The Taifals or Tayfals ( or Theifali; ) were a people group of Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fragmented history, for the most part in association with various Gothic peoples, and alternately fighting against or for the Romans. In the late fourth century some Taifali were settled within the Roman Empire, notably in western Gaul in the modern province of Poitou. They subsequently supplied mounted units to the Roman army and continued to be a significant source of cavalry for early Merovingian armies. By the sixth century their region of western Gaul had acquired a distinct identity as Thifalia.
Settlement in Oltenia
One of the earliest mentions of the Taifals puts them in the following of the Gothic king Cniva when he campaigned in Dacia and Moesia in 250 and the years following. They are sometimes classified as a Germanic tribe closely related to the Goths, although some believe they were related to the (non-Germanic) Sarmatians with whom they might have emigrated from the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
In the late third century they settled on the Danube on both sides of the Carpathians, dividing the territory with the Goths, who maintained political authority over all of it. In Spring 291 they formed a special alliance with the Gothic Thervingi, forming a tribal confederation from this date until 376, and fought the Vandals and Gepids: Tervingi, pars alia Gothorum, adiuncta manu Taifalorum, adversum Vandalos Gipedesque concurrunt. Along with the Victufali, the Taifals and Thervingi were the tribes mentioned as having possessed the former Roman province of Dacia by 350 "at the very latest". Archaeological evidence suggests that the Gepids were contesting Transylvania, the region around the Someş River, with the Thervingi and Taifals. The Taifals were subsequently made foederati of the Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settle in Oltenia. They were at that time independent of the Goths.
In 328 Constantine the Great conquered Oltenia and the Taifals, probably taking this opportunity to resettle a large number in Phrygia, in the diocese of Nicholas of Myra. In 332 he sent his son Constantine II to attack the Thervingi, who were routed. According to Zosimus (ii.31.3), a 500-man Taifal cavalry regiment engaged the Romans in a "running fight", and there is no evidence that this campaign was a failure. Nonetheless, the Taifals largely fell into the hands of the Romans at this time.
Around 336 they revolted against Constantine and were put down by the generals Herpylion, Virius Nepotianus, and Ursus. By 358 the Taifals were independent foederati of Rome and Oltenia lay outside Roman control. They launched campaigns as allies of the Romans from their own Oltenic bases, against the Limigantes (358 and 359) and the Sarmatians (358). However, campaigns against the Thervingi by the emperor Valens in 367 and 368 were inhibited by the independence of Oltenia. It is possible, however, that the Taifals at this time were still fighting alongside the Goths. In 365 the emperor ordered the construction of defensive towers in Dacia Ripensis, but whether this was Oltenia is unclear. Archaeological evidence evidences no sedes Taifalorum (Taifal settlements) east of the Olt River.
Crossing the Danube
With the Iazyges and the Carpi, the Taifals were harassing the Roman province of Dacia in the mid fourth century. However, the arrival of a new threat—Huns—from Central Asia changed the political layout of Dacia: "the Huns threw themselves upon the Alans, the Alans upon the Goths, and the Goths upon the Taifali and Sarmatae." Athanaric had refused to extend his defensive preparations to the Taifalian territory and the Huns forced the Taifals to abandon Oltenia and western Muntenia by 370. The Taifals allied with the Greuthungi of Farnobius against Rome; they crossed the Danube in 377, but were defeated in late autumn that year. The Taifals were prominent among the survivors of Farnobius' coalition. After the Gothic victory at Adrianople (378) under Fritigern, the Thervingian king Athanaric began to assail the Taifals. Athanaric had not included the Taifals in his defensive construction efforts against the Huns earlier (376). The breaking of the alliance between Thervingia and Taifal may have had something to do with disagreements over tactics in light of the Huns and the crossing of the Danube, the Taifals being horsemen and the Thervingi infantry.