Timeline of Gothic History

[Ingemar Nordgren]

Marja has given a good reply but I would just add some small comments. 
The first time the Goths are mentioned in a written source is by Strabo sometime before 16 CE and later Tacitus 98 CE and Ptolemaios about150 CE. Pytheas is discussed as Marja  mentiones but they must have been in place at least a good time, maybe 50-100 years before they have been so influential that Strabo should mention them. They seem to be a conglomerate of native Wielbark people and an smaller addition of immigrants from Scandinavia - or rather from the Baltic and Kattegat sphere. Anders Kaliff suggests a common culture covering Southern Scandinavia and the Wielbark area already during the late Nordic Bronze Age. Some (most) see the language as a marker  for Goths but personally I claim it is the common heritage from the God  Gaut both for kings and the peoples as a whole and hence all the Gothic peoples are mentioned after the god- Gudoness, Goutai, Gautar, Gutar, Geatas, Ýtas are theophoric names.

In 239 Goths are mentioned after a battle with the Persians and hence we have the Chernakov  Culture later in the 3000's splitting into also the Sintana de Mures in Trajanus Dacia and surroundings. It is from here that Wulfila is driven away to Moesia with his Gothi Minores.

376 The Vesi-Tervingi from Gutþiuða (Dacia)cross the limes but the Greutungi (Ostrogoths) are forced to allance with the Huns. Athanasius Vesigothic tribe probably moves to Thuringia but older researchers have guessed on Caucaland.

After the battle of Nedao 456 where a.e.Visigoths, Ostrogoths (some of them), Gepids defeat the sons of Attila and their allied Ostrogoths also the Ostrogoths are allowed to cross the limes. They have already mostly been  made Arians like the Visigoths from 376.

Within the Roman boundaries the Goths erve as military. The Visigothic (former Vesi)king Alaric is sent as Magister Militum with his army to keep peace in Greece but this gives to little plunder and hence he goes to Italy and plunder Rome and his sucessor continues to Gaul where they found a kingdom in 418 around Toulose but are later forced away by the Franks and they form a new kingdom in Spain with Toledo as capital. This rests to 711. Later the Ostrogothic king Teoderic is launched by the emperor to detronize the Scir Odovakar and his Herulian gard that have thrown over the western empire and the child emperor Romulus. In 476 Theoderic kills Odovakar  and proclaim an own Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy that rests to 566 when the last rest of the army is defeated. Teoderik the great dies in 526 and is buried in his capitol, the imperial city, Ravenna in a magnicifent mausoleum.All the Gothic kingdoms were Arian but after 586 the Visigothic king turned Catholic and that marks the beginning of the end for the Goths who all the time had religion as an ethnic glue.

Best
Ingemar

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, marja erwin <marja-e at ...> wrote:
>
> For one thing, who were the Goths? At different times, different groups
> called themselves Gutþiuda [and variations thereon]. I tend to think of
> the Chernyakhov-era Goths as The Goths, and the Weilbark-era Gutones as
> some of their predecessors, but the Bastarnae, branches of the Sarmatae,
> branches of the Daci, etc. as more of their predecessors. And that's
> leaving aside other groups within the Chernyakhov culture. I don't think
> that's the best perspective for the Visigoths or Ostrogoths, but it is a
> good perspective for the Chernyakhov Goths and the Moesian Goths.
> 
> There is some confusion about how early the Gutones are attested on the
> Vistula - some think Pytheas' mentions the Goths, others think not, and
> the texts are fragmentary and corrupt.
> 
> There is also some confusion about how early the Bastarnae reached what
> is now Ukraine.
> 
> But in the late first and early second centuries C.E. the Gutones are
> attested on the Vistula, in Tacitus and Ptolemy, I think. The Weilbark
> Culture prospered in this time and place. I'm not sure how long it
> lasted.
> 
> In the early third century C.E. the Gothi are attested on the Black Sea.
> There were several conflicts with the Roman Empire in this period. The
> Chernyakhov Culture developed in what's now Ukraine and Moldava and
> later spread southwest into what's now Romania.
> 
> In the 340s, Wulfila, the first Christian bishop of the Goths, is forced
> into exile in the Roman Empire, where he translates the bible into
> Gothic. Archaeologically, there seems to be a Gothic Christian community
> on the outskirts of Nicopolis ad Istrum.
> 
> In the 370s, Hunnish and Alan raids lead to a refugee crisis, with some
> Gothic refugees entering the Roman Empire. Imperial officials try to
> betray and enslave the Goths, leading to war and the death of the
> emperor Valens. At the same time other Gothic refugees enter Caucaland,
> probably what is now Transylvania, and possibly central Germany too.
> 
> After that, things get increasingly messy. More conflicts with the Roman
> Empire, apparently more refugee crises as the Huns establish themselves
> on the Danube, setting up Federate kingdoms in Aquitaine [418] and Italy
> [489], the Franks conquering Aquitaine [507], the Byzantines invading
> Italy, conquering it, and invading Spain, amid repeated civil wars.
> 
> On Sun, 2012-01-01 at 23:39 +0000, Alla wrote:
> >   
> > Hi
> > 
> > my name is Alla, I'm writing a project for the university about Gothic
> > history and kind of got lost in all the information I've been reading,
> > I'm trying to figure out about the time-lines of Gothic history from
> > the moment they migrated to Europe until their fall in about 540??
> > (sorry if the dates aren't correct).
> > 
> > could you please help me
> > 
> > thanks in advance
> > 
> > Alla
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/gothic-l/attachments/20120102/1b67ee3b/attachment.htm>