Home > History Fact Finder > Eras and Their Highlights - Who Were The Visigoths And Ostrogoths?

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Who were the Visigoths and Ostrogoths?

The Visigoths and Ostrogoths were originally Goths, a Germanic tribe who lived in what is now Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark). In the third century A.D. the Goths invaded the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and during the fourth century they broke into two groups. Those living north of the present-day Danube River became known as the Visigoths; those living farther east, in present-day Ukraine, were called the Ostrogoths (ost means east). When the Huns from central Asia attacked the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, many of the Visigoths escaped into an eastern Roman province. Rebelling against the Roman rulers, the Visigoths destroyed the Roman army at a battle in Adrianople (in present-day Turkey) and killed Valens (328?–378), the emperor of the eastern Roman Empire. Under their leader, Alaric I (c. 370–340), the Visigoths moved into Italy. In 410 they...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Early Ages
   1. When did history begin?
   2. When did humans first walk on the face of the Earth?
   3. Who were the Neanderthals?
   4. What was the prehistoric era?
   5. What was the Stone Age?
   6. How did the Bronze Age advance technology?
   7. Why has iron been called the "democratic metal"?
2. Ancient Civilizations
   1. What were the achievements of the ancient Egyptians?
   2. What was the first advanced civilization in Europe?
   3. What are the Seven Wonders of the World?
   4. What was the Myceneaen Age?
   5. What were the Dark Ages of ancient Greece?
   6. Which classical Greeks influenced Western civilization?
   7. What government ruled Rome before the Roman Empire?
   8. What was the Pax Romana?
   9. How did the Roman Empire differ from the Holy Roman Empire?
   10. Who were the Celts and what happened to them?
3. Middle Ages And Renaissance
   1. Were the Dark Ages the same as the Middle Ages ?
   2. Who were the Huns?
   3. Who were the Visigoths and Ostrogoths?
   4. Who were the first warriors to fight on horseback?
   5. Who started the fall of the Roman Empire?
   6. Who were the Vandals?
   7. Who were the Franks?
   8. Who were the Gauls, and what happened to them?
   9. Who were the Lombards, Saxons, and Angles?
   10. Who were the Vikings?
   11. What is feudalism?
   12. What was a lord?
   13. What was a serf?
   14. What were vassals?
   15. What was a knight?
   16. Who were the samurai?
   17. What was a papal state?
   18. What was the role of the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages?
   19. What was the Investiture Struggle?
   20. What were the three great kingdoms of western Africa?
   21. What was the Holy Roman Empire?
   22. What was the Renaissance, and where did it begin?
   23. Who were the great Renaissance artists, writers, and thinkers?
   24. What was the northern Renaissance?
   25. When did European colonialism begin?
4. The Modern Age
   1. What was the Enlightenment?
   2. What was the scientific revolution?
   3. What were the effects of the Industrial Revolution?
   4. What was the impact of World War I?
   5. Was the cold war really a war?
   6. When did the cold war start?
   7. What led to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe?
   8. How did the Soviet Union fall apart?

1. Industrial Revolution