During the late 2nd century, the main ethnic change in the northern Black Sea region was the immigration, from the Vistula valley in the North, of the Goths and accompanying Germanic tribes such as the Taifali and the Hasdingi, a branch of the Vandal people. This migration was part of a series of major population movements in the European "barbaricum" (the Roman term for regions outside their empire). The Goths appear to have established a loose political hegemony over the existing tribes in the region.