The New International Encyclopædia/Goths

​GOTHS. The name of a powerful nation of antiquity, belonging to the Germanic race. By some writers they are thought to have had a Scandinavian origin, which was the belief of their own historian, Jordanes. The earliest notice of them extant among the writers of antiquity is that of Pytheas of Marseilles, who lived about the time of Alexander the Great, and wrote a book of travels, some fragments of which have been preserved in the works of other writers. In one of these fragments, quoted by Pliny, we find mention made of a tribe of Guttones bordering upon the Germans, and living round a gulf of the sea called Mentonomon, a day’s sail from the island of Abalus, where they used to gather amber and sell it to the neighboring Teutones. This gulf, there is every reason to believe, was the Frisches Haff, situated on the Prussian shore of the Baltic. The next notice that occurs of the Goths is in the Germania of Tacitus, in which they are called Gothones, and are represented as dwelling beyond the Lygii, in the same direction as the one pointed out by Pytheas, though not on the seacoast. Tacitus also distinguishes them from the Gothini, a tribe east of the Quadi and the Marcomanni, and represented by him as using the Gallic tongue. The Gothones, according to this historian, were under regal government, and on that account not quite so free as the other tribes of Germany, but still they enjoyed a considerable amount of liberty. The tribes next beyond them, and dwelling immediately on the seacoast, were the Rugii and Lemovii, whose form of government was also monarchical and their weapons, like those of the Gothones, round shields and short swords.

We next hear of the Goths as settled on the coast of the Black Sea, about the mouths of the Danube, early in the third century. But at what time, or under what circumstances, their migration from the Baltic to the Euxine took place, it is impossible to ascertain. In their new home, which was also the country of the Getæ (whence, perhaps, the error that confounded them with that people), the Goths increased in both numbers and strength, so that, as early as the reign of Alexander Severus (A.D. 222–235), they made some formidable inroads into the Roman Province of Dacia. In the reign of Philip (A.D. 244–249) they ravaged that province, and even advanced to the siege of Marcianopolis in Mœsia Secunda. The inhabitants ransomed their lives and property with a large sum of money, and the invaders withdrew for a time to their own country. Under Decius, however, they again entered Mœsia to the number of about 70,000, led by a King named Cniva. Decius himself advanced to meet them, and found them before Nicopolis. On his approach they raised the siege and marched away to Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, near the foot of Mount Hæmus. Decius pursued them by forced marches, but the Goths turned with fury upon the Roman legions and utterly defeated them. Philippopolis next feil before them by storm, after a long resistance, during which, and the massacre that followed, 100,000 of its inhabitants are reported to have been slain. This was in A.D. 250. In the following year another tremendous battle took place near an obscure town called Forum Trebonii, in Mœsia, in which the Romans were again defeated with great slaughter, the Emperor Decius and his son being in the number of the slain. The succeeding Emperor, Gallus, purchased their retreat by an immediate present of a large sum of money and the promise of an annual tribute for the future. The Goths now set themselves to the acquisition of a fleet, and with this, in 253, advanced to the conquest of Pityus, a Greek town on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, which they completely destroyed. In 258 they besieged and took Trebizond, when a great fleet of ships that were in the port fell into their hands. In these they deposited the booty of the city, which was of immense value; chained the youth of the sea-coast to their oars; and returned in triumph to the Kingdom of Bosporus. In the following year, with a still more powerful force of men and ships, they took Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nice, Prusa, Apamea, and Cius. In a third expedition, which numbered as many as 500 vessels, they took Cyzicus, then sailed down the Egean, ravaged the coast of Attica, and in 262 anchored at the Piræus. Athens was now taken and plundered, and many other renowned places in Greece ​were either partially or wholly destroyed. Even Italy was threatened; but the danger drew the indolent Emperor, Gallienus, from his seclusion. The Emperor appeared in arms, and his presence seems to have checked the ardor and to have divided the strength of the enemy. A portion of the Goths now returned to their own country. But in 269 they again started on a maritime expedition in far greater numbers than ever. After ravaging the coasts of both Europe and Asia, the main armament at length anchored before Thessalonica. In Claudius II., the successor of Gallienus, however, the Goths found a far abler general than any they had yet contended with. This Emperor defeated their immense host, said to number as many as 300,000 men, in three successive battles, taking or sinking their fleet, and after an immense slaughter of their troops, pursuing such as escaped until they were hemmed in by the passes of Mount Hæmus, where they perished for the most part by famine. This, however, was only a single reverse. Aurelian, the successor of Claudius, was obliged to cede to them, in 272, the large Province of Dacia, after which there was comparative peace between the combatants for about fifty years. In the reign of Constantine their King, Alaric, again provoked hostilities, but was obliged eventually to sue for peace with the master of the Roman Empire. Under Valens they once more encountered the Roman legions, with whom they carried on a war for about three years (367–369) with tolerable success. They now began to be distinguished by the appellations of Ostrogoths and Visigoths, or the Goths of the east and the west; the former inhabiting the shores of the Black Sea, and the latter the Dacian province and the banks of the Danube. On the irruption of the Huns the Visigoths sought the protection of Valens against those barbarians, and in 376 were allowed by him to pass into Mœsia, to the number of about 200,000. Great numbers of them also now took service in the Roman Army; but a dispute soon arose between the Goths and their new allies, which led to a decisive battle in 378, near Adrianople, in which the Emperor Valens lost his life. The Goths now threatened Constantinople, but were not able to take it; and during the reign of Theodosius there was again a period of comparative peace.

Henceforward the history of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths flows in two divergent streams. Before tracing either of these, however, it should be mentioned that the Goths, for the most part, became converts to Christianity about the middle of the fourth century, adopting the Arian form of belief. Here, also, it may be stated that the term Mœsogoths was applied to certain of the western Goths, who, having settled in Mæsia, devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits, under the protection of the Roman Emperors.

Visigoths. Upon the death of Theodosius the Great in 395, and the partition of the Empire between Honorius and Arcadius, the renowned Alaric, King of the Visigoths, invaded Greece with an army of his countrymen. His retreat was purchased by giving him a commission to govern Illyricum. In 402 he invaded Italy, took and pillaged Rome (410), and was preparing to carry his arms into Sicily and Africa, when his career was arrested by death. (See Alaric.) Alaric was succeeded in the sovereignty by Athaulf (410–415), who, having married Placidia, the sister of Honorius, withdrew from Italy into the south of Gaul, and about 412 crossed the Pyrenees into Spain. Athaulf was assassinated at Barcelona, and his successor, Sigeric, dying the same year, the choice of the Goths now fell on Wallia (415–419), who extended his power over a great part of Southern Gaul and Spain, and made Toulouse his capital. The Goths, under this monarch, greatly assisted the Romans in their contests with the Vandals and the Alani. Wallia was succeeded by Theodoric I. (419–451), son of the great Alaric. He lost his life fighting on the side of the Romans against Attila at Châlons, leaving the throne to his son, Thorismund (451–453), who, however, was assassinated by his brother Theodoric II. (453–466), who was himself assassinated by his brother Euric (466–483). The reign of Euric was unusually brilliant and successful. He extended the sovereignty of the Visigoths considerably both in France and Spain, introduced the arts of civilization among his subjects, and drew up for their use a code of laws. Under his successors, Alaric II. (483–507) and Amalaric (507–531), however, the kingdom of the Visigoths declined before that of the Franks. Alaric II. fell by the hands of Clovis in battle, and Amalaric was killed by the hand of an assassin. Under the latter’s successor, Theudis, the rule of the Visigoths was confined exclusively to Spain. Theudis was in his turn assassinated in his palace at Barcelona in the year 548. It will not be necessary to trace the long line of Visigothic kings that subsequently ruled in Spain from this period down to the year 711. The Visigothic power was completely broken by the Saracen invaders on the battlefield of Jerez de la Frontera. (See Spain.)

Ostrogoths. At the coming of the Huns, part of the Ostrogoths had been conquered and compelled to lend aid; thus they joined Attila in his renowned expedition against Gaul, and fell by thousands under the swords of their kinsmen, the Visigoths, at the battle of Châlons, in 451. After this they obtained a settlement in Pannonia, where they were joined by the other Ostrogoths, who had, at the coming of the Huns, been admitted within the Roman Empire. In 476 Theodoric, the greatest of the Ostrogoth sovereigns, succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father, Theodemir. He directed his arms almost immediately against the Eastern Emperor, Zeno; and having gained considerable advantages over him, obtained a grant of some of the richest provinces in the Empire. Eventually, he was named chief of the Imperial guard, and consul for the year 484. In 488, with the consent and advice of Zeno, he planned an immense expedition again Odoacer, King in Italy, who had held that position since 476, when he dethroned Romulus Augustulus, the last of the Western emperors. Theodoric utterly defeated Odoacer, slew him, it is said, with his own hand, in 493, and reigned undisturbed sovereign of Italy until his death in 526. The seat of his empire was at Ravenna, and in 500 he visited Rome, when he convened a meeting of the Senate, and declared that it was his intention to rule the people committed to his charge with evenhanded justice. To a great extent, he fulfilled this promise, and governed his subjects, upon the whole, wisely and to their advantage. The glory of his reign was, however, sullied by the execution of two of the most distinguished men of that ​age, Boëthius and Symmachus, upon the plea that they were engaged in a conspiracy against him. In the disorders consequent upon the death of Theodoric, the Emperor Justinian sought to win back Italy to the allegiance of the emperors of Constantinople; and for this purpose he dispatched Belisarius at the head of an army into that country. In 536 Belisarius entered Rome, which he held for his master, although invited by the Goths to become himself their King; but all his and his successor’s efforts to subdue the Goths were at that time utterly fruitless. Totila (541–552), a noble Goth, was elected as successor to Vitiges, the antagonist of Belisarius, but was conquered in the battle of Tagina, by the Imperial general Narses, in the year 552. In that battle Totila received his death wound, and was succeeded by Teias, who did all that a brave man could to repair the misfortunes of his countrymen. It was to no effect, however, for he also was killed in battle in the following year. The Ostrogoths, broken and dispersed by their calamities, henceforward disappear from history as a distinct nation, their throne in Italy being filled by the exarchs of Ravenna; while the nation generally became absorbed in the indiscriminate mass of Alani, Vandals, Burgundians, and Franks, who had from time to time established themselves in the dominions of the old Roman Empire. Consult Bradley, The Story of the Goths (New York, 1888).