Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/268

 GOTHI. ft part of the Western Goths. (Amm. Blare xtH. 13, xxxi. 3; Eutrop. riii. 3.) 4. The Gepida/i, [Gbpidab.] 5. The Rvgii, [Ruoii.] 6. The Sciri and TurcUmffig see these articles. 7. The fferuU [Hekuu], and 8. The JuthungL [Juthdmoi.] SoDie writers also inclode the Aiani and Vandali among the Goths; bat see Alani and Vakdau. The whole nation of the Goths, in the strict sense of the name, was divided into two mam groups or tribes, the Ottrogotht^ occupying the sandy steppes in the east, and the VitigotiUy inhabiting the mora fertile and woody oonntries in the west. The former occar nnder the names of Anttrogathi (PoUio, Clamd, 6) and OitrogoUii (Clandian, m Evtrop. a. 153). The earliest traces of the name of the Visi- golhs {Vuiffothi)^ which oocars only in very late writers, are fonnd in Sidonius ApolUnaris (Corm. vii. 399, 431, v. 476) in the Ibrm Vuut; and in Cassiodorus ( Varr, iii. 1, 3) we find Vuisiffothi and Vumgothaef while Joniandes has Wetej^thae and Weiigoihae. As to the meaning of these names, there can be no doubt that they were derived from the countries occupied by the two branches of the nation, the one signifying the Eastern, and the other the Western Goths. Zosimus and Ammianns Mar- oellinns know neither ci these two names, which do not appear to have been used until the time when the Goths were in possession of a large extent of country in the north of the Black Sea. The two writers just named frequently mention the Grtutungi or Gruimgi and the Tervmgi or TWeroM^', where they are evidently speaking q( Goths. In r^ard to these names, diflferait opinions are entert«ned by mo- dem writers, some believing them to be merely local names, which accordingly disappeared after the mi- gration of the Goths from the conntij north of the Eozine, whence they are not mentioned by Jor- nandes; others think that Gmtungi is only another name for the whole of the Ostrogoths ; but it is mobt probable that the Grutungi were the most illustrious tribe among the Ostrogoths, and that the Tervingi occupied the same rank among the Visigoths. As the Goths were a thoroughly (German race, their rdigion must, on the whole, have been that common to all the Germans; but ever since the time of Constantino the Great, Christianity appears to have grsdually struck root among the Goths settled in Moesia (the Moeso-Goths), whence a Gothic bishop is mentioned as presoit at the council of Nicaea in a. d. 325. Their form of Christianity was probably Arianism, which was patronised by their protector Valens, and which was certainly the form of Christianity adopted by their celebrated bishop Ulphilas.' Athanaric, one of their chiefs, however, made great efforts to destroy Christianity among his people, and punished those who resisted his attempts in a most cruel manner; but he did not succeed. The introdnctitxi of Christianity among these Goths, and the circumstance of their dwelling near and even among civilised subjects of the Roman empire, greatly contributed to raising them, in point of civilisation, above the other German tribes. Their bishop Ulphilas, in the fourth century, formed a new alphabet out of those of the Greeks and Romans, which in the course af time was adopted by all the German tribes, and is essentially the same as that still in genera] use in Germany, and is known in this country by the name of *' black letter.** (Socrat. ^ist EccL iv. 27 ; Sozom. vL 36 ; Jomand. 51 ; VOL I. ORACCURRIS. 1009 Philostoi^. ii. 5.) The same bishop also transluti d the Scriptures into the Gothic language, and this translation is the most ancient document of the German language now extant. Unfortunately, the translation has not come down to us complete; but ' the fmgments are still quite sufficient to enable us ^ to form an opinion of the hmguage at that time. It contains many words which the Goths in their inter- course with Greeks and Latins borrowed from them, and a few others may have been derived from the. Sarmatians or Dadans. Besides this translation of ' the Scriptures, we possess a few other monuments of the Gothic language, which, however, are of less importance. It may be observed here, by the way, that of all the Germanic dialects the Swedish is least like the Gothic, though there is a tradition ac- cording to which Scandinavia (Scandia) was the original home of the Goths. (Jomand. 4, 5.) The &ct that Goths once did dwell in Scandmavia is indeed attested by a vast amount of evidence, among which the names of places are not the least import- ant; but the probability is, that the Goths migrated to Scandinavia from the country east of the Vistula, even before they proceeded souUiward : at least Pttv- lemy (ii. 11. § 35) mentions Gvtae (Tovtcu) in ScanduL The Visigoths, kstly, appear to have been the first of all the German tribes that had a written code of kws, the drawing up of which is ascribed to their king Euric in the fiflh century. (Comp. Eisenschmidt, de Origme Ottrogoihonan et Fm« gotkonmf Jena, 1835 ; Zahn, Ulfilas's Gothuche Bibembersetmng, ^., Weissenfels, 1805; Aschbach, * Geschichte der Wettgotkem; Sfanso, Gesch. der Ottgothm in ItaUen, 1824, together with the works referred to at the end of the article Gbrmahu, and Dr. Latham on Tacit Germ. p. 162, and EpiUgom. p. xxxviii., foil.) [L. S.1 GOTHI'NI or GOTrKI, a tribe on the east of 'the Quadi and Marcomanni, that is, in the extreme south-east of ancient Germany, who, according to the express testimony of Tacitus {G^rm. 43), spoke the Celtic language. Some believe that the Cotini, mentioned by Dion Cassius (Ixxi. 12), and the KtfTvoi of Ptolemy (ii. 11. §21), are identical with the Gothini. Tacitus's description of their habi- tations, " Tei^a MarcomannorumGnadorumque clau- dunt," is somewhat ambiguous, whence some have placed them on the Vistula, in the neighbourhood of Cracow, while others understand Tacitus to refer to the south-east of the Quadi and Marcomanni, that is, the country now called Styria. Others again regard the countrjr about the river March as the original seats of the Gothini : and this view derives some support from the &ct that the names about the Lunawald are Celtic, and that the mountam contains ancient iron mines; for Tadtns expressly states that the Gothini were employed in iron mines. (Comp. Wilhehn, Gtrmaniem^ p. 231, fol. ; Duncker, Orig, German, L p. 55, foU. ; Latham, on Tadt. Germ. p. 156.) [L. S.] GOTHONES. [GoTHi.] GRAAEI (rpaoioi), a Paeonian tribe, situated on the Strymon. (Thuc. ii. 96.) [E. B. J.] GRABAEi, a people and place in lUyricum (Plin. iii. 22. s. 26), peihaps Grahovo in the S. of the Herzegowina. [E. B. J ] GRACCURRIS {Eih, Graccuritanus : near Co- r^Uay, a town of the Vascones, in Hispania Tarra- «K>nensis, on the great rood from Asturica to Tarraco, 64 M. P. west of Caesaraugusta. Its former name, llurcis, was changed in honour of Sempronius Grac- 3t