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Goths
Götaland, south Sweden, most likely original homeland of the Goths.The
Goths (Gothic: , Gutans) were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and
4th centuries, harried the Roman Empire and later adopted Arianism. In
the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths,
they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the
Iberian peninsula and Italy, respectively.
Meanwhile close contact with Roman civilization brought about a gradual
conversion of the Goths to catholicism. One of the most notable early
instances of such a conversion was that of the Gothic missionary,
Wulfila, who then found it necessary to leave Gothic country for the
vicinity of Bulgaria with his congregation, where he translated the
Bible into Gothic. Although for a time masters of Italy and Spain, the
Goths were defeated by the forces of Justinian I in a final effort to
restore the empire. Subsequently they were struck by the Vandals and the
Lombards.
Reccared, late 6th century king of Gothic Spain, became Catholic with
the remainder of the yet unconverted Goths. Assimilation of the Goths
accelerated when the last of them were defeated by the Moors in the
early 8th century. The language and culture disappeared except for
fragments in other cultures. In the 18th century a small remnant of
Ostrogoths may have turned up in the Crimea,[1] but this identification
is not certain.
Contents
1 Etymology
2 Proto-history
2.1 Jordanes
2.2 Pliny
3 History
4 Archaeology
5 Languages
6 Symbolic legacy
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
[edit] Etymology
The Goths have had many names and have acquired population from many
ethnic sources. Peoples under similar names were key elements of the
Germanic migrations. Nevertheless they believed, and this belief is
supported by the mainstream of scholarship,[2] that the names derived
from a single prehistoric ethnonym owned by a uniform culture of south
Scandinavia in the mid-first millenium BC, the original "Goths." People
of a modern form of that name still live there.
Etymologically the oldest (300 BC) ethnonym for the Goths, "Guton-",[3]
derives from the same root as that of the Gotlanders ("Gutar"): the
Proto-Germanic *Gutaniz. Related, but not the same, is the Scandinavian
tribal name Geat, from the Proto-Germanic *Gautoz (plural *Gautaz). Both
*Gautoz and *Gutaniz are derived (specifically they are two ablaut
grades) from the Proto-Germanic word *geutan, meaning "to pour."[4] The
Indo-European root of the pour derivation would be *gheu-d- as it is
listed in the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD). *gheu-d- is a centum
form. The AHD relies on Julius Pokorny for the same root.[5]
Thus, the Gothic tribes may be designated as "pourers of semen", i.e.
"men, people".[6] Another theory connects the people with the name of a
river flowing through Västergötland in Sweden, the Göta älv, which
drains Lake Vänern into the Kattegat.[7]
Old Norse records do not separate the Goths from the Gutar (Gotlanders)
and both are called Gotar in Old West Norse. The Old East Norse term for
both Goths and Gotlanders seems to have been Gutar (for instance in the
Gutasaga and in the runic inscription of the Rökstone). However the
Geats are clearly distinguished from the Goths/Gutar in both Old Norse
and Old English literature.
The Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna.At some time in prehistory,
consonant changes according to Grimm's Law created a *g from the *gh and
a *t from the *d. This same law more or less rules out *ghedh-, The *dh
in that case would become a *d instead of a *t.
According to the rules of Indo-European ablaut, the full grade
(containing an *e), *gheud-, might be replaced with the zero-grade (the
*e disappears), *ghud-, or the o-grade (the *e changes to an *o), *ghoud-,
accounting for the various forms of the name. The zero-grade is
preserved in modern times in the Lithuanian ethnonym for Belarusians,
Gudai, and in certain Polish names: Gdynia, Gdansk. The use of all three
grades suggests that the name derives from an Indo-European stage;
otherwise, it would be from a line descending from one grade. However,
when and where the ancestors of the Goths assigned this name to
themselves and whether they used it in Indo-european or proto-Germanic
times remain unsolved questions of historical linguistics and
prehistoric archaeology.
A compound name, Gut-žiuda, at root the "Gothic people", appears in the
Gothic Calendar (aikklesjons fullaizos ana gutžiudai gabrannidai).
Parallel occurrences indicate that it may mean "country of the Goths":
Old Icelandic Sui-žjņd, "Sweden"; Old English Angel-žēod, "Anglia"; Old
Irish Cruithen-tuath, "country of the Picts.[3]. Evidently this way of
forming a country- or people-name is not unique to Germanic.
Gapt, an early Gothic hero, recorded by Jordanes, is generally regarded
as a corruption of Gaut.
[edit] Proto-history
[edit] Jordanes
Jordanes, a confessed descendant of the Goths, recounts their early
legends (which may be based on history) as they were "told in their
early songs, in almost historic fashion."[8] His description of the
songs fits the saga, a form of oral poetry used by the Germanic peoples
to recount history, parallel to the epic poetry of other illiterate
peoples.
According to Jordanes, the earliest migrating Goths sailed from Scandza
under King Berig[9] in three ships[10] and named the place at which they
landed after themselves. Today (says Jordanes) it is called Gothiscandza
("Scandza of the Goths").[11] From there they entered the land of the
Ulmerugi (Rügen?), drove them out, and also subdued the Vandals, their
neighbors.
As for the location of Gothiscandza, Jordanes says[12] that one shipload
"dwelled in the province of Spesis on an island surrounded by the
shallow waters of the Vistula." Today's Gdansk, a large city, is at the
mouth of the Vistula, but the terrain has changed due to the deposition
of mud. The origin of the city remains undetermined. The name is
generally conceded to be from "Goth" but not necessarily from
Gothiscandza. That this is a legend of the origin of Gdansk cannot be
ruled out.
Under their 5th king, Filimer, son of Gadaric, the Goths entered Oium, a
land of bogs, part of Scythia,[13] defeated the Spali and moved to the
vicinity of the Black Sea.[14] There they became divided into the
Visigoths ruled by the Balthi family and the Ostrogoths ruled by the
Amali family.[15] Ostrogoths means "eastern Goths" and Visigoths means
"Goths of the western country."[16]
[edit] Pliny
Independent confirmation of Jordanes' account in some cases itself needs
confirmation: specifically the passage attributed by Pliny[17] to the
voyager Pytheas, in which the latter states that the "Gutones, a people
of Germany," inhabit the shores of an estuary of at least 6000 stadia
(the Baltic Sea) called Mentonomon, where amber is cast up by the waves.
Lehmann (mentioned above under Etymology) accepted this view but a
manuscript variant states Guiones rather than Gutones.[18] No other
trace of Guiones has even been found.
In Pliny's only other mention of the Gutones[19] he says that the
Vandals are one of the five races of Germany, and that the Vandals
include the Burgodiones, the Varinnae, the Charini and the Gutones. The
location of those Vandals is not stated, but there is a match with his
contemporary Ptolemy's east German tribes.[20] As those Gutones are put
forward as Pliny's not Pytheas', the early date is unconfirmed, but not
necessarily invalid.
[edit] History
Main article: Gothic and Vandal warfare
A 19th century artist's rendition of campaigning Goths as described by
their 3rd - 4th century Roman adversaries.Major sources for Gothic
history include Ammianus Marcellinus' Res gestae, mentioning Gothic
involvement in the civil war between emperors Procopius and Valens of
365 and recounting the Gothic refugee crisis and revolt of 376-382 and
Procopius' de bello gothico, describing the Gothic War of 535-552.
In the 3rd century, there were at least two groups of Goths, the
Thervingi, and the Greuthungi. The Thervingi launched one of the first
major "barbarian" invasions of the Roman Empire from 262, sacking
Byzantium[not in citation given] in 267.[21] 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. In 332 Constantine, in order to enforce the
roman empire border, helped the Sarmatians to settle on the north banks
of the Danube to defend against the Goths' attacks. 100,000 goths were
killed in battle, and Ariaricus, the son of the King of the Goths, was
captured. In 334 Constanine evacuated 300,000 Sarmatians from the north
bank of the Danube (after a local revolt of the sarmatian's
slaves),still in 335-336 Constantine continued the Danube campaign,
defeating many goth tribes. [22][23][24] Both the Greuthungi and
Thervingi became heavily Romanized during the 4th century by the
influence of trade with the Byzantines, and by their membership of a
military covenant centered in Byzantium to assist each other militarily.
They converted to Arianism during this time. Hunnic domination of the
Gothic kingdom in Scythia began in the 370s,[citation needed] and under
pressure of the Huns, the king of the Thervingi,[citation needed]
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 were one of two main branches of the Goths, (the
Ostrogoths being the other) during the fifth century. Together these
tribes were among the Germanic peoples who disturbed the late Roman
Empire during the Migration Period. A Visigothic force led by 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, Theodoric 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 Muslim Umayyad invasion of Spain
Andalusia.
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