Rise and Fall of the Goths
(continued- back to main article)
 

The Goths and the Romans

The Goths and their cousins, the Vandals, were two of the Germanic tribes that became troublesome to the Roman Empire from the third to the fifth centuries C.E. Because nearly all of the surviving information about the Goths and Vandals comes from Roman sources, history has taken a largely negative view of these groups as ‘uncivilized” and “barbarian”

During their migrations into the Roman Empire, the Goths and Vandals converted to Christianity, foremost under missionary and later bishop Ulfilas (Wulfia) who also translated the bible into the Gothic language and devised the Gothic alphabet. Gothic reik Fritigern is generally associated with a mass conversion of Gothic people following the military support by Rome against the Huns. Unfortunately, the Goths (as well as the Vandals) converted at a time when Arianism, a non-Trinitarian Christian doctrine, was predominant in the Empire which, of course was later repudiated as heretical by Roman Catholicism. Perhaps this set up the tensions between Rome and the Goths that led to many military escalations in the fifth century.


The Ostrogoths
The Gothic culture had its heyday in the early sixth century C.E. when Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths, became ruler over Italy. He relocated a large contingent of his people to Italy near Ravenna. While keeping loyal to the Arian (non-Trinitarian) Christianity the Goths had converted to in the fourth century, Theodoric was a champion of religious and ethnic harmony. He unified the Gothic tribes, including the Vandals. During Theodoric’s reign over Italy, peace and prosperity abounded. A few decades after Theodoric’s death in 526, the Visigothic kingdom he established in Italy fell to the Byzantine Empire.


The Vandals - cousins of the Goths
The term vandalism, which is derived from the Gothic tribe of the Vandals, denotes senseless destruction of property. The Vandals did sack Rome in 455 C.E., and while they plundered extensively, they did not destroy Rome, nor did they massacre her citizens.

In 406 C.E. the Vandals moved into North Africa under king and reik Genseric. By 440 C.E. their kingdom was established with its capital at Carthage. Genseric’s army actually sacked the city of Rome in 455 C.E. As the story goes, Pope Leo I met Genseric outside the gates of Rome and begged for mercy. A surrender agreement was made which allowed the Vandals to punder, but not destroy the city or massacre her citizens. An army of the Byzantine Empire defeated Vandal king Gelimer in Constantinople in 534 C.E.


The Visigoths
In 410 C.E., Visigothic reik Alaric successfully invaded the city of Rome and, thus, made inroads into the empire, settling his people in Gaul (in modern France) and parts of Iberia. The kingdom of the Visigoths eventually fell to the invading north-African Moors in the year 711.

However, Pelagius of Asturias gathered a number of Visigothic military leaders and defeated the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga. A century-long battle ensued known as the Reconquista. The Gothic victory at Covadonga marked the beginning of the Kingdom of Asturias from which modern Spain and Portugal evolved. The Gothic culture was eventually hispanicized. Gothic as a spoken language disappeared following the conversion of the Gothic Spaniards to Catholicism (from Arian Christianity). Soon after the conversion, Latin replaced the Gothic language in the Asturian churches. The only direct trace of Spain’s Gothic roots are found in the Germanic last names that are still in use in Spain to this very day.

Click here for Bibliography
         
All rights reserved. Contact frank@javacasa.com for permission to use.