Goths, << goths, >> were a confederation of Germanic tribes who entered the Roman Empire beginning in the A.D. 200’s. In the 400’s, they formed some of the small kingdoms that replaced the West Roman Empire. They were the first Germanic peoples to become Christians.
The Goths probably originated in what is now southern Scandinavia. They migrated to what is now Poland and to the region north of the Black Sea. During the A.D. 200’s, they invaded eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. In the 300’s, the Goths split into two groups. The Goths north of the lower Danube became the Visigoths, and those north of the Black Sea became the Ostrogoths.
After A.D. 370, both Gothic kingdoms were attacked by the nomadic Huns of central Asia. The Ostrogoths were overrun and absorbed into the Hun empire. Many Visigoths fled to the Roman province of Thrace but soon revolted against the Roman commanders. They destroyed a Roman army at Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey) in 378 and killed the Roman emperor Valens (see Valens ). Under their king, Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy during the early 400’s and looted Rome in 410 (see Alaric ). Alaric’s successors took the people into Gaul (now mainly France) and Spain. In 507, the Visigoths in France were defeated by the Franks. Most of the Visigoths in France then withdrew to Spain. The Visigoths’ Spanish kingdom was destroyed after the Arab invasion of 711.
The Ostrogoths gained their freedom from Hun control soon after the death in 453 of Attila, the powerful king of the Huns. Under their king Theodoric, the Ostrogoths invaded northern Italy in 489 and took control of the region. They remained in Italy until they were overthrown by armies of the Byzantine (East Roman) Empire during the mid-500’s.
