GOTHS 



dosius compromised with them by 

 allowing their settlement in Thrace. 

 They had already adopted the 

 Arian form of Christianity, taught 

 by the missionary Ulphilas (q.v.). 

 Invasion of Italy 



After the division of the empire 

 between the two young sons of 

 Theodosius, a new migratory move- 

 ment began among the Goths. 

 Gothic cohorts had been embodied 

 in the Roman army ; an injudicious 

 reduction in their pay stirred the 

 Visigoths to revolt under the 

 leadership of Alaric the Amaling. 

 Alaric was pacified by being made 

 governor of Illyricum, but, in 400, 

 he led his Visigoths to invade the 

 Western Empire, by way of N. 

 Italy. He was held back for a time 

 by Stilicho, but in 408, when 

 Stilicho was dead, Alaric renewed 

 his invasion, swept through north- 

 ern Italy, and in 410 captured and 

 sacked the city of Rome for the 

 first time since its capture by the 

 Gauls 800 years before. Though 

 the Goths wrought much devas- 

 tation they were distinguished as 

 being by far the least cruel of bar- 

 barian conquerors ; and the im- 

 pressive majesty which still at- 

 tached to the name Rome is 

 emphasised by the strange fact 

 that Alaric chose not to set himself 

 on the imperial throne, but to act 

 as lieutenant of the emperor. 



Although the Goths might have 

 taken possession of Italy, Ataulf, 



362 1 



who succeeded Alaric, in 411 with- 

 drew his Visigoths into southern 

 Gaul. There the Gothic kingdom 

 of Toulouse was set up, in nominal 

 subordination to the Roman em- 

 pire. In 451 its king, Theodoric, 

 joined with the Roman general 

 Aetius in inflicting a decisive defeat 

 upon Attila (q.v.) and the Huns, 

 when Theodoric himself was killed. 



The kingdom of Toulouse em- 

 braced Spain as well as southern 

 Gaul. The Goths, in fact, were 

 granted the sovereignty of this 

 territory as an official recognition 

 of their services to the Roman 

 empire in Spain, which had been 

 conquered by Ataulfs successor 

 Wallia. The peninsula had just 

 before been overrun by a kindred 

 but infinitely more cruel race, the 

 Vandals (q.v.). Wallia's conquest, 

 nominally the recovery of Spain 

 from the Vandals, drove that 

 people into the southern portion of 

 it, which still bears the name of 

 Andalusia ; later they migrated to 

 Africa. At the beginning of the 

 6th century the kingdom of Tou- 

 louse was overthrown by the 

 Franks (q.v.) under Clovis, whose 

 career was checked by the Ostro- 

 goth Theodoric (to be distinguished 

 from Theodoric the Visigoth). 



In Spain the Gothic dominion 

 continued. By the middle of the 

 century it had reverted to the form 

 of an elective monarchy which had 

 prevailed among the Goths under 



GOTHS 



the old tribal system. In one of the 

 revolutions which are the normal 

 accompaniment of elective monar- 

 chies, a prince named Ermengild, 

 who had relinquished Arianism for 

 orthodox Christianity, earned the 

 martyr's crown by refusing to 

 revert to Arianism, but in the reign 

 of his brother Reccared, the Gothic 

 people conformed to the prevailing 

 creed of Western Europe and 

 adopted orthodox Christianity. 

 The Saracens in Spain 



The Church, hitherto hostile, 

 now became friendly, but its friend- 

 ship became more dangerous than 

 its enmity, since the rulers fell 

 under the domination of Church- 

 men, who in their own interests 

 hindered, instead of helping, all 

 efforts to centralize the govern- 

 ment. The Saracens invaded 

 Spain, and the last Gothic king, 

 Roderic, was overthrown in the 

 great seven days' battle of the 

 Guadaleto in 711. The Moors 

 overran the peninsula, and the 

 surviving Goths were driven into 

 the remote fastnesses. 



The Ostrogoths had fallen under 

 subjection to the Huns, but when 

 the Hun empire broke up on the 

 death of Attila they reappeared on 

 the middle Danube. Thence about 

 470 they descended into the Balkan 

 peninsula. Their young king Theo- 

 doric emulated the career of 

 Alaric. Acting as lieutenant of the 

 eastern emperor Zeno, he carried 



Goths. 



The Goths in Italy, from the painting by P. F. Poole, R.A., depicting one of the drunken orgies to which the 

 barbarians of the north abandoned themselves when they encountered the luxuries of Italy 



Manchester Art Gallery 



