Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/873

Rh GOTHS mass of the Gothic nation. Tl1is was mainly the work of the teaching of Ulfila (see ULFILA), the Gothic apostle and translator of the Scriptures into the Gothic tongue (Sozoinen, iv. 24). According to some accounts (Pallmann, i. 71), he had, to avoid persecution, led a Christian colony south of the Danube (348), who settled peaceably at Nicopolis, and are hence known as Moesogoths (seemingly the Got/Li J1 inorcs of J ordanis, 51). Later, in 370, there was another great persecution, in which Athanaric, the special enemy of everything Roman, appears also as the enemy of the Christians, while Frithigern is their friend (Sozomen, vi. 37; Socrates, iv. 33). The distinction between Chris- tian and heathen Goths remains of political importance for some time. But both East and West Goths had fnlly embraced Arianism long before the end of the 5th century, while the Goths of Crim seem to have remained Catholic, and received Catholic bishops from Saint John Chrysostom, and afterwards from Justinian. Towards the end of the reign of Ermanaric several causes joined together to break his great dominion asunder. There were clearly signs of division between East and West Goths, between Christians and heathens, as well as discon- tents among the subject nations. These causes of division were now strengthened by pressure from without. Now began the first of those movements of the Turanian races into the lands north of the Danube, which have had such an effect on the history of south-eastern Europe down to our own time. The Huns pressed on the new dominion of the Goths, which was already beginning to break in pieces. Ermanaric died at the age, it is said, of 110, by the hands of subject princes stirred to wrath by his cruelties (Jor- danis, '34). All thought of a lasting Gothic dominion north of the Danube died with him. With his fall the move- ments south of that river begin again on a great scale. From this time the history of the East and Vest Goths parts asunder, to be joined together again only incidentally and for a season. The great mass of the East-Goths stayed north of the Danube, and passed u11der the overlordship of the Hun. They do not for the present play any import- ant part in the affairs of the empire. The great mass of the West—Goths crossed the Danube into the Roman pro- vinces, and there played a most important part in various characters of alliance and enmity. The great migration was in 376, when they were allowed to pass as peaceful settlers under their chief Frithigern. His rival Athanaric seems to have tried to maintain his party for a while north of the Danube in deﬁance of the Huns ; but he had presently to follow the example of the great mass of the nation. The peaceful designs of Frithigern were meanwhile thwarted by the ill—treat1nent which the Goths suffered from the Roman nﬂ-lcials, which led ﬁrst to disputes and then to open war. In 378 the Goths won the great battle of Adrianople, in which the emperor Valens was killed. His successor Theodosius the Great made terms with them in 381, and the mass of the Gothic warriors entered the Roman service as fwllerali. Many of their chiefs were in high favour; but it seems that the orthodox Theodosius showed more favour to the still remaining heathen party among the Goths than to the larger part of them who had embraced Arian Christianity. Athanaric himself came to Constan- tinople in 3Sl ; he was received with high honours, and had a solemn funeral when he died. His saying is worth re- cording, as an example of the effect which Roman civiliza- tion had on the Teutonic mind. “The emperor,” he said, “was a god upon earth, and he who resisted him would have his blood on his own head.” The death of Theodosius in 395 broke up the union between the West—Goths and the empire. Dissensions arose between them and the ministers of Arcadius ; the Goths threw off their allegiance, and chose Alaric as their 849 king. This was a restoration alike of national unity and of national independence. The royal title had not been borne by their leaders in the Roman service. A.laric's position is quite diﬂ"erent from that of several Goths in the Roman service, who appear as simple rebels (see Kiipke, 128). He was of the great West-Gothic house of the Balti (bold), a house second in nobility only to that of the Amali. His whole career was taken up with marchings to and fro within the lands, ﬁrst of the Eastern, then of the Western empire. The Goths are nnder him an independent people under a national king ; their independence is in no way interfered with if the Gothic king, in a moment of peace, accepts the oﬂice and titles of a Roman general. But under Alaric the Goths make no lasting settlement. In the long tale of in trigue and Warfare between the Goths and the two imperial courts which ﬁlls up this whole time, cessions of territory are offered to the Goths, provinces are occupied by them, but as yet they do not take root anywhere ; no Western land as yet becomes Gotlzict. Alaric’s designs of settlement seem in his ﬁrst stage to have still kept east of the Adriatic, in Illyricum, possibly in Greece. Towards the end of his career his eyes seem ﬁxed on Africa (see Kopke, 128). Greece was the scene of his great campaign in 396, the second Gothic invasion of that country. In this campaign the religious position of the Goths is strongly marked. The Arian appeared as an enemy alike to the pagan majority and the Catholic minority ; but he came surrounded by monks, and his chief wrath was directed against the heathen temples (Hertzberg, Geschiclate G'1'iec/mzlancls, iii. 391). His Italian campaigns fall into two great divisions, that of 402-3, when he was driven back by Stilicho, and that of -108-10, after Stilicho’s death. In this second war he thrice besieged Rome (408, 409, 410). The second time it suited a momentary policy to set up a puppet emperor of his own, and even to accept a military commission from him. The third time he sacked the city, the ﬁrst time since Brennns that Rome had been taken by an army of utter foreign- ers. The intricate political and military details of these campaigns are of less importance in the history of the Gothic nation than the stage which Alaric’s reign marks in the history of that nation. It stands between two periods of settlement within the empire and of service under the empire. Under Alaric there is no settlement, and service is quite secondary and precarious; after his death in 410 the two begin again in new shapes. Contemporary with the campaigns of Alaric was a bar- barian invasion of Italy, which, according to one view, again brings the East and West Goths together. The great mass of the East-Goths, as has been already said, became one of the many nations which were under vassalage to the Huns ; but their relation was one merely of vassalage. They remained a distinct people under kings of their own, kings of the house of the Amali and of the kindred of Ermanaric (J ordanis, 48). They had to follow the lead of the Huns in war, but they were also able to carry on wars of their own ; and it has been held (see Kiipke, 139 ; Pallmann, ii. 173, 277) that among these separate East- Gothic enterprises we are to place the invasion of Italy in 405 by I-ladagaisus (whom Pallmann writes Ratiger, and takes him for the chief of the heathen part of the East- Goths). One chronicler, Prosper, makesthis invasion pre- ceded by another in 400, in which Alaric and Radagaisus appear as partners. The paganism of Radagaisus is certain. The presence of Goths in his army is certain, but it seems dangerous to infer that his invasion was a national Gothic enterprise. Under Ataulf, the brother—in-law and successor of Alaric, another era opens, the beginning of enterprises which did in the end lead to the establishment of a settled Gothic monarchy in the West. The position of Ataulf is well X. -— I07