Gothic peoples

The Gothic peoples were East Germanic groups prominent in late antique Europe, including the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. Their migrations and kingdoms reshaped the western Roman world.

Wielbark culture: An archaeological culture of the first centuries CE, associated by many scholars with the early Goths. Its material remains in the Baltic region inform debates about Gothic origins.
Visigoths: A Gothic people whose kingdoms included territories in Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula. They became the most enduring Gothic power in western Europe.
Foederati: Non-Roman peoples bound to Rome by treaties that often included military service. Roman agreements with Gothic groups shaped their settlement and military obligations.
Ulfilas: A fourth-century Gothic bishop who translated much of the Bible into Gothic. His translation created the oldest substantial surviving text in a Germanic language.
Gothiscandza: A place named in Jordanes’s account as the Goths’ first settlement after migration from Scandinavia. Jordanes’s origin story begins with this disputed location.
Ostrogoths: A Gothic people who established a kingdom in Italy under Theodoric the Great. Their Italian kingdom became a major successor state to Roman rule.
Roman–Gothic War (376–382): A conflict between the Roman Empire and Gothic groups that ended with a settlement in 382. Its settlement established a precedent for Gothic communities living inside imperial territory.
Arianism: A Christian theological tradition that denied the Son’s full equality with the Father. Many Gothic rulers and communities followed this form of Christianity, unlike most Roman Christians.
Scandinavia: The northern European region comprising Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Jordanes traced the Goths’ migration to a Scandinavian homeland.
Battle of Adrianople: A battle in 378 in which Gothic forces defeated and killed the Roman emperor Valens. The victory exposed the Roman Empire’s difficulty controlling Gothic settlement.

Linked from 15 pages