The Goths Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scandinavia

The main early written source is that of Jordanes (sixth century, dates of birth and death unknown). It includes a shortened version of a history of the Goths by Cassiodorus (480-575). Much of what Jordanes wrote about the history of the Goths is fantastical.

Moreover, there is no sound archaeological evidence to substantiate this claim. However, as late as the 17th century the Swedish monarchy sometimes claimed to be the true heir to the Goths' kingdoms.

Answer: Between the Vistula and the Oder rivers

There is a wealth of archaeological evidence for this. This area was already crowded in the 1st century AD, and it is not surprising that the Goths soon began migrating.

Answer: Dacia and the areas just north of the Black Sea

They settled in what is now Romania and also to the east of that area. A small community speaking a language that appears to be derived from Gothic survived in the Crimea till at least the 16th century. (There are even a few travellers' reports to this effect dating from the 18th century, but they aren't reliable).

Answer: They were pushed by the Huns

The westward thrust of the Huns, starting in AD 375, is widely regarded as the key catalyst that set in motion the most important wave of the Great Migrations of the late Roman period.

Answer: Adrianople

Under their leader Fritigern, the Visigoths inflicted by far the most severe defeat that the Romans had ever suffered to date *within the Empire* and Emperor Valens was slain in the battle. Peter Heather, "The Goths", Blackwell, Oxford 1996, p. 135 estimates the number of Roman dead in the battle at between ten and fifteen thousand. War between the Visigoths and the Romans continued till AD 382.

Answer: They became subjects of the Huns

The Ostrogoths didn't succeed in freeing themselves from Hunnic rule till Attila's death in 453 AD, when the Hunnic Empire collapsed.

Answer: Spain

With the further weakening of the Roman Empire on the death of Theodosius, the Visigoths, now led by Alaric, marched westwards from Moesia and Thrace. They sacked Rome in AD 410 and advanced to Southern Italy, where Alaric died. They retraced their steps to northern Italy, crossed the southern Alps, and set up a kingdom in South-West Gaul in the area around Toulouse and the northern Pyrenees - the "Tolosanian Kingdom" which lasted from 418-507.

They expanded this kingdom northwards as far as the Loire and south as far as Cadiz and the Straits of Gibraltar.

In 507 they were forced by the Franks under Clovis to abandon most of their possessions north of the Pyrenees and confine themselves to Spain, to what is often referred to as the "Kingdom of Toledo".

This kingdom lasted till Spain was conquered by the Arabs in 711. The last Gothic King was Roderic(k) - also known as Rodriguez. What exactly became of the Visigoths after this is not clear, but it is widely assumed that they were absorbed into the general population of the Iberian Peninsula.

Answer: Italy

Theodric, having ousted and killed Odoacer (or Odovacer) in 493, ruled Italy from Ravenna as a single kingdom till 526. It was the last time that the Italy was a single political entity till the nineteenth cenury. Emperor Justinian, using his generals Belisarius and later, Narses, succeeded in subduing this kingdom by about 552 in his attempt to regain the Western Empire and suppress the Arian heresy.

Thereafter, the Gothic population appears to have merged with the various peoples that inhabited Italy.

Answer: True

The key feature of Arianism was that it rejected the Catholic concept of the complete unity and equality of the three persons of the Trinity. The Arian heresy had somewhat different emphases at different times, but it asserted the supremacy of God the Father. By about AD 500 Arianism had become one of the key indicators of Gothic identity.

However, in 587 King Reccared of the Kingdom of Toledo came into line with Catholicism.

Answer: Ravenna

Perhaps the most impressive monuments in Ravenna are the mausoleum of Theodric the Great and the churches of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Spirito Santo. It was here, too, that the best copy of Bishop Ulfilas' translation of the Gospels into Gothic (the "Codex Argentinum") was made. Important monuments to the civilization of the Visigoths include a code of laws, the excavated basilica and palace of Reccopolis (about 50 km east of Madrid) and the church of San Juan de Banos, Palencia. (The style of the buildings is of course late Roman and *not* what later came to be called "Gothic"! In the last third of the 18th century, with a renewed appreciation of the Middle Ages, the "pointed" styles of the high and late Middle Ages were proudly labelled "Gothic" by those seeking to promote appreciation of these styles.

However, they had nothing whatsoever to do with the architecture of the Goths).