The Goths were a Germanic
tribe on the Danube River frontier known to the Romans from the 1st century
AD. Pressured and then displaced when the Huns moved west out of Central
Asia, the Goths moved west into Europe and over the Danube River to escape
the oncoming hordes. After taking part in the fall of Rome, they vied with
other barbarians for the leavings of the Western Roman Empire during the
Early Middle Ages.
The Goths originated on
the island of Gotland in the Baltic, to the best of our knowledge, and split
into two groups as they migrated south across Central Europe. The Visigoths,
or West Goths, settled in modern Romania during the 2nd century. The
Ostrogoths, or East Goths, settled farther to the east on the northwest
coast of the Black Sea. In 376 AD the Visigoths were driven from modern
Romania by the Huns and moved south across the Danube. Their strength was
estimated at 60,000 men, women, and children. They defeated a Roman army
from Constantinople, settled briefly south of the Danube, and then pushed
into Italy. In 409 they sacked Rome under their king Alaric and then moved
north into Gaul. The Romans gave them southwestern Gaul. From their they
eventually extended their rule into all of modern Spain.
The Ostrogoths broke away from Hunnish rule and followed their cousins
into Italy late in the 5th century. They were encouraged to invade by the
Eastern Emperor who wanted deposed the barbarian then ruling as viceroy.
Under Theodric, king of modern Switzerland and the Balkans already, the
Goths entered Italy in 488, completing its conquest in 493.
Theodric’s kingdom did not last long following his death in 526. Using
a struggle for succession as an excuse, the Byzantines sent an army to Italy
in 536 led by their great general Belisarius. The Byzantines hoped to regain
Italy and restore the old Roman Empire in the West.
The war dragged on, devastating the countryside in conjunction with
plague and famine. In 552 the Ostrogoths were finally defeated in Italy.
They ceased to exist as a separate group by the late 6th century when
northern Italy was invaded by a new group of barbarians called the Lombards.
