Goths In History
Historically, in ages past, Gothic was not just a fashion statement, or a music induced lifestyle. Goths were a culture of many different Germanic tribes that shared similarities in language, and lived in the ancient kingdoms of Eastern Europe. Historians believed they first emerged in the late second century, and that by the third century, there were two different Gothic tribes; the Thervingi, and the Greuthungi. To the Romans, with their understanding of democracy and civilisation that was advanced beyond the societies of many other cultures in the world, the Goths were barbarians. The Thervingi led the first recorded barbarian attack against the Roman empire. In the third century, they invaded the Roman empire, and even managed to capture the major city of Byzantium. After they were defeated at another major city a year later, they became Romanized later on towards the end of the third century, along with the other Goth tribe, the Greuthungi.
After the Gothic tribes were reformed into Roman ways, and language, they also converted to Arianism, a form of Christianity. Later, after the Huns came into play, the king of the Thervingi Goths requested that he be allowed to settle on the other side of the Danube river with his people. The Eastern Roman Emperor Valens allowed this, and even helped them cross. However, later on after a great famine on the south bank of the Danube river, the Gothic War began, and the emperor was killed. The Visigoth –one division of the two main branches of Gothic tribes, Ostrogoths being the other, –invaded Rome again, and were granted the city of Aquitania, which they freed from the Vandals. By the late fifth century, they ruled most of the Iberian peninsula. Meanwhile, the Ostrogoths were struggling under the rule of the Huns. After they freed themselves from beneath Hunnic rule, they invaded and took control of Italy, in the middle of the fifth century.
Later on, both Visigoth and Ostrogoths were united and under the rule of one kingdom. This was when the Visigoth king died in battle and Theodoric the Great became the regent king. They Ostrogothic, or “Eastern Gothic” –as interpreted by the writing of Procopius at the time, tribes remained strong and ruled until Italy fell back under Byzantine control in the mid sixth century. The Visigoth remained rulers for longer, until the early eighth century until the Umayyad invasion of Andalusia. The Visigoth were believed to be the source of Spanish nobility, while the Swedish believed until the 19th century that the Ostrogoths were their direct ancestors as well as being enthusiastic about Old Norse customs and mythology. This is perhaps a reflection of the Gothic subculture today; while some of those in the subculture identify more with the Victorian European era, others have as much enthusiasm as the Swedes for all things Norse.