Goths: Map & History
The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe.
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The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first mentioned by Greco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Lower Danube in what is now Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. From here, they conducted raids into Roman territory, and large numbers of them joined the Roman military. These early Goths lived in the regions where archaeologists find the Chernyakhov culture, which flourished throughout this region during the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Modern Countries Once Part of Goths
At its mapped extent, Goths covered territory in 2 present-day countries. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Goths's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Goths in Depth
History
A crucial source on Gothic history is the Getica of the 6th-century historian Jordanes, who may have been of Gothic descent. Jordanes claims to have based the Getica on an earlier lost work by Cassiodorus, but also cites material from fifteen other classical sources, including an otherwise unknown writer, Ablabius. Many scholars accept that Jordanes' account on Gothic origins is at least partially derived from Gothic tribal tradition and accurate on certain details, and as a result the Goths are often identified as originating from south-central Sweden.
According to Jordanes, the Goths originated on an island called Scandza (Scandinavia), from where they emigrated by sea to an area called Gothiscandza under their king Berig.
Culture
Before the invasion of the Huns, the Gothic Chernyakhov culture produced jewelry, vessels, and decorative objects in a style much influenced by Greek and Roman craftsmen. They developed a polychrome style of gold work, using wrought cells or setting to encrust gemstones into their gold objects.
The eagle-shaped fibula, part of the Domagnano Treasure, was used to join clothes c. AD 500; the piece on display in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is well-known.
In Spain an important collection of Visigothic metalwork was found in the treasure of Guarrazar, Guadamur, Province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, an archeological find composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses from the royal workshop in Toledo, with Byzantine influence.
Legacy
The Goths' relationship with Sweden became an important part of Swedish nationalism, and until the 19th century, before the Gothic origin had been thoroughly researched by archaeologists, Swedish scholars considered Swedes to be the direct descendants of the Goths. Today, scholars identify this as a cultural movement called Gothicismus, which included an enthusiasm for things Old Norse.
In medieval and modern Spain, the Visigoths were believed to be the progenitors of the Spanish nobility (compare Gobineau for a similar French idea). By the early 7th century, the ethnic distinction between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans had all but disappeared, but recognition of a Gothic origin, e.g. on gravestones, still survived among the nobility.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Goths (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Goths Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Goths appears, with the other states of the time.
Goths Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 117,739 km² in 98 CE.
Goths: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Goths exist?
Goths is dated to 30 CE – 206 CE, in the Classical Antiquity era.
How large was Goths at its peak?
At its peak in 98 AD Goths covered about 117,739 km².
How did the map of Goths change over time?
Goths appears on 2 dated world maps in the atlas, from 117 CE to 200 CE. Each shows its borders in that year next to the other states of the time.