The Goths (Gothic: Gutans) were an East Germanic tribe who, according to Jordanes, left Scandinavia, settled close to the mouth of the Vistula river (in present day Poland), and in the 3rd and 4th centuries settled Scythia, Dacia and parts of Moesia and Asia Minor. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, they harried the Roman Empire and later adopted Arianism. In the 5th and 6th centuries, dividing into the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in Iberia and Italy.

History

The earliest literary references to the Goths are found in the works of Pliny, Strabo, and Tacitus. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder mentions a certain Pytheas of Messalia, a Greek historian who records his observations on a journey through the 'parts near Ocean', sometime around the time of Alexander the Great. Pliny states that Pytheas believed a tribe called Gutones inhabited regions of Germania. Pliny's statement of Pytheas' findings concerning the Goths, however, presents scholars with two difficulties:
(1) that the statement in question actually contains Guiones, which must be emended to Gutones to bring it in line with other presumed references to the Goths in Pliny;
(2) the reference to Germania is clearly Pliny's own, since no such province was in existence in the time of Pytheas. Hence we cannot be sure what Pytheas himself said about their location. Pliny later mentions the Gutones as one of five tribes of the Germani.

Strabo, in his Geography, mentions the Gutones in a discussion of the Hercynian Forest. Once again, however, such an association rests on textual emendment: the manuscript reads Boutones, which scholars emend to Goutones. The location is not specified, which is not unexpected, since few authors could claim to know anything certain about regions beyond the Danube in this period.

Tacitus, in his work the Germania, written sometime around 98 AD, says in chapter 43: "beyond the Lugii, the Gotones are ruled by kings..., and next, close to the Ocean, the Rugii" and others. According to his account, the Suebi are in northern Europe, the Lugii beyond them, and the Gotones beyond them; but the latter must not quite be on the Baltic coast, since the Rugii and others are closer to the Baltic than the Gotones. Tacitus also mentions in his later work the Annales, chapters 2.62-63, that a certain Catualda was a noble among the Gotones.

In his Geography, Ptolemy locates the Guthones near the Vistula river. He elsewhere lists the Goutai as one of the seven tribes inhabiting Skandiai, presumably Sweden. It is not clear if both of these terms refer to the same tribe. If so, these are perhaps reflexes of strong and weak forms of the name. If not, one is not sure which ones are 'the' Goths. Some link the Goutai to the Geats of Beowulf, whose history thereafter is know from other medieval sources. But it is not clear that these are the Goths of Scandinavia.

The late 4th century, non-Christian author Ammianus Marcellinus is an important source for our understanding of the early movements of the Gothic tribes and their interaction with imperial forces. But he mentions nothing of Gothic origins, even though he mentions origins of others, such as the Alans, who descended from the Massagetae, and the Persians from the Scythians. Ammianus focuses on the movements of individual Gothic groups, most importantly the Tervingi and the Greuthungi.

Bishop Ambrose of Milan, in composing his work De Fide sometime around 380 AD for the emperor Gratian, links the Gothi with the Biblical Gog, ruler of the land Magog, which is perhaps set to the north, and maybe connected with islands. Ambrose seems to have taken the occasion to place Gratian's struggle with the Goths in a more divine setting, since in Revelations 20.7-10, Gog is destined to compass 'the camp of the saints'. The genealogist Josephus, earlier writing the Antiquitates in 93-94 AD, links Magogites with Scythians; Josephus is directly quoted by the later Gothic historian Jordanes.

Jerome, writing sometime c. 390, challenges the identification of the Goths with Gog and his people. He identifies Getae and Gothi. Orosius, writing the Historia adversum paganos in 417 AD and seeking to play down the prophetic overtones of a link between Goths and Gog, follows Jerome's association. The association was a simple one, since the Getae had lived along the lower Danube, and this was the origin of the Gothi in their attack on Rome. Augustine, however, writing De civitate Dei between 413 and 427 AD, denies the equation of Goths and Scythians, as well as that of Goths and Getae.

One of our most important sources of Gothic history is Jordanes, who wrote the Origins and Acts of the Goths or Getica in 550 AD in Constantinople. Though he wrote in Latin, Jordanes is unique among our sources because he is the only one who is himself a Goth. He states in his work that he relies on Gothic oral tradition, but nevertheless claims some personal acquaintance with the material he treats. He also mentions that he closely follows the written work of another historian, the Gothic History written by Cassiodorus, a Roman Senator in the 520s in the court of Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic king of Italy. He thrice mentions another historian, Ablabius, who perhaps wrote in the court of a Visigothic king.

The Getica gives an account of Gothic history from its inception, i.e. from the origin of the Gothic people to the time of writing, providing several concepts central to modern attempts to reconstruct Gothic history:

• a. the Goths were originally in Scandinavia (more specifically, an island in or near Scandinavia), subsequently crossed the Baltic, migrated through Poland, and settled near the Black Sea;
• b. by the time of the 3rd century, the Goths were divided into two groups: Visigoths and Ostrogoths;
• c. the two groups of Goths were each led by royal families, the Balthi and the Amals.

Under the assumption that there are no new peoples, just the same peoples with new names and new locations (a typical motif of ancient history writing), Cassiodorus, and hence Jordanes, were able to equate the Goths with Scythians, Amazons, Getes, and Dacians: the Gothic kingdom was founded before Rome, and the Goths fought in the Trojan war. Under Berig the Goths crossed the Baltic in 1490 BC, and under Filimer they moved to the Black Sea only five generations later, i.e before any of the earliest mentions of the Goths.

Several historians, including Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, argue that Jordanes' Getica presents a fictional genealogy of Theodoric and fictional history of the Goths for ancient propaganda purposes, and cast doubt on the Scandinavian origin, on the supposed royal dynasties, and on the supposed 4th-Century Kingdom of Ermaneric.

Other major sources for later Gothic history include Ammianus Marcellinus' Historiae, mentioning Gothic involvement in the civil war between emperors Procopius and Valens of 365 C.E. and recounting the Gothic refugee crisis and revolt of 376-382 C.E. and Procopius' de bello gothico, describing the Gothic War of 535-552 C.E..

According to Jordanes, the Goths originated in Scandinavia (Scandza). Their more specific place of origin was most likely Gotland or possibly Götaland in present day Sweden. They would have become separated from related tribes, the Gutar (Gotlanders) and perhaps the Götar (Geats, referred to as Gautigoths and Ostrogoths by Jordanes), who are sometimes included in the term Goths[4] in about the 1st century (but the Gutasaga leaves open the possibility of prolonged contact). They migrated south-east along the Vistula during the 3rd century, settling in Scythia, which they called Oium "waterlands", from the 3rd century. According to the legendary account of the Hervarar Saga, the capital of this kingdom was Árheimar, at the Dniepr.

One of the floor mosaics excavated at the Great Palace of Constantinople and dated to the reign of Justinian I. It is presumed to represent a conquered Gothic king.Though many of the fighting nomads who followed them were to prove more bloody, the Goths were feared because the captives they took in battle were sacrificed to their god of war, Tyz, and the captured arms hung in trees as a token-offering. Their kings and priests came from a separate aristocracy and their mythic kings of ancient times were honored as gods.

In the 3rd century, the Goths split into at least two groups, the Thervingi, and the Greuthungi. The Thervingi launched one of the first major "barbarian" invasions of the Roman Empire from 263, sacking Byzantium[not in citation given] in 267. A year later, they suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Naissus and were driven back across the Danube River by 271. This group then settled north of the Danube and established an independent kingdom centered on the abandoned Roman province of Dacia. Both the Greuthungi and Thervingi became heavily Romanized during the 4th century by the influence of trade with the Byzantines, and by their membership in a military covenant centered in Byzantium to assist each other militarily. They converted to Arianism during this time. Hunnic domination of the Ostrogoth kingdom began in the 370s, and under pressure of the Huns, Therving king Fritigern in 376 asked the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. Valens permitted this, and even helped the Goths cross the river,[citation needed] probably at the fortress of Durostorum, but following a famine the Gothic War (376-382) erupted, and Valens was killed at the Battle of Adrianople.

The Visigoths under Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Honorius granted the Visigoths Aquitania, where they defeated the Vandals and by 475 ruled most of the Iberian peninsula.

The Ostrogoths in the meantime freed themselves of government of the Huns following the Battle of Nedao in 454. At the behest of emperor Zeno, Theoderic the Great from 488 conquered all of Italy. The Goths were briefly reunited under one crown in the early sixth century under Theodoric the Great, who became regent of the Visigothic kingdom following the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Procopius, writing at this time, interpreted the name Visigoth to mean "western Goths", and the name Ostrogoth as "eastern Goth" which corresponded to the current distribution of the Gothic realms.

The Ostrogothic kingdom persisted until 553 under Teia, when Italy briefly fell back under Byzantine control, until the conquest of the Langobards in 568. The Visigothic kingdom lasted longer, until 711 under Roderic, when it had to yield to the Umayyad invasion of Andalusia.

Origins

Explaining the origins of the Goths, Jordanes recounted:

The same mighty sea has also in its arctic region, that is in the north, a great island named Scandza, from which my tale (by God's grace) shall take its beginning. For the race whose origin you ask to know burst forth like a swarm of bees from the midst of this island and came into the land of Europe. Now from this island of Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of nations, the Goths are said to have come forth long ago under their king, Berig by name. As soon as they disembarked from their ships and set foot on the land, they straightway gave their name to the place. And even to-day it is said to be called Gothiscandza. Soon they moved from here to the abodes of the Ulmerugi, who then dwelt on the shores of Ocean, where they pitched camp, joined battle with them and drove them from their homes.
In the 1st century, Tacitus located the Gothones south of the Mare Suebicum (Suevicum), the Baltic Sea:

Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a king; and thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German[ic] nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty. Immediately adjoining are the Rugians and Lemovians upon the coast of the ocean, and of these several nations the characteristics are a round shield, a short sword and kingly government.

The stone circle was one of the Scandinavian burial traditions used by the Goths in PomeraniaPliny the Elder calls them the Gutones. According to him, they were a major Germanic people, being one of five. He also states that the explorer, Pytheas of Massilia (4th century BC) encountered them in his northern expedition to an "estuary" we know to have been the Baltic from Pliny's reference to amber washed up on the beaches. A date earlier than the 1st century is thus supported. Strabo also mentions that Marbod, after a pleasant sojourn with Augustus, took command of nearly all the tribes in Germania, including the Boutones. which are generally interpreted as an error for Goutones, Latinized to Gutones. For the Scandinavian Goths, we have Ptolemy, who mentions the Goutai as living in the south of the island of Skandia.

Due to the central role that the Goths have played in history, their origins have been discussed for a long time. Although no alternative theory has been proposed for the appearance of Germanic tribes in today's northern Poland, some historians have expressed doubts that the Goths originated in Scandinavia. This is due to the fact that, disregarding Jordanes, the earliest unambiguous literary evidence for the Goths (Tacitus and Pliny the Elder) puts them at the Vistula in 1st century. Some claim that there is no conclusive evidence for a migration at the time of Christ's birth, and therefore claim that the origin in Scandinavia should be taken as a topos.

On the other hand, the German scholar Wenskus has pointed out that if Jordanes had wanted to invent a fictive past for the Goths, he would have claimed that they were descended from a prestigious location such as Troy or Rome. He would not have placed their origins in the barbaric North. Moreover, he was writing for fellow Goths who were familiar with their traditions. Besides Jordanes' account, there is both linguistic and archaeological support for the Scandinavian origin.

Archaeology

Map Left:
The green area is the traditional extent of Götaland and the dark pink area is the island of Gotland. The red area is the extent of the Wielbark culture in the early 3rd century, and the orange area is the Chernyakhov culture, in the early 4th century. The purple area is the Roman EmpireIn today's Poland, the earliest material culture identified with the Goths is the Wielbark Culture, which replaced the local Oksywie culture in the 1st century. This replacement happened when a Scandinavian settlement was established in a buffer zone between the Oksywie culture and the probably Vandal Przeworsk culture.

However, as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age (ca 1300 BC–ca 300 BC), this area had influences from southern Scandinavia.[16] In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and today's northern Poland from ca 1300 BC (period III) and onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture.

During the period ca 600 BC–ca 300 BC the warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia (2-3 degrees warmer than today) deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave settlements.

The Goths are believed to have crossed the Baltic Sea sometime between the end of this period, ca 300 BC, and 100. According to earlier research, in the traditional Swedish province of Östergötland, archaeological evidence shows that there was a general depopulation during this period. However, this is not confirmed in the recent publications The settlement in today's Poland probably corresponds to the introduction of Scandinavian burial traditions, such as the stone circles and the stelae, which indicates that the early Goths preferred to bury their dead according to Scandinavian traditions. The Polish archaeologist Tomasz Skorupka states that a migration from Scandinavia is regarded as a matter of certainty:

Despite many controversial hypotheses regarding the location of Scandia (for example, in the island of Gotlandia and the provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland), the fact that the Goths arrived on today's Polish land from the North after crossing the Baltic Sea by boats is certain.

However, the Gothic culture also appears to have had continuity from earlier cultures in the area, suggesting that the immigrants mixed with earlier populations, perhaps providing their separate aristocracy. The Oxford scholar Heather suggests that it was a relatively small migration from Scandinavia. This scenario would make their migration across the Baltic similar to many other population movements in history, such as the Anglo-Saxon Invasion, where migrants have imposed their own culture and language on an indigenous one. The Willenberg/Wielbark culture shifted south-eastwards towards the Black Sea area from the mid-2nd century. It was the oldest part of the Wielbark culture, located west of the Vistula and which had Scandinavian burial traditions, that pulled up its stakes and moved. In Ukraine , they imposed themselves as the rulers of the local, probably Slavic,[citation needed] Zarubintsy culture forming the new Chernyakhov Culture (ca 200–ca 400).

There is archaeological and historic evidence of continued contacts between the Goths and southern Sweden during their migrations, into the 6th century.

Literature

Of Gothic literature in the Gothic language we have the Bible of Ulfilas, and some other religious writings and fragments (see Gothic Language below). Of Gothic legislation in Latin we have the edict of Theodoric of the year 500, edited by F. Bluhme in the Monumenta Germaniae historica; and the books of Variae of Cassiodorus may pass as a collection of the state papers of Theodoric and his immediate successors. Among the West Goths written laws had already been put forth by Euric.

me well-known comments by Montesquieu and Gibbon, and has been discussed by Savigny (Geschichte des riimischen Rechts, ii. 65) and various other writers. They are printed in the Monumenta Germaniae, leges, tome i. (1902). Of special Gothic histories, besides that of Jordanes, already so often quoted, there is the Gothic history of Isidore, archbishop of Seville, a special source of the history of the West Gothic kings down to Svinthala (621-631).

But all the Latin and Greek writers contemporary with the days of Gothic predominance make their constant contributions. Not for special facts, but for a general estimate, no writer is more instructive than Salvian of Marseilles in the 5th century, whose work De Gubernatione Dei "is full of passages contrasting the vices of the Romans with the virtues of the barbarians, especially of the Goths. In all such pictures we must allow a good deal for exaggeration both ways, but there must be a ground-work of truth. The chief virtues which the Catholic presbyter praises in the Arian Goths are their chastity, their piety according to their own creed, their tolerance towards the Catholics under their rule, and their general good treatment of their Roman subjects. He even ventures to hope that such good people may be saved, notwithstanding their heresy. All this must have had some groundwork of truth in the 5th century, but it is not very wonderful if the later West Goths of Spain had a good deal fallen away from the doubtless somewhat ideal picture of Salvian. (E. A. F.)

Spreading Out

The first notices we have of the Goths go back to the first years of the Christian era, at which time they seem to have been subject to the Marcomannic king Maroboduus. They do not enter into Roman history, however, until after the beginning of the 3rd century, at which time they appear to have come in conflict with the emperor Caracalla. During this century their frontier seems to have been advanced considerably farther south, and the whole country as far as the lower Danube was frequently ravaged by them. The emperor Gordianus is called " victor Gothorum " by Capitolinus, though we have no record of the ground for the claim, and further conflicts are recorded with his successors, one of whom, Decius, was slain by the Goths in Moesia. According to Jordanes the kings of the Goths during these campaigns were Ostrogotha and afterwards Cniva, the former of whom is praised also in the AngloSaxon poem Widsith. The emperor Gallus was forced to pay tribute to the Goths. By this time they had reached the coasts of the Black Sea, and during the next twenty years they frequently ravaged the maritime regions of Asia Minor and Greece. Aurelian is said to have won a victory over them, but the province of Dacia had to be given up. In the time of Constantine the Great Thrace and Moesia were again plundered by the Goths, A.D. 321. Constantine drove them back and concluded peace with their king Ariaric in 336. From the end of the 3rd century we hear of subdivisions of the nation called Greutungi, Teruingi, Austrogothi (Ostrogothi), Visigothi, Taifali, though it is not clear whether these were all distinct.

Though by this time the Goths had extended their territories far to the south and east, it must not be assumed that they had evacuated their old lands on the Vistula. Jordanes records several traditions of their conflicts with other Teutonic tribes, in particular a victory won by Ostrogotha over Fastida, king of the Gepidae, and another by Geberic over Visimar, king of the Vandals, about the end of Constantine's reign, in consequence of which the Vandals sought and obtained permission to settle in Pannonia. Geberic was succeeded by the most famous of the Gothic kings, Hermanaric (Eormenric, Iormunrekr), whose deeds are recorded in the traditions of all Teutonic nations.

According to Jordanes he conquered the Heruli, the Aestii, the Venedi, and a number of other tribes who seem to have been settled in the southern part of Russia. From Anglo-Saxon sources it seems probable that his supremacy reached westwards as far as Holstein. He was of a cruel disposition, and is said to have killed his nephews Embrica (Emerca) and Fritla (Fridla) in order to obtain the great treasure which they possessed. Still more famous is the story of Suanihilda (Svanhildr), who according to Northern tradition was his wife and was cruelly put to death on a false charge of unfaithfulness.

An attempt to avenge her death was made by her brothers Ammius (Hamoir) and Sarus (Sorli) by whom Hermanaric was severely wounded.

The great migration was in 376, when they were allowed to pass as peaceful settlers under their chief Frithigern. His rival Athanaric seems to have tried to maintain his party for a while north of the Danube in defiance of the Huns; but he had presently to follow the example of the great mass of the nation. The peaceful designs of Frithigern were meanwhile thwarted by the ill-treatment which the Goths suffered from the Roman officials, which led first to disputes and then to open war. In 378 the Goths won the great battle of Adrianople, and after this Theodosius the Great, the successor of Valens, made terms with them in 381, and the mass of the Gothic warriors entered the Roman service as foederati. Many of their chiefs were in high favour; but it seems that the orthodox Theodosius showed more favour to the still remaining heathen party among the Goths than to the larger part of them who had embraced Arian Christianity. Athanaric himself came to Constantinople in 381; he was received with high honours, and had a solemn funeral when he died. His saying is worth recording, as an example of the effect which Roman civilization had on the Teutonic mind. " The emperor," he said, " was a god upon earth, and he who resisted him would have his blood on his own head."

The death of Theodosius in 395 broke up the union between the West Goths and the Empire. Dissensions arose between them and the ministers of Arcadius; the Goths threw off their allegiance, and chose Alaric as their king. This was a restoration alike of national unity and of national independence. The royal title had not been borne by their leaders in the Roman service. Alaric's position is quite different from that of several Goths in the Roman service, who appear as simple rebels. He was of the great West Gothic house of the Balthi, or Bold-men, a house second in nobility only to that of the Amali. His whole career was taken up with marchings to and fro within the lands, first of the Eastern, then of the Western empire. The Goths are under him an independent people under a national king; their independence is in no way interfered with if the Gothic king, in a moment of peace, accepts the office and titles of a Roman general. But under Alaric the Goths make no lasting settlement. In the long tale of intrigue and warfare between the Goths and the two imperial courts which fills up this whole time, cessions of territory are offered to the Goths, provinces are occupied by them, but as yet they do not take root anywhere; no Western land as yet becomes Gothia. Alaric's designs of settlement seem in his first stage to have still kept east of the Adriatic, in Illyricum, possibly in Greece. Towards the end of his career his eyes seem fixed on Africa.

Greece was the scene of his great campaign in 395-96, the second Gothic invasion of that country. In this campaign the religious position of the Goths is strongly marked. The Arian appeared as an enemy alike to the pagan majority and the Catholic minority; but he came surrounded by monks, and his chief wrath was directed against the heathen temples (vide G. F. Hertzberg, Geschichte Griechenlands, iii. 391). His Italian campaigns fall into two great divisions, that of 402-3, when he was driven back by Stilicho, and that of 408-10, after Stilicho's death. In this second war he thrice besieged Rome (408, 409, 410). The second time it suited a momentary policy to set up a puppet emperor of his own, and even to accept a military commission from him. The third time he sacked the city, the first time since Brennus that Rome had been taken by an army of utter foreigners. The intricate political and military details of these campaigns are of less importance in the history of the Gothic nation than the stage which Alaric's reign marks in the history of that nation. It stands between two periods of settlement within the Empire and of service under the Empire. Under Alaric there is no settlement, and service is quite secondary and precarious; after his death in 410 the two begin again in new shapes.

Contemporary with the campaigns of Alaric was a barbarian invasion of Italy, which, according to one view, again brings the East and West Goths together. The great mass of the East Goths, as has been already said, became one of the many nations which were under vassalage to the Huns; but their relation was one merely of vassalage. They remained a distinct people under kings of their own, kings of the house of the Amali and of the kindred of Ermanaric (Jordanes, 48). They had to follow the lead of the Huns in war, but they were also able to carry on wars of their own; and it has been held that among these separate East Gothic enterprises we are to place the invasion of Italy in 4 05 by Radagaisus (whom R. Pallmann' writes Ratiger, and takes him for the chief of the heathen part of the East Goths). One chronicler, Prosper, makes this invasion preceded by another in 400, in which Alaric and Radagaisus appear as partners. The paganism of Radagaisus is certain. The presence of Goths in his army is certain, but it seems dangerous to infer that his invasion was a national Gothic enterprise.

Under Ataulphus, the brother-in-law and successor of Alaric, another era opens, the beginning of enterprises which did in the end lead to the establishment of a settled Gothic monarchy in the West. The position of Ataulphus is well marked by the speech put into his mouth by Orosius. He had at one time dreamed of destroying the Roman power, of turning Romania into Gothia, and putting Ataulphus in the stead of Augustus; but he had learned that the world could be governed only by the laws of Rome and he had determined to use the Gothic arms for the support of the Roman power. And in the confused and contradictory accounts of his actions (for the story in Jordanes cannot be reconciled with the accounts in Olympiodorus and the chroniclers), we can see something of this principle at work throughout. Gaul and Spain were overrun both by barbarian 1 Geschichte der Volkerwanderung (Gotha, 1863-1864).

Burial Practices

Chernyakhov cemeteries include both cremation and inhumation burials; among the latter the head is to the north. Some graves were left empty. Grave goods often include pottery, bone combs, and iron tools, but almost never any weapons.

Rulers

Not much is known of the early rulers of the Goths, before they split into the two east-west tribes.

Goth King Cniva
Ariaric
Geberic d. circa 350 AD
Hermanaric (Eormenric, Iormunrekr)
Suanihilda, Svanhild

Notable Goth: Ulfilas who translated the bible into Gothic.

SEE Visigoths anbd Ostrogoths

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