The Goths started penetrating into territories west of the river Dniester from the 230s.^[23] Two distinct groups separated by the river, the Thervingi and the Greuthungi, quickly emerged among them.^[24] The one-time province of Dacia was held by "the Taifali, Victohali, and Thervingi"^[25] around 350.

The Goths' success is marked by the expansion of the multiethnic "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov culture". Settlements of the culture appeared in Moldavia and Wallachia at the end of the 3rd century,^[26] and in Transylvania after 330. These lands were inhabited by a sedentary population engaged in farming and cattle-breeding.^[27] Pottery, comb-making and other handicrafts flourished in the villages. Wheel-made fine pottery is a typical item of the period; hand-formed cups of the local tradition were also preserved. Plowshares similar to those made in nearby Roman provinces and Scandinavian-style brooches indicate trade contacts with these regions. "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" villages, sometimes covering an area exceeding 20 hectares (49 acres), were not fortified and consisted of two types of houses: sunken huts with walls made of wattle and daub and surface buildings with plastered timber walls. Sunken huts had for centuries been typical for settlements east of the Carpathians, but now they appeared in distant zones of the Pontic steppes.

Gothic dominance collapsed when the Huns arrived and attacked the Thervingi in 376. Most of the Thervingi sought asylum in the Roman Empire, and were followed by large groups of Greuthungi and Taifali. All the same, significant groups of Goths stayed in the territories north of the Danube.