The Visigoths, western branch of the great Gothic confederacy, for many years harried the Roman Empire in the east. But in AD 332 they entered into an alliance with the Romans, becoming a buffer in the Balkans between the empire and other barbarian groups.
Fleeing the advance of the Huns in 370 they again came into conflict with the Romans but were eventually settled as federates in the Roman province of Moesia, by a treaty of 382.
Moving westward seeking adequate lands to live in, they attacked Italy, seizing Rome in 410, and eventually settled in Aquitaine in 418, making their capital at Toulouse. Here they rapidly became Romanized, adopting Gallo-Roman culture and faithfully serving the Romans as allies in the great confrontation with the Huns on the Catalaunian Fields in AD 451.
In 507, having suffered defeat at the hands of the Franks, they moved into Spain, an area in which they had already begun to settle. Here they established a kingdom that was culturally a strong and vibrant blend of Germanic and Roman elements. This survived until the Arabs invaded from North Africa in 711.
