and on the 'barbarians' terms. The Empire in the east survived for centuries, of course, and even the West was to endure for another hundred years, but Fritigern's Goths, in effect, had won.
Cheers,

Thiu