The Goths

Between the first and seventh centuries AD, Gothic groups moved thousands of miles across the map of Europe, from the fringes of the Baltic to the shores of the Atlantic ocean. In the process, they transformed themselves from an insignificant people on the outskirts of the known world into highly militarized forces, capable of carving out successor states for themselves from the body politic of the Roman Empire. This book draws on all the available literary and archaeological evidence, much of the latter never before discussed in English, to reconstruct the Goths′ dramatic history, and to explore the meaning of Gothic identity at different moments and in different contexts. The volume is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three main phases in Gothic history: their early history down to the fourth century, the revolution in Gothic society set in motion by the arrival of the Huns, and the history of the Gothic successor states to the western Roman Empire.

List of Plates. List of Figures. Preface. Abbreviations. Acknowledgements. 1. The Gothic Problem. Part I: In Search of the Goths: . 2. From the Baltic to the Black Sea. 3. The Fourth Century Kingdoms. Part II: Goths, Huns and Romans: . 4. The Hunnic Revolution. 5. Goths and Romans: Remaking the Gothic World. 6. The Transformation of the Goths 376–476. Part III: The Kingdoms of the Goths: . 7. The First Gothic Successor State. 8. Ostrogothic Italy: Kingdom and Empire. 9. Sixth Century Crises and Beyond. 10. Symbols, Mechanisms, and Continuities. Appendix 1: Procopius and the Gothic Elite. Appendix 2: Non–Goths in the Army of Totila. Bibliography. 1. Primary Sources. 2. Secondary Sources. 3. The Wielbark and Cernjachov Cultures. Index.

Peter Heather was born in Northern Ireland and educated at Maidstone Grammar School and New College, Oxford. He briefly joined HM Treasury before being awarded the Murray Fellowship in History at Worcester College, Oxford. His previous books include Goths and Romans, 332–489 (1991) and The Goths in the Fourth Century (1991).

"...a volume of central importance on the place of the Goths in early European history and a fine contribution to the study of the transformation of Europe after Rome." Times Literary Supplement, January 1998. <!––end––> "... an excellent introduction to the student" Archaeological Review from Cambridge