Goths

The Goths (Gothic: Gutþiuda; Latin: Gothi) were an East Germanic people,
two of whose branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important
role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire through the long series of
Gothic Wars and in the emergence of Medieval Europe. The Goths dominated
a vast area,[1] which at its peak under the Germanic king Ermanaric and his
sub-king Athanaric possibly extended all the way from the Danube to the
Don, and from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.[2]

The Goths spoke the Gothic language, one of the extinct East Germanic
languages.

Contents
Etymology
Origins
Migrations and contact with Rome
Visigoths and Ostrogoths
Visigoths
Ostrogoths
Culture
Art
Language
Society
Economy
Religion
Legacy
In the sagas
Ancients who wrote about the Goths
See also Gothic soldiers on the Missorium of
References Theodosius I, made in 388 AD
Sources

Etymology
In the Gothic language of Ostrogothic Italy they were called the Gut-þiuda, most commonly translated as "Gothic people", but
only attested as dative singular Gut-þiudai;[3] another name, Gutans, is inferred from a genitive plural form gutani in the
Pietroassa inscription.[4] In Old Norse they were known as the Gutar or Gotar, in Latin as the Gothi, and in Greek as the Γότθοι,
Gótthoi.

The Goths have been referred to by many names, perhaps at least in part because they comprised many separate ethnic groups,
but also because in early accounts of Indo-European and later Germanic migrations in the Migration Period in general it was
common practice to use various names to refer to the same group. The Goths believed (as most modern scholars do)[5] that the
various names all derived from a single prehistoric ethnonym that referred
originally to a uniform culture that flourished around the middle of the first
millennium BC, i.e., the original Goths.

Origins
The exact origin of the ancient Goths remains unknown. Evidence of them
before they interacted with the Romans is limited.[6] The traditional account of
the Goths' early history depends on the Ostrogoth Jordanes' Getica written c. 551
AD. Jordanes states that the earliest migrating Goths sailed from what is now
Sweden to what is now Poland. If this is accurate, then they may have been the
people responsible for the Wielbark archaeological complex. Modern academics
have generally abandoned this theory. Today, the Wielbark culture is thought to
have developed from earlier cultures in the same area.[7] Archaeological finds
show close contacts between southern Sweden and the Baltic coastal area on the
continent, and further towards the south-east, evidenced by pottery, house types
and graves. Rather than a massive migration, similarities in the material cultures
may be products of long-term regular contacts. However, the archaeological
record could indicate that while his work is thought to be unreliable,[8] Jordanes' The Mausoleum of Theodoric, a
story was based on an oral tradition with some basis in fact.[7] Gothic monarch, in Ravenna, Italy

Sometime around the 1st century AD, Germanic peoples may have migrated
from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza, in present-day Poland. Early archaeological evidence in the traditional Swedish province of
Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period.[9] However, there is no archaeological evidence for a substantial
emigration from Scandinavia[10] and they may have originated in continental Europe.[11]

Upon their arrival on the Pontic Steppe, the Germanic tribes adopted the ways of the Eurasian nomads. The first Greek references
to the Goths call them Scythians, since this area along the Black Sea historically had been occupied by an unrelated people of that
name. The application of that designation to the Goths appears to be not ethnological but rather geographical and cultural -
Greeks regarded both the ethnic Scythians and the Goths as barbarians.[12]

The earliest known material culture associated with the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is the Wielbark culture,
centered on the modern region of Pomerania in northern Poland. This culture replaced the local Oxhöft or Oksywie culture in the
1st century AD, when a Scandinavian settlement developed in a buffer zone between the Oksywie culture and the Przeworsk
culture.[13]

The culture of this area was influenced by southern Scandinavian culture beginning as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and
early Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 1300 – c. 300 BC). In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and today's northern Poland
from c. 1300 BC (period III) and onwards was so considerable that some see the culture of the region as part of the Nordic
Bronze Age culture.[14] In Eastern Europe the Goths formed part of the Chernyakhov culture of the 2nd to 5th centuries AD.

Migrations and contact with Rome

Around 160 AD, in Central Europe, the first movements of the Migration Period were occurring, as Germanic tribes began
moving south-east from their ancestral lands at the mouth of River Vistula, putting pressure on the Germanic tribes from the north
and east. As a result, in episodes of Gothic and Vandal warfare Germanic tribes (Rugii, Goths, Gepids, Vandals, Burgundians, and
others)[15] crossed either the lower Danube or the Black Sea, and led to the Marcomannic Wars,[16] which resulted in widespread
destruction and the first invasion of what is now Italy in the Roman Empire
period.[17] It has been suggested that the Goths maintained contact with southern
Sweden during their migration.[18] Goths also served in the Roman military and
played a limited role, e.g. Gainas.

In the first attested incursion in Thrace, the Goths were mentioned as Boranoi by
Zosimus, and then as Boradoi by Gregory Thaumaturgus.[12] The first incursion of
the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238.
Several such raids followed in subsequent decades,[12] in particular the Battle of
Abrittus in 251, led by Cniva, in which the Roman Emperor Decius was killed. At
the time, there were at least two groups of Goths: the Thervingi and the Greuthungs.
Goths were subsequently heavily recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the
Roman-Persian Wars, notably participating at the Battle of Misiche in 242. The
Moesogoths settled in Thrace and Moesia.[19]

The first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years, probably 255-257. An
unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the second year by another, which
sacked Pityus and Trabzon and ravaged large areas in the Pontus. In the third year, a
much larger force devastated large areas of Bithynia and the Propontis, including the
cities of Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea Myrlea, Cius and Bursa. By the
end of the raids, the Goths had seized control over Crimea and the Bosporus and
Götaland, south Sweden, with the
captured several cities on the Euxine coast, including Olbia and Tyras, which island of Gotland in the east, a
enabled them to engage in widespread naval activities.[20] possible origin of the Goths; the
southernmost and westernmost
After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268 in a plot led by parts, Scania, Halland, Blekinge
high officers in his army, Claudius Gothicus was proclaimed emperor and headed to and Bohuslän, were originally not
Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alamanni, a part of Götaland, but were
who had invaded Raetia and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Dano-Norwegian territory until
1658.
Benacus, he was finally able to take care of the invasions in the Balkan
provinces.[21] Learning of the approach of Claudius, the Goths first attempted to
directly invade Italy.[22] They were engaged at the Battle of Naissus. It seems
that Aurelian, who was in charge of all Roman cavalry during Claudius' reign,
led the decisive attack in the battle. Some survivors were resettled within the
empire, while others were incorporated into the Roman army. The battle ensured
the survival of the Roman Empire for another two centuries. In 270, after the
death of Claudius, Goths under the leadership of Cannabaudes again launched an
invasion on the Roman Empire, but were defeated by Aurelian, who however
surrendered Dacia beyond the Danube.

Around 275 the Goths launched a last major assault on Asia Minor, where piracy
by Black Sea Goths was causing great trouble in Colchis, Pontus, Cappadocia, The Roman empire under Hadrian,
showing the location of the Gothones
Galatia and even Cilicia.[23] They were defeated sometime in 276 by Emperor
East Germanic group, then inhabiting
Marcus Claudius Tacitus.[23] In 332, Constantine helped the Sarmatians to settle
the east bank of the Visula (Vistula)
on the north banks of the Danube to defend against the Goths' attacks and river, (present Poland)
thereby enforce the Roman Empire's border. Around 100,000 Goths were
reportedly killed in battle, and Ariaricus, son of the King of the Goths, was
captured. The Goths increasingly became soldiers in the Roman armies in the 4th Century AD leading to the Germanization of the
Roman Army by the time the Western Empire disappeared.[15] The Gothic penchant for wearing skins became fashion in
Constantinople, which was heavily denounced by conservatives.[24]
Following a famine the Gothic War of 376–382 ensued, where the Goths and some
of the local Thracians rebelled. The Roman Emperor Valens was killed at the Battle
of Adrianople in 378. Following the decisive Gothic victory at Adrianople, Julius,
the magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire,[12] organized a widescale
massacre of Goths in Asia Minor, Syria and other parts of the Roman East.[12]
Fearing rebellion, Julian lured the Goths into the confines of urban streets from
which they could not escape and massacred soldiers and civilians alike.[12] As word
spread, the Goths rioted throughout the region, and large numbers were killed.[12]
The expansion of the Germanic
Survivors may have settled in Phrygia.[12] Although the Huns successfully subdued tribes 750 BC – AD 1 (after the
many of the Goths, who joined their ranks, a group of Goths led by Fritigern fled Penguin Atlas of World History
across the Danube. Major sources for this period of Gothic history include 1988):
Ammianus' Res gestae, which mentions Gothic involvement in the civil war between Settlements before 750 BC
emperors Procopius and Valens of 365 and recounts the Gothic War (376-382). New settlements by 500 BC
Around 375 AD the Huns overran the Alans and then the Goths. In the late fourth New settlements by 250 BC
century, the Huns arrived from the east and invaded the region controlled by the New settlements by AD 1
Goths.

Visigoths and Ostrogoths

By the 4th century, the Goths had captured Roman Dacia which Aurelian had
evacuated in 274[25] and divided into at least two distinct groups separated by
the Dniester River: the Thervingi (led by the Balti dynasty) and the Greuthungi
(led by the Amali dynasty). The Goths separated into two main branches, the
Visigoths, who became foederati (federates) of the Roman Empire, and the
Ostrogoths, who joined the Huns.

Both the Greuthungi and Thervingi became heavily Romanized during the The expansion of the Germanic
4th Century. This came about through trade with the Romans, as well as through tribes AD 1:
Gothic membership of a military covenant, which was based in Byzantium and red: Oksywie culture, then early
Wielbark culture
involved pledges of military assistance. Reportedly, 40,000 Goths were brought
blue: Jastorf culture (light blue:
by Constantine to defend Constantinople in his later reign, and the Palace Guard
expansion, purple: repressed)
was mostly composed from among Germanic peoples since foreign troops were
yellow: Przeworsk culture (orange:
less likely to rebel so far from home and also had less hesitation about using
repressed)
deadly force on the native population.[26] The Gothic missionary Wulfila
pink, orange, purple: expansion of
devised the Gothic alphabet to translate the Wulfila Bible and converted many of Wielbark culture (2nd century AD)
the Goths from Germanic paganism to Arian Christianity.The Huns fell upon the
Thervingi, whose staunchly pagan ruler, Athanaric, sought refuge in the
mountains. Meanwhile, the Arian Thervingian rebel chieftain Fritigern approached the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens in 376
with a portion of his people and asked to be allowed to settle on the south bank of the Danube. Valens permitted this, and even
assisted the Goths in their crossing of the river (probably at the fortress of Durostorum)[27]

The Goths remained divided – as Visigoths and Ostrogoths – during the 5th Century. These two tribes were among the Germanic
peoples who clashed with the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period. The Visigoths were settled south of the Danube in
376. They kept to the treaty of 382 as federates of the Romans and sent troops to fight for Theodosius I during the civil war of
394 in which Eugenius and Arbogast, usurpers in the West were defeated. Alaric and his Goths ravaged Greece in the years 395-
97. They moved west into Italy in 402. They were held in check but led by Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Honorius granted the
Visigoths lands in Aquitania after they savaged the Sueves, Alans and Vandals in 417. The Visigoths had taken over the south of
France and most of Spain in the 470s.
Visigoths
The Visigoths, after the Sack of Rome (410) under Alaric I, were settled by
the Romans in Aquitaine in 418 as foederati. Periodically they marched on
Arles, the seat of the praetorian prefect but were always pushed back. In
437 they signed a treaty with the Romans which they kept. In 451 they
provided one-third of the army of other tribes and Romans which defeated
the Huns confederation of Eastern peoples led under Attila at the Battle of
the Catalaunian Plains. They were led by their king Theodoric I in 451.
Götaland
They became independent of the Empire under his son, Euric who
the island of Gotland
extended their territory over most of the Iberian peninsula and Gaul in the
460s and 470s. In 507, the Visigoths were pushed into Hispania by the Wielbark culture in the early 3rd
Frankish Kingdom following the Battle of Vouillé in which the combined century
forces of Franks and Burgundians fell on them. They were able to retain Chernyakhov culture, in the early 4th
Narbonensis and Provence after the timely arrival of an Ostrogoth century
detachment sent by Theodoric the Great. By the late 6th century, the Roman Empire
Visigoths had converted to Catholicism. Their kingdom fell and was
progressively conquered from 711 when the Muslim Moors
defeated their last kings Roderic and Ardo (ruling until 724 over
Catalonia and Narbonne) during the Umayyad conquest of
Hispania. Some nobles found refuge in the mountain areas of the
East Pyrenees and Cantabrian West and founded different
autonomous realms, as Gothia, Pamplona and the Kingdom of
Asturias in 718, they all began later to regain control under the
leadership of the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius of Asturias,
whose victory at the Battle of Covadonga (c. 722) it is taken to be
the earliest at the centuries-long Reconquista. It was from the
Asturian kingdom that some parts of modern Spain and Portugal
evolved.[28]
Gothic invasions in the 3rd century
These Goths never became completely Romanized, as they
became rather 'Hispanicized' and further became widespread over
a large territory and body of population. They progressively adopted a new
culture, retaining little of their original culture except for practical military
customs, some artistic modalities, family traditions such as heroic songs
and folklore, as well as select conventions to include Germanic names still
in use in present-day Spain. It is these artifacts of the original Visigothic
culture that give ample evidence of its contributing foundation for the
present regional culture.[29]
The 3rd-century Great Ludovisi
In the late 6th Century Goths settled as foederati in parts of Asia Minor. sarcophagus depicts a battle between
Their descendants, who formed the elite Optimatoi regiment, still lived Goths and Romans.
there in the early 8th Century. While they were largely assimilated, their
Gothic origin was still well-known: the chronicler Theophanes the
Confessor calls them Gothograeci.

Ostrogoths
Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the entire Hunnic
thrust into Europe and the Roman Empire was an
attempt to subdue independent Goths in the west.[29] It
is possible that the Hunnic attack came as a response to
the Gothic eastwards expansion.[29][30][31]

In the 4th century, the Greuthungian king Ermanaric

became the most powerful Gothic ruler, coming to
dominate a vast area of the Pontic Steppe which
possibly stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea
as far eastwards as the Ural Mountains.[32] Ermanaric's
dominance of the Volga-Don trade routes made
historian Gottfried Schramm consider his realm as a
forerunner of the Viking founded state of Kievan
Rus'.[33] Ermanaric later committed suicide, and the
Greuthungi fell under Hunnic dominance.

The maximum extent of territories ruled by Theodoric the

In 454 AD, the Ostrogoths successfully revolted against
Great in 523
the Huns at the Battle of Nedao and their leader
Theoderic the Great invaded what is now Italy in 488
and settled his people there, founding an Ostrogothic Kingdom which eventually gained control of the whole Italian peninsula.

Under Theodemir, the Ostrogoths broke away from Hunnic rule following the Battle of Nedao in 454, and decisively defeated the
Huns again under Valamir at Bassianae in 468. At the request of emperor Zeno, Theoderic conquered all of Italy from the Scirian
Odoacer beginning in 488. The Goths were briefly reunited under one crown in the early 6th century under Theoderic, who
became regent of the Visigothic kingdom following the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Procopius interpreted the
name Visigoth as "western Goths" and the name Ostrogoth as "eastern Goth", reflecting the geographic distribution of the Gothic
realms at that time.

The Ostrogothic kingdom persisted until 553 under Teia, when Italy returned briefly to Byzantine control. This restoration of
imperial rule was reversed by the conquest of the Lombards in 568. Shortly after Theoderic's death, the country was conquered by
the Byzantine Empire in the Gothic War (535–554) that devastated and depopulated the peninsula.[34] In 552, after their leader
Totila was killed at the Battle of Taginae (552), effective Ostrogothic resistance ended, and the remaining Goths in Italy were
assimilated by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe, who invaded Italy and founded the Kingdom of the Lombards in 567 AD.

In the late 18th century, Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea - then known as
Crimean Goths - were still mentioned as existing in the region and speaking a Crimean Gothic dialect, making them the last true
Goths. The language is believed to have been spoken until as late as 1945. They are believed to have been assimilated by the
Crimean Tatars.

Culture

Art
Before the invasion of the Huns, the Gothic Chernyakhov culture produced jewelry, vessels, and decorative objects in a style
much influenced by Greek and Roman craftsmen. They developed a polychrome style of gold work, using wrought cells or
setting to encrust gemstones into their gold objects. This style was influential in West Germanic areas well into the Middle Ages.
Language
The Gothic language is the Germanic language with the earliest attestation, from the
300s, making it a language of interest in comparative linguistics. All other East
Germanic languages are known, if at all, from proper names or short phrases that
survived in historical accounts, and from loan-words in other languages. It is known
primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a translation of the Bible. The language was in
decline by the mid-500s, due to the military victory of the Franks, the elimination of
the Goths in Italy, and geographic isolation. In Spain the language lost its last and
probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths
converted to Catholicism in 589).[35] In pockets of Crimea, a related dialect known
as Crimean Gothic survived up until the early modern period, and the 4th-century
Bible translation was in use there until at least the ninth century.[36][37] It is now an
extinct language.

Society
Archaeological evidence in Visigothic cemeteries shows that social stratification was
An Ostrogothic eagle-shaped
analogous to that of the village of Sabbas the Goth. The majority of villagers were fibula, 500 AD, Germanisches
common peasants. Paupers were buried with funeral rites, unlike slaves. In a village Nationalmuseum Nuremberg
of 50 to 100 people, there were four or five elite couples.[38] In Eastern Europe,
houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, and stall-houses. The
largest known settlement is the Criuleni District.[39] Chernyakhov cemeteries feature 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 hardly ever weapons.[40]

Economy
Archaeology shows that the Visigoths, unlike the Ostrogoths, were predominantly farmers. They sowed wheat, barley, rye, and
flax. They also raised pigs, poultry, and goats. Horses and donkeys were raised as working animals, and fed with hay. Sheep were
raised for their wool, which they fashioned into clothing. Archaeology indicates they were skilled potters and blacksmiths. When
peace treaties were negotiated with the Romans, the Goths demanded free trade. Imports from Rome included wine and cooking-
oil.[41]

Religion
Initially practising Gothic paganism, the Goths were gradually converted to Arian Christianity in the course of the 4th Century as
a result of the missionary activity by the Gothic bishop Wulfila, who devised a Gothic alphabet to translate the Wulfila Bible.

During the 370s, Goths converting to Christianity were subject to persecution by the remaining pagan authorities of the Thervingi
people.

The Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania converted to Catholicism in the late 6th Century.

The Ostrogoths (and their remnants, the Crimean Goths) were closely connected to the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the
5th Century, and became fully incorporated under the Metropolitanate of Gothia from the 9th Century.

Legacy
The Gotlanders themselves had oral traditions of a mass migration towards southern
Europe, recorded in the Gutasaga. If the facts are related, this would be a unique
case of a tradition that endured for more than a thousand years and that actually pre-
dates most of the major splits in the Germanic language family.

The Goths' relationship with Sweden became an important part of Swedish

nationalism, and, until the 19th Century, the Swedes were commonly considered to
be the direct descendants of the Goths. Today, Swedish scholars identify this as a
cultural movement called Gothicismus, which included an enthusiasm for things Old
Norse.

Gothic language and culture largely disappeared during the Middle Ages, although
its influence continued in small ways in some western European states. As late as the
18th century a small number of people in the Crimea may still have spoken Crimean In Spain, the Visigothic nobleman
Pelagius of Asturias who founded
Gothic.[42]
the Kingdom of Asturias and
The language survived as a domestic language in the Iberian peninsula (modern began the Reconquista at the
Battle of Covadonga, is a national
Spain and Portugal) as late as the 8th Century, and Frankish author Walafrid Strabo
hero regarded as the country's
wrote that it was still spoken in the lower Danube area and that Crimean Gothic was
first monarch.
spoken in isolated mountain regions in Crimea in the early 9th century. Gothic-
seeming terms found in later (post-9th century) manuscripts may not belong to the
same language.

In Medieval and Modern Spain, the Visigoths were believed to be the origin of the Spanish nobility (compare Gobineau for a
similar French idea). By the early 7th Century, the ethnic distinction between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans had all but
disappeared, but recognition of a Gothic origin, e.g. on gravestones, still survived among the nobility. The 7th Century Visigothic
aristocracy saw itself as bearers of a particular Gothic consciousness and as guardians of old traditions such as Germanic
namegiving; probably these traditions were on the whole restricted to the family sphere (Hispano-Roman nobles did service for
Visigothic nobles already in the 5th century and the two branches of Spanish aristocracy had fully adopted similar customs two
centuries later).[43]

In Chile, Argentina and the Canary Islands, godo was an ethnic slur used against European Spaniards, who in the early colony
period often felt superior to the people born locally (criollos). In Colombia, the members of the Colombian Conservative Party
were referred to as godos.

The Spanish and Swedish claims of Gothic origins led to a clash at the Council of Basel in 1434. Before the assembled cardinals
and delegations could engage in theological discussion, they had to decide how to sit during the proceedings. The delegations
from the more prominent nations argued that they should sit closest to the Pope, and there were also disputes over who were to
have the finest chairs and who were to have their chairs on mats. In some cases, they compromised so that some would have half
a chair leg on the rim of a mat. In this conflict, Nicolaus Ragvaldi, bishop of the Diocese of Växjö, claimed that the Swedes were
the descendants of the great Goths, and that the people of Västergötland (Westrogothia in Latin) were the Visigoths and the
people of Östergötland (Ostrogothia in Latin) were the Ostrogoths. The Spanish delegation retorted that it was only the "lazy"
and "unenterprising" Goths who had remained in Sweden, whereas the "heroic" Goths had left Sweden, invaded the Roman
empire and settled in Spain.[44]

Gutnish is still spoken in Gotland and Fårö. Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse there.

In the sagas
 According to Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek), a 13th-century legendary saga,
Árheimar was a capital of the Goths. The saga states that it was located on the River Dnieper.
Hlöðskviða (The Battle of the Goths and Huns)

Ancients who wrote about the Goths

Ambrose: The prologue of De Spiritu Sancto (On the Holy Ghost) makes passing reference to Athanaric's royal
titles before 376.[45] Comment on Saint Luke: "Chuni in Halanos, Halani in Gothos, Gothi in Taifalos et Sarmatas
insurexerunt"
Ammianus Marcellinus: Res Gestae Libri XXXI.[46] He wrote that Hunnic domination of the Gothic kingdoms in
Scythia began in the 370s.[47]
The anonymous author(s) of the Augustan History wrote that the Goths, along with the Heruli sacked Heraclea
Pontica, Cyzicus and Byzantium. They were defeated by the Roman navy but managed to escape into the
Aegean Sea, where they ravaged the islands of Lemnos and Scyros. In the Battle of Thermopylae (267) they
sacked several cities of southern Greece (province of Achaea) including Athens, Corinth, Argos, Olympia and
Sparta. An Athenian militia, led by the historian Dexippus, pushed the invaders to the north where they were
intercepted by the Roman army under Gallienus.[48] However, large portions are known to be fraudulent and the
factual accuracy of the remainder is disputed.[49] Of the second invasions, the history reports that an enormous
coalition consisting of Goths (Greuthungi and Thervingi), Gepids and Bastarnae, led again by the Heruli,
assembled at the mouth of river Tyras (Dniester).[50] They claim a total number of 2,000–6,000 ships and
325,000 men.[51] This is probably a gross exaggeration but remains indicative of the scale of the invasion. After
failing to storm some towns on the coasts of the western Black Sea and the Danube (Constanţa, Marcianopolis),
they attacked Byzantium and Uskudar. Part of their fleet was wrecked, either because of the Gothic inexperience
in sailing through the violent currents of the Propontis[52] or because it was defeated by the Roman navy.
Aurelius Victor: The Caesars, a history from Augustus to Constantius II
Cassiodorus: A lost history of the Goths used by Jordanes
Claudian: Poems
Epitome de Caesaribus
The 4th Century Greek historian Eunapius described the Goths' powerful build in a pejorative way: Their bodies
provoked contempt in all who saw them, for they were far too big and far too heavy for their feet to carry them,
and they were pinched in at the waist – just like those insects Aristotle writes of.[53]
Eutropius: Breviary
Eusebius, an historian who wrote in Greek in the third century, wrote that in 334, Constantine evacuated
approximately 300,000 Sarmatians from the north bank of the Danube after a revolt of the Sarmatians' slaves.
From 335 to 336, Constantine, continuing his Danube campaign, defeated many Gothic tribes.[54]
Gregory of Nyssa
Hermann of Reichenau, an 11th-century scholar, wrote that the Goths entered the Aegean Sea and a
detachment ravaged the Aegean islands as far as Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus. The fleet probably also sacked
Troy and Ephesus, destroying the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While
their main force had constructed siege works and was close to taking the cities of Thessalonica and
Cassandreia, it retreated to the Balkan interior at the news that the emperor was advancing. On their way, they
plundered Dojran and Pelagonia.[55]
Jerome: Chronicle
Jordanes, in his Getica, written in the mid-500s, wrote that the earliest migrating Goths sailed from Scandza
(Scandinavia) under King Berig in three ships. One shipload settled near the Vistula.[56] They then moved into an
area along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea which was inhabited by the Rugians, and expelled them.[57]
Julian the Apostate
Lactantius: On the death of the Persecutors
Olympiodorus of Thebes
Panegyrici latini
Paulinus the Deacon: Life of bishop Ambrose of Milan
Paulus Orosius wrote that the Goths were of the same stock as the Suiones (Swedes), the Vandals, and the
other Scandinavian tribes.[58]
Philostorgius: Greek church history
Pliny the Elder wrote that Pytheas, an explorer who visited Northern Europe in the 4th century BC, reported that
the Gutones, a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an estuary called Mentonomon (the Baltic Sea).[59]
 The 6th Century Byzantine historian Procopius wrote that the Goths were tall and blond haired: For they all have
white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon.[60] He noted that the Goths, Gepidae and
Vandals were physically and culturally identical, suggesting a common origin.[60]
Sozomen
Synesius: De regno and De providentia. The 4th Century Greek bishop compared the Goths to wolves among
sheep, mocked them for wearing skins and questioned their loyalty towards Rome:

A man in skins leading warriors who wear the chlamys, exchanging his sheepskins for the toga to
debate with Roman magistrates and perhaps even sit next to a Roman consul, while law-abiding
men sit behind. Then these same men, once they have gone a little way from the senate house,
put on their sheepskins again, and when they have rejoined their fellows they mock the toga,
saying that they cannot comfortably draw their swords in it.[24]

Tacitus wrote that the Goths and the neighboring Rugii and Lemovii carried round shields and short swords.[61]
However, the Goths who would later fight or be allied with the Huns, and who fought for and against Rome, might
not be the same people Tacitus describes.[62]
Themistius: Speeches
Theoderet of Cyrrhus
Theodosian Code
According to Zosimus, Dexippus won an important victory near the Nessos (Mesta River), on the boundary
between the Roman province of Macedonia and Thrace, the Dalmatian cavalry of the Roman army earning a
reputation as good fighters. Reported barbarian casualties were 3,000 men. He writes about the Battle of
Naissus by a Roman army led by Claudius advancing from the north. The battle most likely took place in 269,
and was fiercely contested. Large numbers on both sides were killed but, at the critical point, the Romans tricked
the Goths into an ambush by pretended flight. Around 50,000 Goths were allegedly killed or taken captive and
their base at Thessalonika destroyed.[63]

See also
Gutes
Geats
Gutian people
Jurate Rosales

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