The goths19:16 Dec 26 2006
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The Germans
The first great wave of European migration were the unexplained migrations of the Celts in the sixth and fifth centuries BC; the next great wave, of far greater importance, was the equally mysterious migration of Germanic tribes beginning in the second century AD. Even more mysterious, but most crucially, the migrations of Germanic tribes eventually resulted in the conquest of the western Empire. This is an odd chapter in history, for the population of Italy was exponentially larger than the population of migrating Germans. The Visigoths, one of the largest of the German tribes, probably did not number more than 100,000 people and could field probably no more than 25,000 soldiers at any one time. This is in comparison to the 60 to 70 million people living in the Empire and a standing army that outnumbered the entire population of Visigoths. Still, the Visigoths managed to enter Rome and assert administrative control over much of the western Empire.
Whatever the mysterious causes of the Germanic migrations and for whatever reason, these migrations are more responsible than any other factor in the creation of Europe. After the conquest of Rome and a feeble attempt by the some Germanic tribes to continue Roman culture and institutions, the face of Europe was gradually transformed by a remarkable diversity of Germanic tribes. From these people would arise most of the major cultural and political groups of the later Middle Ages: the English, the French, the Scandinavians, Icelanders, and, of course, the Germans themselves. From their diverse cultures and their polar responses to classical culture would arise the singular idea of "Europe" and European culture.
Origins The migrations of the early centuries AD, of course, involved four major peoples: the Alans, the Huns, the Germans, and, in the final stage, Slavic peoples. These were all distinct migrations but were intimately tied with one another. The Hunnish invasions, for instance, in part impelled the Alanic and Germanic expansions; the Germanic expansions in their turn displaced some of the Slavs who migrated into Europe. By far the most important peoples in these migrations were the Germanic tribes.
The origins of these tribes are shrouded in mystery. They were most likely a people derived from the Celts, but they have much in common with other European cultures, such as the Illyrians and the Veneti. For the most part, the term "Germanic" is almost entirely a linguistic rather than a cultural term—it refers mainly to the tribal groups in Europe that spoke similar languages, Germanic, that had been derived from Celtic sources. Germanic languages probably came into existence around the second century BC—that is, they became distinct from Celtic languages. In both Celtic and Germanic, the word, "German," means something like "the fierce men" or, contrarily, "the friendly men." Who knows?
Archaeologists put the geographical origin of the Germanic peoples in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. There, they developed a warrior culture that was essentially democratic in character. As they migrated south and east, this democratic warrior society developed into a kingship and, as they came in contact with the Romans and Romanized Celts, they developed further aristocratic classes among the warriors and nobility.
The most significant aspect of the Germanic social structure was the comitatus, a term invented by the Roman historian Tacitus. The comitatus was a retinue of warriors that attached itself to a lord or king voluntarily. Through oaths of loyalty, the comitatus protected militarily the lord or king who, in his turn, granted individuals the protection of the comitatus and rewarded them with wealth. The Germanic tribal economy was more or less identical to most tribal economies—it was primarily based on reciprocity rather than trade. In a reciprocal economy, goods and services are distributed as gifts in an expression of the social relationship and mutual obligations inhering between members of the group. The comitatus was a sophisticated military organization built entirely on the economic logic of reciprocity.
As the tribes came into increasing contact with Rome and Romanized Celts, they began to adopt much of the material technology and culture of Rome, substantially increasing their efficiency as agricultural producers. In addition, they developed their own system of writing, runic writing, sometime around the third century AD. Even with this writing, the Germanic tribes remained largely oral cultures.
Individual tribes and families reckoned origins back to sacred animals, a common practice among the European peoples. Eventually, individual tribes would adopt unique pantheons of gods—as in the clan-groups in ancient Japan among the Yayoi, Germanic religion originally consisted of a diverse set of gods specific to each tribe. As in ancient Japan, these diverse gods would eventually be distilled to a single, common pantheon of gods in a hierarchy of priority. The highest of these was a sky and storm god, Wodan, who seemed to serve many functions. He was the principle representative of the forces of nature, but he was also the god that led souls to the afterlife and was the source of all magic and special knowledge. German religious practice was largely shamanistic as it was among the Celts; as with the Celts, religious ceremonies took place in groves and sometimes by bodies of water—this indicates that there was a strong sense of nature in Germanic religion.
The Goths The Germanic tribes would have been just a footnote in history had it not been for the Gothic tribes, for these tribes overran the western Empire of Rome and permanently set Europe on a new cultural trajectory.
The Goths originally migrated from Scandinavia and from there migrated south into Europe and east into southern Russia (some of their descendants still live in the Crimean area). The reason for this migration are unclear, but the standard, default interpretation is that they were pressured by overpopulation. They may also have been flooded out—in the centuries before the Gothic migrations, the Baltic Sea, where the Goths originated, was not a sea at all, but a lake. Geological events and erosions eventually joined the Baltic with the North Sea—the coastal areas of the Baltic subsequently suffered devestating floods as the geological process slowly took place.
The meaning of the word, Goth, is obscure. The word is a Latin word. The Goths called themselves the Gut-thiuda , or "Gut" people. What "Gut" means is mysterious; it seems to be related to the Gothic word for "pour," possibly a reference to the flooding that may have inspired their migratory wandrings.
The Goths in southern Russia came into contact with Turkish and Persian civilization and they adopted some of the agricultural, domestic, and military technology of these civilizations. There, the Goths developed one of the most effective cavalries in the world at the time—by those who came against it, the Gothic cavalry was considered unbeatable.
The southern Russian Goths began a series of migrations again in the third centuries. The reasons for this are completely mysterious. The most famous of these migrations occurred under the Gothic king, Ostrogotha, who would give his name to his people, the Ostrogoths. During the third century, the Goths sent numerous raiding parties into the Balkans, Asia Minor, and Greece and harried the Empire's military.
By the time the Goths were making inroads into the empire, the tribe had divided into two very distinct groups, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. Through migrations and raids, these two groups controlled a vast amount of territory by the year 300, including much of the area north of the Danube River and the Balkans.
Christianity was first introduced among the southern Russian Goths around 325; it was, however, the mission of one Wulfila among the Balkan Goths that most fully integrated Christianity into Gothic culture. Wulfila's translation of the Bible into Gothic, of which only fragments remain, stands as the first, complete text in a Germanic language.
This translation is immensely important for assembling the world view of the early Goths. Houses, material implements, and burials tell us very, very little about how the world was experience by the early Goths. The writings of classical writers, such as the historian Tacitus, are marred by the manifest partisanship and xenophobia of the authors. Wulfila's translation, however, is a window into the the Gothic mind. For Wulfila has to do more than just translate the Bible into the language, he has to translate it into the concepts of the Gothic people. Throughout the translation, Wulfila employs the language of kinship relationships and the relationships between king and people. For instance, in Matthew 6.24, where the Greek text reads, "No man may serve two masters," Wulfila's translation reads, "No man may have obligations to two lords" ("Ni manna mag twáim fráujam skalkinon"). The language of servitude and slavery has been translated into the tribal logic of mutual obligations and reciprocity as well as the voluntary service of a warrior to a lord.
The Hunnish invasions in 375 effectively destroyed the Gothic empire and inspired another round of Gothic migrations. The Goths migrated into Roman territory in eastern Bulgaria and soon rebelled against Roman authority. The wars against Rome were not really about territorial expansion but mainly reactive. The easily defeated the Roman army in Bulgaria in 378 and within a few decades, the Visigoths began to migrate into Italy itself. There, under the king, Alaric, they captured Rome itself for a few days in the year 410. The real cause of their invasion was to force the Emperor to grant them better lands—althought the occupation of Rome was considered the "sack of Roman" by Latin contemporaries, in reality, the Visigoths did very little damage to Roman life and property. In 418, the emperor Theodosius granted the Visigothic request and allowed them to settle southern Gaul (southern France).
This did not end their migration or territorial expansion—the Visigoths soon migrated over the Pyrenees into Spain and established a Visigothic kingdom there. In southern Gaul, they established an independent kingdom, Toulouse. They were prevented from conquering the rest of Gaul by the invasions of the Franks, a different Germanic tribe, in northern Gaul.
The Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse was swallowed up by the Frankish invasions of Clovis; these invasions would create a new empire in Europe, the Merovingian empire and the Gaulish Visigoths (and the Burgundian German kingdom to the north) would lose its ethnic character as it was absorbed into a larger political and ethnic identity as Franks.
The Visigoths in Spain, however, dominated that area until 711, the year that Muslim invaders conquered most of Spain. For the most part, however, Visigothic culture was gradually absorbed into late Roman culture. The Visigoths had adopted a heretical form of Christianity, Arianism, but the Spanish Visigoths soon dropped it for Roman Christianity.
The Ostrogoths, on the other hand, had been subjugated under the Huns during the brief Hunnish empire. When the great Hunnish conqueror, Attila, was defeated in 451, the Ostrogoths began their own series of migrations and conquests. Under the king, Theoderic, they began a war of conquest against Italy, which they ruled until they were conquered by the eastern emperor, Justinian, in 554.
The Visigoths, 395-711
None of six main German tribes, save one, survived the early part of the Middle Ages. Only the Franks created an enduring state. The principal immediate damage to the Empire was done by the Visigoths, who, instead of being assimilated like earlier barbarians settled on Roman
VISIGOTHS
Alaric I 395-410
Athaulf (Ataulfo) 410-415
Sigeric 415
Wallia 415-417
defeat of Vandals &
Alans in Spain, 417
Theodoric I 417-451
withdrawal to Aquitaine, 418; killed by Huns, battle of Chalôns-sur-Marne (otherwise known as the Campus Mauriacus or the Catalaunian Plains), 451
Thorismund 451-453
Theodoric II 453-466
invades Spain, defeats Suevi, 456
Euric (Eurico) I 466-484
Alaric (Alarico) II 484-507
defeated by Franks,
driven from Gaul, 507
Amalaric (Amalarico) 508-511,
526-531
capital at Toledo, 527
Theodoric the Great Ostrogoths,
493-526
511-526
Theudes (Theudis) 531-548
Theudegisel 548-549
Agila I 549-554
Romans in Cartagena
& Andalusia, 551
Athanagild(o) 554-567
Theodomir 567-571
Leuva (Leova) I 571-572
Leu(/o)vigild(o) 572-586
Reccared(o) I 586-601
Catholic, 587, Kingdom, 589
Leova II 601-603
Witterich 603-610
Gundemar 610-612
Sisebut (Sisebur) 612-621
Reccared II 621
Swintilla (Suinthila) 621-631
Sisenand(o) 631-636
Chintila 636-640
Tulga 640-642
Chindaswind(/suinto) 642-653
Recdeswinth 653-672
Wamba 672-680
Euric (Erwig) II 680-687
E(r)gica 687-702
Witiza 702-709
Roderic (Rodrigo) 709-711
Agila II 711-714
Overthrown by Omayyads,
711; Christian Kingdom of
Asturias, 718
territory, which would have been the plan of Valens, could not be properly subdued by Theodosius I. They then began to operate against the Empire. With the attention of Stilicho, left by Theodosius in charge of the Army, occupied by the Visigoths, the Western frontiers were stripped of troops. On January 1, 407, the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed a frozen Rhine to engage in an uncontested romp through Gaul and Spain. Settling in Spain in 409, these tribes were never troubled by the Romans.
SUEVI
Hermeric 409-438
Rechila 428-448
Mérida, 439;
Seville, 441
Rechiar(ius) 448-456
Peace with Romans, 452;
defeated & killed by
Visigoths, 456
Aioulf 456-467
Maldras 467-460
Richimund 460-c.463
Frumar 460-c.465
Remisund c.463-?
unknown kings
Carriaric c.550-559
Theodemar 559-570
Catholic, 561
Miro 570-582
Eboric 582-584
Andeca 584-585
Visigoth conquest
Instead, the Visigoths, who soon became semi-independent allies of the Western Emperors and settled in Aquitaine, turned upon them. In 416, the Visigoths broke up the kingdoms of the Alans and the Siling Vandals, leaving the Suevi and Asding Vandals as potential allies against possible Roman revival.
The Suevi became an established Kingdom in Spain, with the Kings detailed in the table at right. When the Visigoths expanded from Aquitaine into Spain, the Suevi continued in the northwest. The Kingdom survived until the Visigoths completed their conquest of Iberia in 585. Meanwhile, in 428, the Asding Vandals crossed over into Africa. By 442 they had established themselves, ending the ancient source of grain for Roman Italy. With the Western Empire obviously in collapse, the Visigoths then expanded into much of the rest of Gaul and Spain (469-478). The Visigothic Kingdom, pushed entirely into Spain by the Franks (507), absorbing the Suevi (584), and converting from Arianism to orthodox Catholicism (589), endured until the armies of Islâm arrived in 711. The history of Spain is then largely of Islâmic Spain, until the Christian north revives and Islâm power goes into decline, around the turn of the millennium. Local rulers of Islâmic Spain can be found as follows:
* The Omayyad Amirs, 756-912
* The Omayyad Caliphs, 912-1031
* The Mulûk at-Tawâ'if, 1010-1114
o The Jahwarids of Cordova
o Murcia
o The 'Abbâdids of Seville
o The H.ammûdids of Málaga
o The Zîrids of Granada
o Aft.asids of Badajoz
o The 'Âmirids of Valencia
o The Dhu'n-Nûnids of Toledo
o The Banû Mujâhid of Denia and Majorca
o The Tujîbids of Saragossa
o The Hûdids of Saragossa
* The Murabit (Almoravid) Sult.âns, 1067-1147 AD
* The Mulûk at-Tawâ'if, 1145-1266
o Cordova
o Valencia
o Murcia
o The Banû Ghâniya of Majorca
* The Muwahid (Almohad) Caliphs, 1147-1238
* The Nas.rid Sult.âns of Granada, 1238-1492 AD
o The Hûdids of Murcia
While the Visigoths are gone before we get the classic form of Mediaeval history, with the presence of Islam, Visigothic Spain nevertheless contributed substantially to the form that Mediaeval Western European (Frankish/Latin) culture would take. It did this in great measure through the work of St. Isidore of Seville (c.560-636). Isidore's massive 20 volume encyclopedia, the Etymologies or Orîginês, drew on all sources available to him, many now lost (and while Spain was still in easy and regular contact with Constantinople), to provide the basis for education for centuries, perhaps 800 years, to come. Thus we start off with the seven "liberal arts," in the form of the trivium (hence "trival"), grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. We end up with something like the first Mediaeval summa, one not confined to any particular subject, but to all subjects. As Paul Johnson says, it "founded a civilization" [A History of Christianity, Touchstone, 1976, p.154]. Seville itself, however, would soon belong to another civilization.
Slightly different lists of Visigothic Kings are given by the sources. The Oxford Dynasties of the World, by John E. Morby [Oxford University Press, 1989, 2002, p.59] looks good. The original version here was based on the Kingdoms of Europe, by Gene Gurney [Crown Publishers, New York, 1982] and Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal Chronologies. I've tried to combine and reconcile the lists to an extent, but I have no way of knowing at the moment which dates are preferable.
Many Visigothic names survive into modern Spanish. Of the Kings, the name of Rodrigo seems the most obvious example. Later names like Ferdinand (Ferdinando, Fernando) are also examples.
The origin and history of the Goths is a matter of great interest, dispute, and speculation. The island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden seems to testify to the location and antiquity of the name, but there is no real historical evidence linking the Goths to it, apart from much later, and legendary, accounts, like the history of the Goths completed in 551 by Jordanes, a Goth himself -- although it seems to be based on a larger history by Cassiodorus. What is better known is that in the first centuries A.D. German tribes expanded from the Baltic & North Sea coasts of Germany south and east along the frontier of the Roman Empire. In so doing they interacted with Roman culture, even developing their own writing system, the Runes. By the third century, the Goths were in the forefront of this expansion, passing around the Roman salient of Dacia, shown on the following map.
From this position, in 251 the Goths raided into the Balkans, killing the Emperors Decius and Herennius. In 267 the Goths even sailed down into Roman territory, in a kind of anticipation of the Viking (or Varangian) raids of later centuries, sacking Athens -- though, not really being seafaring themselves, they used ships from Greek colonials in the Crimea (the Cimmerian Bosporus) and nearby. The Emperor Gallienus inflicted some setbacks on them, before he was murdered, but they were finally defeated in 269 at the battle of Naissus by Claudius II, henceforth known as "Gothicus." Nevertheless, Aurelian then withdrew Roman legions and settlers from Dacia in 271. By then some of the Goths were moving on, and soon different Gothic communities can be distinguished. Previously, it was thought that Visigoths and Ostrogoths familiar from later history were already discernable. However, this now looks anachronistic, as discussed elsewhere. Gothic power did expand through the Ukraine. Eventually, it may have extended all the way to the Don, and then spread north, by some (questionable) reckonings all the way back to the Baltic. The Gothic "empire" of King Ermanaric (i.e. "King [riks] Herman," where "Herman" itself is from [h]er[i], "army," and man, "man") collapsed abruptly when the Huns arrived in about 370 -- Ermanaric is even supposed to have committed suicide. This pushed the Goths back into Roman territory, which began all the troubles for Rome.
But after some centuries in the area, the Goths had left a treasure hoard behind in what later would be modern Romania. A Runic inscription on one item in the hoard contains the words Gutani, which was the Goths' own name for themselves (it turns up in Latin as Gutones) and hailag, the Gothic word for "holy" and recogniably cognate to modern German heilig. The Ostrogoths left behind something else: a small community in the Crimea. This survived and was still speaking Gothic as late as the 16th century. The Imperial Ambassador to Constantinople, Bubecq, 1560-1562, took down sixty words from informants from the Crimea, confirming the Gothic identity of their language. But then the community vanished at some later period. The long episode of Germans in the East would later evoke dreadful ambitions. There is little doubt that Hitler saw himself as revenging Ermanaric with his invasion of Russia.
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