The Goths, during the time just after B.C. became A.D., were just a northern barbarian tribe that had settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea to gather amber and sell it. Though the goths came before the Vikings, both groups came from Scandinavia originally. If Roman writers who first observed this small but war-like nation knew that the Goths would be the ones who outlived, and eventually sacked, Rome they would have written a great deal more than they did about these barbarians.
By the second century the Goths had moved south, invading the lands of Eastern Europe and southern Russia. This was horse country, and never the ones to turn down a tactical advantage the Goths began conducting warfare from horseback. This gave them great speed and increased deadliness, and it also helped the Goths make up for their decided lack of numbers. As a war like people, the Goths quickly began using their new military advantages to harass the Roman Empire around the third century, sacking a few settlements and making demands on the Romans as to territorial rights.
Now, with all this moving and fighting, the Goths developed into two, separate peoples. There were the Visigoths, literally meaning Western Goths, and the Ostrogoths which were the Eastern Goths. As time went by the two nations drifted apart, and when the Huns began attacking them around the year 500 A.D. there was a decided split in the Goths. Visigoths went to Rome and offered to throw their own military might in with the legion to help fight the Huns, and the Ostrogoths were subjugated, often fighting with the huns under Atilla against Rome.
After this conflict finally ceased the Visigoths moved through Rome and over to Gaul (what’s now France) and Spain. The Ostrogoths, once the Huns collapsed in on themselves, moved into Italy, where they likely came into contact with many of the Celtic barbarians who had been a nation in Europe for hundreds of years. The Ostrogoths managed to establish their own kingdom that lasted until the 6th century until they warred with the Eastern Roman Empire. The Visigoths held on longer, but they eventually met a similar fate in Spain when they were pushed out by the invading Muslims in the eighth century.
While they were a people of war and conflict, the Goths left behind lots of historical evidence. For instance, the Goths were among the first pagan and heathen people to convert to Christianity. The Goths left behind churches and architecture (some of which critics said “was so ugly only a Goth could love it,” leading to the gothic architectural design that would later influence gothic fashion), as well as some written materials. The Goths were among the first to come down into Europe from the North, but they weren’t the last. Even today many who practice Asatru, the modern faith based off of the beliefs of the Vikings which reveres the one-eyed god Odin and the rest of the Norse pantheon, revere the Goths as their ancestors and place a kinship between them and these successful barbarians who were responsible for sacking Rome and carving out their own kingdoms.
“Who Were the Goths?” by Anonymous at Wise Geek
“Goths,” by Anonymous at HYW
“Who Were the Goths?” by Anonymous at Third Millenium Library
