on 28 December 376, but was not yet buried. Second Gothic War: 376–378 Migrations of the Huns began to displace the Goths, who sought Roman protection. Valens allowed the Goths led by Fritigern to cross the Danube, but the Gothic settlers were abused by Roman officials and revolted in 377, seeking help from the Huns and the Alans and beginning the Gothic War (376–382). Valens's sixth consulship was in 378, again jointly with Valentinian II. Valens returned from the east to campaign against the Goths. Gratian fought a war with the Alamanni in early summer 378. Valens asked for assistance from his nephew and co-emperor Gratian against the Goths in Thrace, and Gratian set out eastwards, though Valens did not wait for the western armies to arrive before taking the offensive. Valens' plans for an eastern campaign were never realized. A transfer of troops to the Western Empire in 374 had left gaps in Valens' mobile forces. In preparation for an eastern war, Valens initiated an ambitious recruitment program designed to fill those gaps. It was thus not entirely unwelcome news when Valens heard of Ermanaric's death and the disintegration of his kingdom before an invasion of hordes of barbaric Huns from the far east. After failing to hold the Dniester or the Prut rivers against the Huns, the Goths retreated southward in a massive emigration, seeking new settlements and shelter south of the Danube, i.e. Roman lands, which they may have thought could be held against the enemy. In 376, the Visigoths under their leader Fritigern advanced to the far shores of the lower Danube and sent an ambassador to Valens who had set up his capital in Antioch, and requested asylum. As Valens' advisers were quick to point out, these Goths could supply troops who would at once swell Valens' ranks and decrease his dependence on conscription from provinces—thereby increasing revenues from the recruitment tax. However, it would mean hiring them and paying in gold or silver for their services. Fritigern had enjoyed contact with Valens in the 370s when Valens supported him in a struggle against Athanaric stemming from Athanaric's persecution of Gothic Christians. Though a number of Gothic groups apparently requested entry, Valens granted admission only to Fritigern and his followers. Others would soon follow, however. When Fritigern and his Goths, to the number of 200,000 warriors and almost a million all told, crossed the Danube,