Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary, participated in the Arian controversy, and is credited with the translation of the Bible into Gothic. He developed the Gothic alphabet – inventing a writing system based on the Greek alphabet – in order for the Bible to be translated into the Gothic language. Although the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language has traditionally been ascribed to Ulfilas, analysis of the text of the Gothic Bible indicates the involvement of a team of translators, possibly under his supervision. Biography Ulfilas's parents were of non-Gothic descent. Ulfilas may have spoken some Greek in his own family circle, since they were of Greek origin; he is likely to have been able to draw on formal education in both Latin and Greek in creating Gothic as a literary language. Philostorgius, to whom we are indebted for much important information about Ulfilas, was a Cappadocian. He knew that the ancestors of Ulfilas had also come from Cappadocia, a region with which the Gothic community had always maintained close ties. Ulfilas's parents were captured by plundering Goths in the village of Sadagolthina in the city district of Parnassus (near modern-day Şereflikoçhisar) and were carried off to Transdanubia (the Gothic-held lands north of the Danube in and around modern Muntenia). This supposedly took place in 264. Raised as a Goth, he later became proficient in both Greek and Latin. Ulfilas converted many among the Goths and preached Arianism, which, when they reached the western Mediterranean, set them apart from their orthodox neighbours and subjects. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia (who baptized the Emperor Constantine) and returned to his people to work as a missionary. In 348, after seven years as missionary, Ulfila was expelled from the Gothic region in order to escape religious persecution by a Gothic chief, probably Athanaric. This incident can certainly have a political nuance, probably the Goth saw Ulfilas's activity as a form of Roman infiltration. Ulfilas obtained permission from Constantius II to migrate with his flock of converts from Northern Danube to Moesia and settle near Nicopolis ad Istrum in modern northern Bulgaria. There, Ulfilas devised the Gothic alphabet and presided over the translation of the Bible from Greek into the