142 – The Juthungi were a German tribe settled on the north bank
of the Danube, in what is now Austria Proper and Moravia.
It is uncertain whether they were, as Ammianus Marcellinus
describes them, a sept of the Alemanni, or whether they
were Goths. It has been suggested that the name is only
another form of Gothi or Gothones, (Dict. of Antiq.)
The want of a detailed and accurate history of these
times, which are just beyond the range of Ammianus, makes
it difficult to make out clearly the allusions which S.
Ambrose here makes. Tillemont explains them thus, ‘Bauton
seeing the Juthungan Alemanni ravaging Rhaetia, while
the Roman soldiers were engaged in guarding the passes of
the Alps against Maximus, summoned the Huns and Alans to
make war on them. These tribes accordingly pillaged the
territories of the Alemanni up to the frontiers of Gaul.
But on Maximus complaining that they had been brought
against him, Valentinian, to deprive him of any pretext
for breaking off the peace, induced them to retire in
the midst of their victories by presents of money.’ He
also considers that the reason why the Juthungi came to
pillage Rhaetia that year was the extraordinary fertility,
and that it is this invasion to which allusion is made
in Letter xxiv, 21, where S. Ambrose says that Rhaetia
Secunda ‘drew down an enemy on herself by her abundance.’