Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/266

 GOTHI. (the Fnmske Hag), Tadtos (<7€nik 43), who places them beyond the Ljgii, that is, on the Dortb-eut of themi points to the same district, thoQf^h he does not intimate that thej were in- habitants of the eoast. Ptolemy (iil 5. § SO) men- tioos them nnder the name of rt^tfMM r as a Sar* matian tribe, and as dwelling on the east of the YistoUs and in the sonth of the Venedae-or Wends; so that he, too, does not place them (m the sea-ooast. Strabo (vii. p. 290) speaks of the BtOonet (Boi{. T»p«f ) as a tribe sabject to king Marobodnos, which agrees with the story of young Catoalda, the Goth, in Tacitus {Afm. iL 62). The kter form of the name of this people, Goihi^ does not occur until the time of Caimcalb (Spartian. Carac, 10. AnUmm, Get. 6), and approaches the native name of the people, GvUMHdOf which is preserved in the Frag- meuts of Bishop Ulphilas. From the statements above referred to, it is mani- fest that in the earliest times the Gothi, or Goths, as we shall henceforth call them, inhabited the coast of modem Prussia from the VUtula'as far as Braunsberg or Hdligenbeil, where the country of the Venedae commenced. After the time of Tacitus we hear no more of the Goths until the beginning of the third century, when, simultaneously with the appearance of the Alemanni in the west, the Goths are spoken of as a powerful nation on tlie coasts of the Black Sea. The emperor Caracalla, on an expedition to the East, is said to have conquered the Goths in several engagements (Spartian. Carae, 10) ; Alexander Sevens soon discovered that they were most dangerous neighbours of the province of Dada; for those German tribes on the Lower Danube showed ms determined a hostility against the Romans as their brethren on the Rhine. The most formidable of these tribes were the Goths, who now occupied the countries once inhabited by th^ Saimatian Getae and Scythians, whence they themselves are some- times called Getae or Scythians, as, lor example, in Frocopius, Capitolinus, Trebellins Pollio^ and even by thdr own hbtorian Jomandes. In the reign of the emperor Philippus (a. d. 244 — 249) they took pos- sewion of Dacia, and laid siege to Marcianopoiis, the capital of Moesia Secunda, which purchased peace fot a large sum of money. (Jomand. de Beb. Goth. 16.) Afterwards, however, they again ra- vaged Moesia : in a. d. 250 they indeed retreated before the army of Dedus in the neighbourhood of Kioopolis, on tiie Danube; but not long afterwards they annihilated the whole Roman army near Phi- lippopolis at the foot of Mount Haemus. (Jomand. 2. c. 18 ; Amm. Mare. xxxi. 5.) The Gotlis now poured down upon Macedonia and Greece, and ad- vanced as far as Thermopylae; but the pass was well guarded, and the invaders were obliged to return northward: in Moesia, however, they defeated Decios » second time, and destroyed his whole army near Abmtum or Forum Trebonii. (Zosim. i. 23 ; AureL Vict, de Cau, 29, EpU, 29 ; Syncell. p^ 375; Zonar. xii.20,foll.; Amm. Marc. xxxi. 13.) Mean- time the Goths extended more and more on the ooast of the Euxine; and having become possessed of a fleet, they sailed in a. d. 253 with a krge number of boots against Pityus. Meeting with a powerful resistance there, they raised the si^ ; but they after- wards returned and took the town. Trapezus expe- ricooed the same fate; and in its harbour the barba- rians captured a large fleet, with which they sailed away, in a. d. 258. In the following year they un- dertook a fresh expedition against the Thracian 60THL 1007 Bosporus, m whidi they conquered dudcedon, Mi- oomedeia, Nicaea, Prusa, Apamea, and Cius. A thud expediti<Hi, undertaken with a fleet of 500 ships, was still more terrible for the Roman empire. They landed at Cyzicus, which they destroyed; then sailed down the Aegean, and made a descent upon Attica: the whole ooast, from the south of Pelo- ponnesus as for as Eptrus and Thessaly, was ra- vaged in a fearful manner, and Dlyricum was Ute- nlly ransacked. At length, apparently tired of their roving expeditions, a portion of the Goths returned through Moesia and across the Danube into their own country, on the north-west of the Euxine : the remainder oootinned their devastations on the coast of Asia Minor; but afterwards tb^ also returned home. (Zoeim. i. 32, foil.; TrebelL Poll. Gallien. 5,6, 13; Jomand. 20; Zonar. xii. 26; Oros. viL 22; SyncelL p. 382.) But they did not remam quiet for any length of time; for in A. d. 269 they undertook another vast maritime expedition, in which, notwithstanding many reverses in Thrace and on the coast of Aua Minor, they ravaged Crete and Cyprus, and laid siege to Cassandreia and Thessalonica. At length, however, the emperor Claudius, in a. d. 269, gained a brilliant victory over the Goths in three great battles, from which he derived the surname Gotkicut, (Trebell. Poll. Claud, 8, foil.; Zosim. I 43, foU.; Zonar. xii 29, foil.) Although only few returned to their own country after these battles, the Gothic tribes still continued to harass the frcmtien of the Roman em« pire under the two successors of Claudius; and Au- relian was even obliged, in A. d. 272, to cede to them the large province of Dacia. (Zosim. i. 48, foil.; Eutrop. ix. 15; S. Ruf. 9; Amm. Marc. xxxL 6.) There now folbwed a period of about 50 years, during which the Goths appear to have remained quiet, except that in the reign of Tacitus they made an unsuccessful expedition into Colchis and Asia Minor. (Zosim. L 53; Vopisc Tadi. 13.), At the time when Constantino had overcome idl his enemies, the Goths again came forward against the Romans, but soon concluded peace. (Zosim. iL 21 ; Jomand. 21.) In a. d. 332 their king Arario crossed the Danube: in hia first encounter with Constantine he was successful; but in a second en- gagement be was worsted, and, as his own dominion was invaded by the inhabitants of the Crimea, he concluded a peace. The consequence was, that henceforth, so long as the family oif Constantine oo copied the imperial throne, that is, till a. d. 363, the Goths never made any attack upon the frontiers of the empire. Their great king Hermanric never made war against the Romans. In the reign of Valois the western portion of the Goths carried on a war against the Romans, which lasted three years (from A. D. 367 — 369), but in which no decisive battle was fought, and which was terminated by a peace, in which the Goths acted the part of vic- tors. (Amm. Marc, xxxvii. 4, 5; Themist Orat, X. p. 129, foIL) At the time when the Huns in- vaded Europe from the east, the southern portion of the branch of the Goths, called Visigoths, took refuge in the country oa the right of the Danube, imploring the emperor of Constantinople to admit them and pratect them against the barbarians; in A.D. 375 they accordingly crossed the Danube under their chiefs, Fridigera and Alavivus, amounting to 200,000. The Ostrogoths, another part of the na- tion, being refused admission into the Roman empire, took refuge m the mountains with their king Athar