See also: Gothic

This article treats Germanic tribe. For the Subculture of the 20th century whose members indicate themselves by goths , to see Gothic Mouvement ----

The Goths belonged to the Germanic Peuples, according to their own traditions they would be originating in the Scandinavia, to see Goths of Scandinavia. Perhaps they came from the island of Gotland. But they could also result from the Götaland in southernmost Sweden or from the north of current Poland. At the beginning of our era, they settled in the area of the estuary of the the Vistula (in the north of current the Poland). One finds hard copies then testifying to their presence in the texts of the ancient geographers under the name of Gutonen (gotic: , Gutans ) - Tacit, Germanic the .

The root gaut , which seems to return at the same time in the names of the " Goths" , of the " Götar" and of the " Gutar" state however that it is about a probable common origin. It comes from gotic the giutan (in German giessen , in French to pour) and would mean " Pourers of semence" thus parent, therefore man. Let us note the presence of a Germanic divinity presents in the ostic branch, Gaut , which would correspond to Odin in the Scandinavian branch and to Wodan in the westic branch. This god was their god parent, from where its nomination of " pourer of semence". The name would come from Goths.

In the second part of the 2nd century, part of Goths migrated towards south-east in direction of the Black Sea. As of the 3rd century Goths were fixed in the area of the modern Ukraine and the Bielorussia where they were probably joined by other groups which were more or less integrated in the tribe. Goths trained only one people until the end 3rd century. After a first confrontation with the Roman Empire in the south-east of Europe at the beginning of the century, they separated in two groups: Greuthunges in the East and Tervinges in the West which will become thereafter the Ostrogoths or “Goths brilliances”, with the East, and the wise Visigoths or “Goths” in the West.

The Greutungen/Ostrogoths were fixed by Huns in 375. After their decline, they become Fœderati Roman Empire. But in 488, they conquer the Italy under Théodoric, at the request of the Byzantine Empire. After the death of Théodric, the empire ostrogoth périclite under the pressure of the army of Justinien.

The Terwingen/Visigoths , who still fought the Roman capacity under the emperor Valens in 378 with the Bataille of Turkey-red cotton, were federate in 382. At the beginning of the 5th century, they founded a kingdom in Gaulle, before being driven out in Spain by the Francs. The Royaumes Visigoths of Spain finally crumbled in 711 during the invasions Moors.

Known names

The Visigoths had various names: Tervingi (or Terwingen ) in their colonies in the north of the Danube, Vesi- or Visigothi , or Goth of the west according to the Germanic denomination. Terwingen means Peuple of wood (gotic triu , tree). Wisi (or Vesi) is an eulogistic name that they allotted and has a significance close to wise or noble (that one finds in German wissen , knowledge or in English wise , sagacious).

The Ostrogoths (Goths " brillants") or Goths of the East according to Germanic name, was named Greutungen before the invasions tops. It is thought that the name Greutungen would mean people of the steppes .

Later, the names " Wisigoths" and " Ostrogoths" were transformed anachronistically into " Goths of Ouest" and " Goths of Est" by Cassiodore, one of the Ministers for the king ostrogoth Théodoric Large the. The separation of the two people was consequently effective. The Gépides (tribe close to Goths), which followed Goths in their escape towards the south trained third people " consequently; gotique" distict in the classification of Cassiodore. They remained in the back-country, near to the Carpates, rather subordinated to the capacity of (Ostro-) Goths.

The Visigoths were established in the north of the the Danube whereas Ostrogoths colonized the mouth of the Dniepr as well as the the Crimea. The Visigoths constituted a Oligarchie made of many small " rois" , whereas the royal family of the Amales extended her capacity on Ostrogots. However, Jordanès historically attests royal line of the Amales as of the 4th century after J.C.

History

Goths before their separation

Origins: between legend and reality

The question of the origin of Goths is a historical puzzle and philological important.

See also: Kingdoms goths

The first mentions of the Goth people are in the ancient historical accounts of Tacite, Strabon and Ptolémée under the name of Gotonen . They are described there like Germanic people gathered in solid kingdom, established at the beginning of our era at the edge of the the Vistula in Poland, with the {{S|II|E}} before the Christian era, in the zone of influence of the Marcomans. Their direct neighbors were the Luges in the south and the Ruges in north.

According to the Greek and Roman historians, Goths were established in 238 on the edges of the the Danube. Consequently one can really speak about a history of Goths, although at the beginning of the {VIe century} Cassiodore makes go up their quite front history.

At the request of Théodoric Large the, it writes a History of Goths ( Gothorum Historia ) in twelve volumes, which gathers the history of many already known tribes Scandinaves and Scythes of the Historiographie and the ancient Ethnologie since Hérodote, in particular the Gètes often confused with Goths, and draws up a list of the kings goths, gathering the oral legends of Goths. Of these writings we have nothing any more but traces coming study from Jordanès, romanized Goth of the 6th century (~550, Of origin actibusque Getarum ), written and ordered on the model of the Gernamia of Tacite which was partly found.

According to the legends transmitted by Jordanès, the people would have been based by heroic the Gapt on the island of Scandza (Scandianvie). From there, they would have emigrated with three ships, accompanying the king Berig, in Gothiscandza (coast Baltic), and after five generations, would have taken the road of the south with the legendary king Filimer. The separation of the people would have taken place whereas they crossed a large river and that the bridge would have been destroyed.

Jordanès describes also two named Scandinavian tribes Gautigoths (probably the Swedish province of Westrogothie /V ästergötland) and Ostrogoths (probably the Swedish province of Ostrogothie/Östergötland). This tradition is supported by the archeology which shows close relationships between the south of Scandinavia and the culture of Goths. There is also a vast disappearance of population in the Ostrogothie in the south of Sweden at the time of the appearance of Goths in Poland. According to the linguists the branch ostic (Gothic) of the Germanic languages is parentée with westic the Scandinave branch than with the branch. The root rebuilt word goth , *Gut- , is identical to that of Gotland , an island in the Baltic. There are interesting correspondences between the Gotique, the language of Goths, and the Gutnisk, the dialect Swedish of Gotland.

The writings of Jordanès comprise only little historical truth; it is rather about a mythological account. On the other hand, archeology shows us that culture of first Goths (Wielbark Malbok/culture of Willenberg), which does not have that little emigrated in the east the the Vistula, there appeared about the 1st century and was gradually spread out towards south-east, until appearing at the beginning of the 2nd century in current the Ukraine, whereas colonies remained until the 4th century with the mouth of the Vistula. From an archaeological point of view, a foundation of the people in Scandinavia could not be checked. It seems today that Goths come rather from a polyethnic meeting of tribes present at the level of current Poland.

It is however sure that Goths did not train homogeneous people. Before their expansion, they were formed of made of small tribes coming from Baltic groups, of the people of the Aesten, the Gepides, the Goths of Scandinavia (Guts and Geats), and naturally of Goths. The name of the last two people (and perhaps of Gepides) have the same significance and seem to have a common origin. What is certain, it is that they did not bury their warriors with their weapons, atypical thing for the German ones.

Wars

In the middle of the 2nd century, the population increasing considerably, king Filimer would have decided to emigrate with its army, the women and the children. What is sure, it is that Goths relatively slowly spread along the Vistula upstream river, then until the Black Sea and in the Danube. On their way, they overcame the Marcomans, established into Bohemian, and thus solved the Guerre of Marcomans, which were devoted to a wild war with the Roman Empire.

They reached at the beginning of the 3rd century the northern coast of the Black Sea and the borders of the Roman Empire. From an archaeological point of view, the culture of Wielbark is transformed there into Culture of Tschernjachov on the level of the current Ukraine. Thus starts, as of 230, the Gotensturm, the first large cruel invasions which undergoes the Roman Empire.

Goths attacked in 238 with the Carps (tribe Dace) the south of the mouth of the Danube. They are still named in the files like Skythai (Publius Herennius Dexippus), a terminus technicus of ancient historiography to indicate the cruel tribes of the Black Sea. After the bag of the city and the flight of the raised taxes, they were withdrawn. When ten years later, the emperor Philippe the Arab, after having overcome Carps set up there a tax into 250, the king Goth Cniva attacked again accompanied by many armed groups Daces, Traces, Illyriens and masses. The new emperor Dèce lost many battles and was finally overcome with the Bataille of Abrittus into 251.

The following emperor, Trébonien Galle negotiated peace with Goths. He bought their retirement against the delivery of supply and the payment of an annual tribute, and gave up the Roman prisoners to them. These conditions scandalized its contemporaries. However that did not prevent Goths from being again agitated in 253, invading the Trace and the Messiah. Trébonien sent his/her Volusianus son to carry out a new forwarding. On the spot, Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, governor of Messiah, was several military successes. In 254, Goths make an incursion until Thessalonique. Many cities were in state of siege and the countryside was devastated.

From 255, Goths conducted maritime attacks on the east coast of the Black Sea. In 256, Pityus and Trapezunt are conquered. In 257, Goths cross for the first time the the Bosphorus and take a great number of towns of minor Asia. In 267, Goths plundered the Thrace.

In 268, one second wave of attack starts, on ground as on sea against Byzance, crosses the Dardanelles and plunders the Peloponnese. the emperor Claude II the Gothic gathered all the forces available and went on Balkans, threatened by an invasion of Goths which prevailed already in the Danubian provinces. It gained into 268 with the Bataille of Naissus as a Messiah a higher (today Nish in Serbia) victory very not easily acquired and not very decisive. He is however the first emperor to gain the prestigious nickname of Gothicus . In 271, they were pushed back until the the Danube.

Scission and ethnogenèse

With the end of the crisis of the Roman Empire under the emperor Dioclétien, the situation improves in the area of the Danube. At this time (in the neighborhoods of year 290), a scission occurs in the Goth people between Terwingen-Visigoths and Greutungen-Ostrogoths.

It is important in this context to specify that Terwingen do not correspond completely to the future Visigoths and Greutungen do not correspond completely to the Ostrogoths futures: many contacts between the two people remained. Part of Terwingen, as well as many other tribes, were thereafter built-in with Greutungen and vice versa in the Ethnogenèse two Goths people, although the difference remains marked well all the same.

Approximately, one can say that the Visigoths correspond to Goths who settled in the Roman Empire, in the abandoned Roman province of Dacie, from 376 until the reign of Alaric I {{er}}. During this time, Goths remained in Ukraine established vast and powerful kingdom along the Black Sea. They became Ostrogoths. Towards 370, Huns subjected Ostrogoths, which consequently becomes their vassal and allied against the Roman Empire. According to Jordanès, the defeat vis-a-vis Huns also caused the suicide of the king ostrogoth Ermanaric into 378. However, the question of a communautarism on the level of each of the two people remains prone to debate.

See also: Visigoths

See also: Ostrogoths

Goths were briefly joined together under a single crown, at the beginning of the 6th century, at the time of the reign of the king ostrogoth Théodoric Large the, which was the regent of the kingdom Visigoth during almost two decades.

This group, the futures Visigoths, then settled on the other side of the Danube and establishes a kingdom independent in the abandoned Roman province of Dacie. During this time, Goths remained in Ukraine established vast and powerful kingdom along the Black Sea. They became Ostrogoths.

Goths were briefly joined together under a single crown, at the beginning of the 6th century, at the time of the reign of the king ostrogoth Théodoric Large the, which was the regent of the kingdom Visigoth during almost two decades.

Culture

When one speaks about gotic culture, it is necessary to keep in mind that after their installation in the zone of influence of the Roman Empire a strong appropriation of the Roman culture occurred, even if many differences remain.

The Gothic language

See also: Gotique

Goths used a gotic language belonging to the group of the Eastern Germanic languages like the Vandale, the Burgonde, the ruge, the gotique one of the Crimea…

It is oldest of the attested Germanic languages but it gave rise to no current Germanic language. Indeed, Goths were the first barbarian people with being christianized. The bishop Wulfila (311-383) translated the Bible into Gotique and converts Goths with the Arianisme, one of the first Hérésie S of the Christianity (according to the word employed by the Roman church) and which contributed to stigmatize the differences between the Romans and the Germanic Peuples known as Barbares which adopted it.

The oldest documents date from the 4th century of the Christian era. Gotic cease to be usually used starting from second half of the 6th century because of the wisigothic defeats vis-a-vis the Francs, of the destruction of Goths of Italy (Ostrogoths), of conversion to the Catholicism of Goths of Spain, Latinization and romanisation, geographical insulation, etc

The language gothe nevertheless would have survived at least until the medium of VIIe century in Spain and Frank Walahfrid Strabo mentions that at the beginning of IXe century, she is still spoken on the lower course about the Danube and in the mountains isolated from the Crimea. Perhaps the terms seeming to belong to gotic found in the posterior manuscripts (paid to XVIe century) of the Crimea do not correspond exactly to the same language.

Religion

The religious framework of Goths is a village worship mixing the veneration with the ancestors and the sacrificial offerings

The origins of the religion gothe is Germanic paganism. However, one could find of them traces only in the Getica of Jordanès because the gotic files start with their conversion with the Arianisme and are primarily made of Christian religious texts.

Chronology

  • Towards 180: Installation of Goths on banks of the Black Sea.
  • Towards 200: The empire of Goths constitutes on the edges of the Black Sea.
  • 220 : Goths invade the Asia Mineure and the peninsula of the Balkans.
  • 238 : In spite of the payment of a tribute, the Romains fail to persuade Goths and Carpes to withdraw province of Moesie.
  • 247 : Beginnings of the invasions of Goths.
  • 250 : In the Balkans, the Carpes invade the Dacie and Goths the Moesie.
  • 250 : Beginning of the first war of Goths (fine in 269).
  • 257 : Goths float on the Black Sea.
  • 257 : Goths separate in Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
  • 267 : Goths plunder the Thrace, the Macedonia and the Greece.
  • 269 : End of the first war of Goths.
  • 332 : Goths combined with Rome protect the borders from the the Danube.
  • 332 : The Romains under Constantin I {{er}} beat Goths on Bottom the Danube.
  • 334 : Goths protect the Roman Empire against an invasion vandal in the Danubian area .
  • 350 : Beginning of the second war of Goths (fine in 360).
  • 350 : Foundation of Kiev, the capital of the Empire goth of Russia.
  • 360 : End of the second war of Goths.
  • 369 : The bishop goth Wulfila (or Ulfilas) composes a alphabet gotic starting from the Greek letters and Latin as well as some Germanic Rune S.
  • 379 : Théodose I {{er}} deals with the war against Goths.
  • 401 : Beginning of the Third war of Goths.
  • 413 : End of the Third war of Goths.
  • 512 : Théodoric Large the publishes its Edictum Theodorici , code for the Romains and Goths.
  • 531 : The Latin writer Cassiodore, historian of Goths, makes of them equal Romains.
  • 535 : Beginning of the last war of Goths
  • 552: End of the last war of Goths

Culture of Goths

Religion

See Gaut before conversion by Arius.

Clans and Families

See Gothie, Balthes and Amales for the dominant Aristocracies.

Language

See also: Gotique

Goths spoke a Germanic language. As they accepted Wulfila a writing several centuries before the other Germanic languages, thus reaching the row of written language, the gotic traditional one is more ancient than the Anglo-Saxon or the Vieux norrois. The gotique one was the most known representative of the Eastern Germanic Langues, group of languages in which one can count the vandal or the burgonde. Today, the language of Goths died to the traces which it left in the vocabulary of the Roman language. Until the 17-18e centuries still remained in the Crimea of the remainders: the Gotique of the Crimea.

Posterity

Western Europe

The principal posterity in Western Europe, on the History, the local Arts and toponyms, comes from the kingdom left by the Visigoths taking into account his longevity.

See also: Posterity of Goths in Western Europe

Eastern Europe

The question primarily raises of excavations on the archaeological Cultures.

See also: Kingdoms goths

The Treasury of Goths (Pietroasa dating from the end of IVeme century) was found in 1837 with Bucharest by a peasant. It belonged to the things that the Visigoths left during their escape vis-a-vis the Huns. Famous the fibules with the effigy of eagles forms part of it. The eagle was the symbol par excellence of Goths since the time when they lived on banks of the Black Sea. There were many others of them.

See too

Internal bonds

Simple: Goths

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