Who were the first Goths?
The Goths were a confeteratiotn of Germanic tribes that invaded the Roman Empire during the A.D. 200's. The Goths and other barbarians, helped bring about the collapse of the West Roman Empire. They were the first Germanic peoples to become Christians.
The Goths probably originated in what is now southern Sweden. They migrated to an area north of the Black Sea during the A.D. 100's. During the 200's, they raided the northeastern frontiers of the Roman Empire. Some Goths settled in Dacia (now part of Romania and Hungary) in 272. During the 300's, the Goths split into two tribes. The Goths in Dacia became the Visigoths, and those north of the Black Sea became the Ostrogoths.
In 376, the Visigoths were threatened by the Huns from the east. They crossed the Danube River, and took refuge in the Roman province of Pannonia. But they soon revolted against the Romans. In 378, They defeated a Roman army at Adrianopole (now Edirne, Turkey) and killed the Roman Emperor Valens. In 382, the Visigoths became the first independant barbarian nation in the Roman Empire. Under their king, Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy during the early 400's, and looted Rome in 410. Alaric's successors then left Italy and moved to Gaul (now France) and Spain. The Franks defeated them in Gaul in the late 400's. But they remained in Spain untill 711.
The Ostrogoths were conquered by the Huns in the 370's. They remained under Hunnish control untill Attila, the powerful Hunnish king, died in 453. They then went into central Europe, where they were united by Theodoric in 471. Theodoric invaded Italy in 489 and conquered the region in 493. The Ostrogoths remained in Italy untill the 550's, when they were destroyed by armies from the Byzantine (East Roman) Empire.
