The Goths were a people who flourished in Europe throughout ancient times and into the Middle Ages. Sometimes called “barbarians,” they are famous for sacking the city of Rome in A.D. 410. After the Western Roman Empire diminished, two Gothic kingdoms rose: the short-lived Visigoths and the longer-lasting Ostrogoths.
The earliest surviving written records mentioning the Goths date back to the first century A.D. although their existence dates back further with some records suggesting that they migrated from Scandinavia wrote David Gwynn, Reader in Ancient and Late Antique History at Royal Holloway University of London, wrote in his book “The Goths: Lost Civilizations (opens in new tab)” (Reaktion Books, 2017).
Ironically, however, the Goths are often credited with helping to preserve Roman culture. After the sacking of Rome, a group of Goths moved to Gaul (in modern-day France) and Iberia and formed the Visigothic Kingdom, which would eventually incorporate Catholicism, Roman artistic traditions and other aspects of Roman culture. The last Gothic kingdom fell to the Moors in A.D. 711.
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