In late August of the year 410, a Visigothic
King Alaric conquered and sacked the city of Rome. This was the first time in 800 years that
the eternal city had been taken by an enemy, and it came as a shock to the Romans, their
friends and their enemies alike. Most histories focus on the Roman Empire itself
and only speak of the Goths as an invasive force to that civilisation, but they have
a long and exciting history of their own. From their beginnings in the cold northlands
of Scandinavia to ruling a significant portion of post-Roman Europe, the story of the Eastern
Germanic Goths is one that must be told. How did they emerge and become so powerful
that they were able to take Rome? Welcome to our video on the history of the
Goths in the era of late antiquity. With sedentary work like ours, it is often
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in the description will get a FREE week trial and 25% OFF a Fabulous subscription! The original homeland of the Gothic tribes
is still up for debate, but it is widely believed that they first came from the Gotaland region
in the south of modern day Sweden. Whether because of overpopulation, natural
disasters or resource shortages, various Germanic tribes including the Goths gradually began
migrating south into modern day Eastern Europe. Rome had its first terrifying encounter with
Germans during the Cimbrian War, when groups of Teutones, Ambrones and Cimbri from modern
day Denmark invaded Italy. The Goths however, migrated further east at
first, and did not immediately interact with the Empire to the south. They had a bilateral familial structure based
on intermarriage and gift giving, and these ‘gifts’ from tribal leaders to other tribal
contingents would be repaid by allegiance to the gift giver. These customs began to extend familial relationships
to slowly bring larger Gothic groups together. Later, when their military conflicts against
Rome occurred, these informal and temporary large groups would gel together on a more
permanent basis: one of the reasons the Goths became so powerful as to rival The Empire. The Goths’ first recorded attack on the
Empire took place during the Crisis of the Third Century, in the year 238, when they
sacked Histria on the Black Sea coast. They were only repelled by a substantial subsidy
from the Emperor. This did not end the problem. From 249 to 268 there were constant high intensity
Gothic raids over land and sea into the Black Sea region, the Balkans, Thrace, Asia Minor
and Greece, which continued until twin Roman victories in 268 near Greece and 270 at Naissus
stopped their attacks for the time being. The reasons for these initial attacks are
debated as well, but it is probable that the internal instability of the Empire during
the 200s played a key part. As civil war rocked the Roman world, the Goths
would likely have seen the opportunity to take advantage, and began to raid the vulnerable
Empire for plunder. A cycle would emerge, whereby internal revolt
would inspire barbarian attacks, and when the emperor went to deal with the barbarians,
more internal revolt would occur. Though the Goths first appeared as raiders,
they could not present a clear existential threat to the Empire, so how did they eventually
sack the eternal city? The increasingly close proximity of the Gothic
tribes to the Roman empire and especially its military began to have a profound impact
on the increasing strength of barbarian invaders. Many Goths who served in the Roman army became
entirely acclimatised to a Roman way of life, some of which would then return home, bringing
Roman habits, ways of training, organisation and money along with them. As the third century turned into the fourth,
Gothic interconnectedness with the Roman Empire became ever greater, along with the bouts
of violence which would occasionally flare up between the two factions. Roman Emperors increasingly adopted policies
designed to cut down barbarian strength before it materialised, by launching punitive raids
into their territory. This gave the barbarian Gothic leaders further
east every incentive to become more competent militarily, in order to defend their families
and homes. In addition, divide and conquer strategies
resulted in the subsidising of some Gothic kings, which built up their royal prestige
and governing capacity. Some evidence exists to suggest that the Tetrarchy
of Diocletian supported and approved of building Thervingian Gothic strength and territorial
gains at the mouth of the Danube, at the expense of other barbarian groups in the area, such
as the Carpi. This was perhaps because the Goths were viewed
as reliable and could function as another layer of imperial defence on the turbulent
Danubian border. However, raising the status of these barbarian
leaders above others provided them with the strength for military action against their
Roman benefactors, something which otherwise could not be accomplished. In these ways, Rome’s attitude and actions
towards the barbarians only made them stronger and more like themselves. The result of this is shown in 320 when the
Thervingi re-emerge in the sources far more powerfully than before. Likely because of their imperial sponsorship,
the Thervingi became the undisputed masters of the lower Danube and the abandoned Roman
province of Dacia. These more powerful Thervingi Goths were then
attacked by an alarmed Constantine in the 320s and 330s, fearing the increase of their
power. Likely beginning gradually in the 350s, a
chain of events would come to pass which would result in the beginning of the end for Rome. In the east, a new powerful force began to
emerge; the nomadic Huns. What happened is debated, but it seems like
the Hunnic threat drove unstoppably but gradually west, first defeating and subjugating the
Alans, who together then defeated the powerful Greuthungi Gothic king Ermanaric in the mid
370s. It is widely speculated that the Greuthungi
Goths who stayed behind and became Hunnic subjects were the future Ostrogoths, while
the Gothic refugees, mainly Thervingi but some Greuthungi would come together as the
Visigoths. Following this disaster, a massive contingent
of Gothic refugees then streamed west towards the Danube border, hoping to escape their
pursuers. Their leader, a Visigoth Thervingi Goth named
Fritigern petitioned to be allowed peacefully into the Empire. The Romans accepted, but corrupt officials
abused the Goths militarily and by limiting their food supplies, causing unrest among
the new arrivals. After being invited to a banquet by a Roman
governor, Fritigern was betrayed by his hosts, but managed to escape and decided to revolt
against this appalling treatment. Barbarian units in the Thracian army joined
him, as well as Gothic slaves in the provinces where the rebellion was strongest. In August 378, Fritigern’s Gothic army obliterated
Valens and his legions at the Battle of Adrianople, and two-thirds of the eastern field army was
killed. In the aftermath, manpower shortages would
ensure that the reliance on barbarian, prominently Gothic soldiers would continue until the end
of the Empire. When Theodosius I became Emperor in 379 after
the death of Valens, the manpower situation for the Romans was critical. The new emperor needed victories against the
Goths after Adrianople, and he began to slowly clear Thrace and other Roman territories of
the invaders, driving them away from Constantinople and into Illyricum. Participating in this campaign was a general
called Modares who was himself a Goth in imperial service, which shows the potentially high
levels a barbarian could reach within the Imperial structure even in the late 300s. Despite these successes, continued Gothic
pressure eventually forced Theodosius to give up his attempts, and Gothic contingents were
allowed to settle in Thrace and the Balkans, becoming sedentary as the Romans were and
increasingly joining the Roman military in the decades afterwards. Also increasing were the amount of Gothic
nobility becoming officers and generals in the Roman army; including the aforementioned
Modares. Two other barbarian nobles who became Imperial
commanders were Fravitta and Eriulf, the latter of which was killed in a drunken brawl by
the former. He had an illustrious career after this incident,
married a Roman bride and crushed a mutiny led by Gainas; another Gothic general. All of these men illustrate a sudden influx
of skillful and important Gothic leaders into the Imperial hierarchy. A far more significant figure, however, was
Alaric. The origin of Alaric is shrouded in mystery,
but the first notable event of his life seems to be the Battle of the Frigidus River in
394, between the Eastern Emperor Theodosius I and the usurper Eugenius. The battle was unusually bloody for all combatants,
but the Gothic and other barbarian units under Alaric suffered massive losses after they
were placed in the front ranks, so that they would absorb most of the damage. It is not known, but it is possible that Theodosius
purposefully did this so that after the battle, the Goths would be diminished compared to
the rest of his army. In 395 Alaric grew angry at the lack of Imperial
generosity which followed the victory at the Frigidus, a victory which he believed he won
for Theodosius. When en route to the Balkans, Alaric revolted
in the same manner as Fritigern, and was increasingly joined by more Gothic settlers and units who
saw the rebellion as a way to better their conditions. Being unable to attack Constantinople, Alaric’s
army raided easier targets in Macedon and Greece until he was given a position of command;
possibly magister militum of the province of Illyricum. Western regent Stilicho, who was also a barbarian
of Gothic origin, had come to deal with Alaric. but the Eastern Roman court was hostile to
the Western one at this time, and gave Alaric the position to weaken Stilicho. Late in 401 however, Alaric, no longer regarding
the Eastern Empire as a reliable negotiating partner, invaded Italy over the Julian Alps. He didn’t succeed on this attempt, as Stilicho
returned and halted the advance after winning a few small battles, so Alaric retreated back
into the Balkans. In 405, wanting to placate the still dangerous
Alaric, [the empire] gave him the position of magister militum again. Again in 407 Alaric attacked Italy, wanting
greater plunder in fresh lands, demanding 4,000 pounds of gold to dissuade him - which
Stilicho gave. The Roman aristocracy, who had to bear a part
of the cost for paying this bribe were dissatisfied, and convinced Western Emperor Honorius to
kill Stilicho and the families of thousands of his Gothic auxiliaries, whose men promptly
joined Alaric. After marching directly down the Italian Peninsula
to Rome, where Gothic slaves swelled his forces, Alaric besieged the eternal city during the
winter of 408 and 409. Over the next two years, negotiations between
the Goths and Romans broke down, and in the August of 410 Alaric’s Goths sacked the
city for the first time since Brennus had in 390BC. They stripped Rome of centuries’ worth of
wealth, but for Alaric this was a failure, rather than a victory. Everything he and other Gothic leaders had
fought for were up on flames. Imperial office for himself and a legitimate
place for his people inside the prosperous civilised Empire were both now out of reach,
he would never be given Rome by right. This monumental sacking of Rome did not last
Alaric long, as before 410 was over Alaric passed away. In the next century, the Goths were no longer
the products and victims of Roman history and they now made Rome’s history themselves. The western branch of the Goths; the Visigoths,
eventually settled in Hispania and forged a kingdom for themselves there, eventually
falling to the invading Umayyad Caliphate in the early 700s. Meanwhile the Ostrogoths, who had been freed
from Hunnic dominion after their defeat at the Battle of Nedao in 454, eventually established
the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy under Theodoric the Great, which fell to the remnant of the
Roman Empire under Justinian in the mid 500’s. The reputation of the Goths in popular imagination
is almost synonymous with ‘barbarian’ and ‘savage’, their name ever sullied
by their infamous sacking of the eternal city. But as shown in this video, they were far
more complex. They reacted to Roman violence with violence
of their own, eventually learning from their settled counterparts and eventually succeeding
them. In contrast to the savage reputation of their
name, the Gothic leaders Alaric and Fritigern seemed to genuinely care about the fate of
their people, whereas the Romans during this time treated the Goths and other barbarians
in a repulsive manner. But neither Rome nor the Goths were good or
evil, and were all reacting to the situations in which they were placed, a phenomenon which
led the Goths from small tribal bands to rulers of great Kingdoms. More videos on Germanic and Roman history
are on the way, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see the
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