were interrupted by an outbreak of persecution, which drove
him, with a considerable body of Christian Goths, to seek
shelter within the Roman empire. They were permitted to settle
in Mœsia, at the foot of the Balkans, round about Nicopolis,
and near the site of modern Tirnova. There they acquired the
name of the Gothi Minores, or Lesser Goths. From this Gothic
settlement of Ulfilas in Mœsia the alphabet and written
language to which he gave form have been called Mœso-Gothic.
The Bible of Ulfilas--the first missionary translation of the
Scriptures--with the personal labors of the apostle and his
disciples, were powerfully influential, without doubt, in the
Christianizing of the whole body of the Goths, and of their
German neighbors, likewise. But Ulfilas had imbibed the
doctrines of Arianism, or of Semi-Arianism, at Constantinople,
and he communicated that heresy (as it was branded by the
Athanasian triumph) to all the barbarian world within the
range of Gothic influence. It followed that, when the kingdoms
of the Goths, the Vandals, and the Burgundians were
established in the west, they had to contend with the
hostility of the orthodox or Catholic western church, and were
undermined by it. That hostility had much to do with the
breaking down of those states and with the better success of
the orthodox Franks.
C. A. A. Scott,
Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths.
See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 481-511.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths) A. D. 350-375.
The empire of Ermanaric or Hermanric.
"Ermanaric, who seems to have been chosen king about the year
350, was a great warrior, like many of his predecessors; but
his policy, and the objects for which he fought, were markedly
different from theirs. ... Ermanaric made no attempt to invade
the provinces of the Roman Empire; but he resolved to make his
Ostrogothic kingdom the centre of a great empire of his own.
The seat of his kingdom was, as tradition tells us, on the
banks of the Dnieper [and it extended to the Baltic]. ... A
Roman historian compares Ermanaric to Alexander the Great; and
many ages afterwards his fame survived in the poetic
traditions of Germans, Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons. ...
Ermanaric was the first king since Ostrogotha who belonged to
the Amaling family. ... Henceforward the kingship of the
Ostrogoths became hereditary among the descendants of
Ermanaric. During this time the Visigoths appear to have been
practically independent, divided into separate tribes ruled by
their own 'judges' or chieftains; but ... it is probable that in
theory they acknowledged the supremacy of the Ostrogothic
king. ... Ermanaric died in the year 375, and the Ostrogoths
were subdued by the Hunnish king Balamber. For a whole century
they remained subject to the Huns." One section of the
Ostrogothic nation escaped from the Hunnish conquest and
joined the Visigoths, who found a refuge on the Roman side of
the Danube. The bulk of the nation bore the yoke until the
death of the great Hun king, Attila, in 453, when the strife
between his sons gave them an opportunity to throw it off.
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapter 5.
"The forecast of European history which then [during the reign
of Hermanric] seemed probable would have been that a great
Teutonic Empire, stretching from the Danube to the Don, would
take the place which the colossal Slav Empire now holds in the
map of Europe, and would be ready, as a civilised and
Christianised power, to step into the place of Eastern Rome
when, in the fulness of centuries, the sceptre should drop
from the nerveless hands of the Cæsars of Byzantium."
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 4, chapter 1.
GOTHS: (Visigoths) A. D. 376.
Admission into the Roman Empire.
"Let us suppose that we have arrived at the year (364) when
the feeble and timid Valens was placed on the Eastern throne
by his brother Valentinian. At that time, Ulfilas would be in
the fifty-third year of his age and the twenty-third of his
episcopate. Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, a centenarian
and more, was still the most important figure in the loosely
welded Gothic confederacy. His special royalty may possibly
have extended over Northern Hungary, Lithuania, and Southern
Russia. The 'torpid' Gepidæ, dwelt to the north of him, to the
south and west the Visigoths, whose settlements may perhaps
have occupied the modern countries of Roumania, Transylvania
and Southern Hungary. The two great nations, the Ostrogoths
and Visigoths, were known at this time to the Romans, perhaps
among themselves also, by the respective names of the
Gruthungi and Thervingi, but it will be more convenient to
disregard these appellations and speak of them by the names
which they made conspicuous in later history."
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
introduction, chapter 3.
This was the situation of Gothia, or the Gothic Empire of
Central Europe, when the Huns made their appearance on the
scene. "An empire, formerly powerful, the first monarchy of
the Huns, had been overthrown by the Sienpi, at a distance of
500 leagues from the Roman frontier, and near to that of
China, in the first century of the Christian era. ... The
entire nation of the Huns, abandoning to the Sienpi its
ancient pastures bordering on China, had traversed the whole
north of Asia by a march of 1,300 leagues. This immense horde,
swelled by all the conquered nations whom it carried along in
its passage, bore down on the plains of the Alans, and
defeated them on the banks of the Tanais in a great battle.
{1557}
It received into its body a part of the vanquished tribe,
accompanied by which it continued to advance towards the West;
while other Alans, too haughty to renounce their independence,
had retreated, some into Germany, whence we shall see them
afterwards pass into Gaul; others into the Caucasian
mountains, where they preserve their name to this day. The
Goths, who bordered on the Alans, had fertilised by their
labours the rich plains which lie to the north of the Danube
and of the Black Sea. More civilised than any of the kindred
Germanic tribes, they began to make rapid progress in the
social sciences. ... This comparatively fortunate state of
things was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of the
Huns,--the unlooked-for arrival of that savage nation,
which, from the moment it crossed the Borysthenes, or the
Dnieper, began to burn their villages and their crops; to
massacre, without pity, men, women, and children; to devastate
and destroy whatever came within the reach of a Scythian
horseman. ... The great Hermanric, whose kingdom extended from
the Baltic to the Black Sea, would not have abandoned his
sceptre to the Huns without a struggle; but at this very time
he was murdered by a domestic enemy. The nations he had
subjugated prepared on every side for rebellion. The
Ostrogoths, after a vain resistance, broke their alliance with
the Visigoths; while the latter, like an affrighted flock of
sheep, trooping together from all parts of their vast
territory to the right bank of the Danube, refused to combat
those superhuman beings by whom they were pursued. They
stretched out their supplicating hands to the Romans on the
other bank, entreating that they might be permitted to seek a
refuge from the butchery which threatened them, in those wilds
of Mœsia and Thrace which were, almost valueless to the
empire." Their prayer was granted by the Emperor Valens, on
the condition that they surrender their arms and that the sons
of their chief men be given as hostages to the Romans. The
great Visigothic nation was then (A. D. 376) transported
across the Danube to the Mœsian shore--200,000 warriors in
number, besides children and women and slaves in proportion.
But the Roman officers charged with the reception of the Goths
were so busy in plundering the goods and outraging the
daughters and wives of their guests that they neglected to
secure the arms of the grim warriors of the migration. Whence
great calamities ensued.
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapters 3 and 5 (volume 1).
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 378.
Defeat and destruction of Valens.
When the Visigothic nation was permitted to cross the Danube,
A. D. 376, to escape from the Huns, and was admitted into
Lower Mœsia, nothing seems to have been left undone that would
exasperate and make enemies of these unwelcome colonists.
Every possible extortion and outrage was practised upon them.
To buy food, they were driven to part, first, with their
slaves, then with their household goods, and finally with
their children, whom they sold. In despair, at last, they
showed signs of revolt, and the fatuous Roman commander
precipitated it by a murderous outrage at Marcianople (modern
Shumla). In a battle which soon followed near that town, the
Romans were disastrously beaten. The Visigoths were now joined
by a large body of Ostrogoths, who passed the Danube without
resistance, and received into their ranks, moreover, a
considerable force of Gothic soldiers who had long been in the
service of the empire. The open country of Mœsia and Thrace was
now fully exposed to them (the fortified cities they could not
reduce), and they devastated it for a time without restraint.
But Valens, the emperor in the east, and Gratian in the west,
exerted themselves in co-operation to gather forces against
them, and for two years there was a doubtful struggle carried
on. The most serious battle, that of The Willows (Ad Salices),
fought in the region now called the Dobrudscha, was a victory
to neither side. On the whole the Romans appear to have had
some advantage in these campaigns, and to have narrowed the
range of the Gothic depredations. But the host of the
barbarians was continually increased by fresh reinforcements
from beyond the Danube. Even their own ferocious enemies, Huns
and Alans, were permitted to join their standard. Yet, in face
of this fact, the folly and jealousy of the Emperor Valens led
him to stake all on the chances of a battle which he made
haste to rush into, when he learned that his nephew Gratian
was marching to his assistance from the west. He coveted the
sole honors of a victory; but death and infamy for himself and
an overwhelming calamity to the empire were what he achieved.
The battle was fought near Hadrianople, on the 9th day of
August, A. D. 378. Two-thirds of the Roman army perished on
the awful field, and the body of the emperor was never found.
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 1, chapter 1.
ALSO IN:
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapters 26.
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapter 8.
See, also, ROME: A. D, 363-379.
GOTHS: A. D. 379-382.
Settlement of the Goths by Theodosius, in Mœsia and Thrace.
"The forces of the East were nearly annihilated at the
terrible battle of Adrianople: more than 60,000 Roman soldiers
perished in the fight or in the pursuit; and the time was long
past when such a loss could have been easily repaired by fresh
levies. Nevertheless, even after this frightful massacre, the
walls of Adrianople still opposed an unconquerable resistance
to the barbarians. Valour may supply the place of military
science in the open field, but civilised nations recover all
the advantages of the art of war in the attack or defence of
fortified towns. ... The Goths, leaving Adrianople in their
rear, advanced, ravaging all around them, to the foot of the
walls of Constantinople; and, after some unimportant
skirmishes, returned westward through Macedonia, Epirus and
Dalmatia. From the Danube to the Adriatic, their passage was
marked by conflagration and blood. Whilst the European
provinces of the Greek empire sunk under these calamities, the
Asiatic provinces took a horrible vengeance on the authors of
them." The Gothic youths who had been required as hostages
when the nation crossed the Danube, and those who were
afterwards sold by their starving parents, were now gathered
together in different cities of the Asiatic provinces and
massacred in cold blood, at a given signal, on the same day
and hour. By this atrocious act, all possible reconciliation
with the Goths might well seem to be destroyed. The prospect
was discouraging enough to the new emperor who now ascended
the vacant throne of Valens (A. D. 379),--the soldier
Theodosius, son of Theodosius who delivered Britain from the
Scots.
{1558}
Chosen by the Emperor Gratian to be his colleague and Emperor
of the East, Theodosius undertook a most formidable task. "The
abandonment of the Danube had opened the entrance of the
empire, not only to the Goths, but to all the tribes of
Germany and Scythia. ... The blood of the young Goths which
had been shed in Asia was daily avenged with interest over all
that remained of Mœsian, Thrasian, Dalmatian, or Grecian race.
It was more particularly during these four years of
extermination that the Goths acquired the fatal celebrity
attached to their name, which is still that of the destroyers
of civilisation. Theodosius began by strengthening the
fortified cities, recruiting the garrisons, and exercising his
soldiers in small engagements whenever he felt assured of
success; he then waited to take advantage of circumstances; he
sought to divide his enemies by intrigue, and, above all,
strenuously disavowed the rapacity of the ministers of Valens,
or the cruelty of Julius; he took every occasion of declaring
his attachment and esteem for the Gothic people, and at length
succeeded in persuading them that his friendship was sincere.
... The very victories of the Goths, their pride, their
intemperance, at length impaired their energy. Fritigern, who,
in the most difficult moments, had led them on with so much
ability, was dead; the jealousies of independent tribes were
rekindled. ... It was by a series of treaties, with as many
independent chieftains, that the nation was at length induced
to lay down its arms: the last of these treaties was concluded
on the 30th of October, 382. It restored peace to the Eastern
empire, six years after the Goths crossed the Danube. This
formidable nation was thus finally established within the
boundary of the empire of the East. The vast regions they had
ravaged were abandoned to them, if not in absolute
sovereignty, at least on terms little at variance with their
independence. The Goths settled in the bosom of the empire had
no kings; their hereditary chiefs were consulted under the
name of judges, but their power was unchanged. ... The Goths
gave a vague sort of recognition to the sovereignty of the
Roman emperor; but they submitted neither to his laws, his
magistrates, nor his taxes. They engaged to maintain 40,000
men for the service of Theodosius; but they were to remain a
distinct army. ... It was, probably, at this period that their
apostle, bishop Ulphilas, who had translated the Gospels into
their tongue, invented the Mœso-Gothic character, which bears
the name of their new abode."
J. C. L. de Sismondi,
Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 5 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 26.
GOTHS: A. D. 395.
Alaric's invasion of Greece.
"The death of Theodosius [A. D. 395] threw the administration
of the Eastern Empire into the hands of Rufinus, the minister
of Arcadius; and that of the Western into those of Stilicho,
the guardian of Honorius. The discordant elements which
composed the Roman empire began to reveal all their
incongruities under these two ministers. ... The two ministers
hated one another with all the violence of aspiring ambition."
G. Finlay,
Greece under the Romans,
chapter 2, section 8.
"The animosity existing between Stilicho and the successive
ministers of the Eastern Emperor (an animosity which does not
necessarily imply any fault on the part of the former) was one
most potent cause of the downfall of the Western Empire. ...
Alaric (the all-ruler) surnamed Baltha (the bold) was the
Visigothic chieftain whose genius taught him the means of
turning this estrangement between the two Empires to the best
account. He was probably born about 360. His birth-place was
the island Peuce, in the Delta of the Danube, apparently south
of what is now termed the Sulina mouth of that river. We have
already met with him crossing the Alps as a leader of
auxiliaries in the army of Theodosius."
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 1, chapter 4.
"At this time [A. D. 395] Alaric, partly from disgust at not
receiving all the preferment which he expected, and partly in
the hope of compelling the government of the Eastern Empire to
agree to his terms, quitted the imperial service and retired
towards the frontiers, where he assembled a force sufficiently
large to enable him to act independently of all authority.
Availing himself of the disputes between the ministers of the
two emperors, and perhaps instigated by Rufinus or Stilicho to
aid their intrigues, he established himself in the provinces
to the south of the Danube. In the year 395 he advanced to the
walls of Constantinople; but the movement was evidently a
feint. ... After this demonstration, Alaric marched into
Thrace and Macedonia, and extended his ravages into Thessaly.
... When the Goth found the northern provinces exhausted, he
resolved to invade Greece and Peloponnesus, which had long
enjoyed profound tranquillity. ... Thermopylæ was left
unguarded, and Alaric entered Greece without encountering any
resistance. The ravages committed by Alaric's army have been
described in fearful terms; villages and towns were burnt, the
men were murdered, and the women and children carried away to
be sold as slaves by the Goths. ... The walls of Thebes had
been rebuilt, and it was in such a state of defence that
Alaric could not venture to besiege it, but hurried forward to
Athens. He concluded a treaty with the civil and military
authorities, which enabled him to enter that city without
opposition. ... Athens evidently owed its good treatment to
the condition of its population, and perhaps to the strength
of its walls, which imposed some respect on the Goths; for the
rest of Attica did not escape the usual fate of the districts
through which the barbarians marched. The town of Eleusis, and
the great temple of Ceres, were plundered and then destroyed.
... Alaric marched unopposed into the Peloponnesus, and, in a
short time, captured almost every city in it without meeting
with any resistance. Corinth, Argos, and Sparta were all
plundered by the Goths." Alaric wintered in the Peloponnesus;
in the following spring he was attacked, not only by the
forces of the Eastern Empire, whose subjects he had outraged,
but by Stilicho, the energetic minister of the Roman West.
Stilicho, in a vigorous campaign, drove the Goths into the
mountains on the borders of Elis and Arcadia; but they escaped
and reached Epirus, with their plunder (see ROME: A. D.
396-398). "The truth appears to be that Alaric availed himself
so ably of the jealousy with which the court of Constantinople
viewed the proceedings of Stilicho, as to negotiate a treaty,
by which he was received into the Roman service, and that he
really entered Epirus as a general of Arcadius. ... He
obtained the appointment of Commander-in-chief of the imperial
forces in Eastern' Illyricum, which be held for four years.
During this time he prepared his troops to seek his fortune in
the Western Empire."
G. Finlay,
Greece under the Romans,
chapter 2, section 8.
{1559}
"The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the
confidence in his future designs, insensibly united the body
of the nation under his victorious standard; and, with the
unanimous consent of the barbarian chieftains, the
Master-general of Illyricum was elevated, according to ancient
custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the
Visigoths."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 30.
GOTHS: A. D. 400.
Failure of Gainas at Constantinople.
His defeat and death.
See ROME: A. D. 400-518.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 400-403.
Alaric's first invasion of Italy.
After Alaric had become a commissioned general of the Eastern
Empire and had been placed in command of the great præfecture
of Eastern Illyricum, he "remained quiet for three years,
arming and drilling his followers, and waiting for the
opportunity to make a bold stroke for a wider and more secure
dominion. In the autumn of the year 400, knowing that Stilicho
was absent on a campaign in Gaul, Alaric entered Italy. For
about a year and a half the Goths ranged almost unresisted
over the northern part of the peninsula. The emperor, whose
court was then at Milan, made preparations for taking refuge
in Gaul; and the walls of Rome were hurriedly repaired in
expectation of an attack. On the Easter Sunday of the year 402
(March 19), the camp of Alaric, near Pollentia, was surprised
by Stilicho, who rightly guessed that the Goths would be
engaged in worship, and would not imagine their Roman
fellow-Christians less observant of the sacred day than
themselves. Though unprepared for battle, the barbarians made
a desperate stand, but at last they were beaten. ... Alaric
was able to retreat in good order, and he soon after crossed
the Po with the intention of marching against Rome. However,
his troops began to desert in large numbers, and he had to
change his purpose. In the first place he thought of invading
Gaul, but Stilicho overtook him and defeated him heavily at
Verona [A. D. 403]. Alaric himself narrowly escaped capture by
the swiftness of his horse. Stilicho, however, was not very
anxious for the destruction of Alaric, as he thought he might
some day find him a convenient tool in his quarrels with the
ministers of Arcadius [the Emperor of the East]. So he offered
Alaric a handsome bribe to go away from Italy"--[back to
Illyria].
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapter 10.
ALSO IN:
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 1, chapter 5.
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 30.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 408-410.
Alaric's three sieges and sack of Rome.
His death.
See ROME: A. D. 408-410.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 410-419.
Founding of the kingdom of Toulouse.
On the death of Alaric (A. D. 410), his brother-in-law,
Ataulphus, or Atawulfs, was chosen king by the wandering
Visigothic nation, and the new king succeeded in negotiating a
treaty of peace with the court at Ravenna. As the result of
it, the Goths moved northwards and, at the beginning of the
year 412, they passed out of Italy into Gaul. A number of
usurpers had risen in the western provinces, during the five
years since 407, encouraged by the disorders of the time, and
Ataulphus accepted a commission from Honorius to put them down
and to restore the imperial authority in southern Gaul. The
commission was faithfully executed in one of its parts; but
the authority which the Gothic king established was, rather,
his own, than that of the imperial puppet at Ravenna. Before
the end of 413, he was master of most of the Gallic region on
the Mediterranean (though Marseilles resisted him), and
westward to the Atlantic. Then, at Narbonne, he married Galla
Placidia, sister of Honorius, who had been a prisoner in the
camp of the Goths for four years, but who was gallantly wooed,
it would seem, and gently and truly won, by her Gothic lover.
Apparently still commissioned by the Roman emperor, though
half at war with him, and though his marriage with Placidia
was haughtily forbidden and unrecognized, Ataulphus next
carried his arms into Spain, already ravaged by Vandals, Alans
and Suevic bands. But there he was cut off in the midst of his
conquests, by assassination, in August, 415. The Goths,
however, pursued their career under another valiant king,
Wallia, who conquered the whole of Spain and meditated the
invasion of Africa; but was persuaded to give up both
conquests and prospects to Honorius, in exchange for a
dominion which embraced the fairest portions of Gaul. "His
victorious Goths, forty-three years after they had passed the
Danube, were established, according to the faith of treaties,
in the possession of the second Aquitaine, a maritime province
between the Garonne and the Loire, under the civil and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Bordeaux. ... The Gothic limits
were enlarged by the additional gift of some neighboring
dioceses; and the successors of Alaric fixed their royal
residence at Toulouse, which included five populous quarters,
or cities, within the spacious circuit of its walls. ... The
Gothic limits contained the territories of seven
cities--namely, those of Bordeaux, Périgueux, Angoulême, Agen,
Saintes, Poitiers, and Toulouse. Hence the district obtained
the name of Septimania."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 31 (with note by Dr. Wm. Smith).
It was at the end of the year 418, that the Goths settled
themselves in their new kingdom, of Toulouse. The next year,
Wallia died, and was succeeded by Theodoric, a valorous
soldier of the race of the Balthings, who played a
considerable part in the history of the next thirty years.
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapter 11-12.
ALSO IN:
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 1, chapter 8 (volume 1).
GOTHS: (The Visigoths): A. D.419-451.
The Kingdom of Toulouse.
"By the peace which their king Wallia concluded with Honorius
(416) after the restoration of Placidia, they [the Visigoths]
had obtained legal possession of the district called Aquitania
Secunda, together with the territory round Toulouse, all of
which allotment went by the name of Septimania or Gothia. For
ten years (419-429) there had been firm peace between
Visigoths and Romans; then, for ten years more (429-439),
fierce and almost continued war, Theodoric, king of the
Visigoths, endeavouring to take Arles and Narbonne; Aetius and
his subordinate Litorius striving to take the Gothic capital
of Toulouse, and all but succeeding. And in these wars Aetius
had availed himself of his long-standing friendship with the
Huns to enlist them as auxiliaries against the warriors of
Theodoric, dangerous allies who plundered friends and enemies.
... For the last twelve years (439-451) there had been peace,
but scarcely friendship, between the Courts of Ravenna and
Toulouse."
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 2, chapter 3 (volume 2).
{1560}
As the successor of Wallia, who died in 419, the Visigoths
chose Theoderic, "who seems to have been a Balthing, though
not related either to Wallia or to Atawulf. You must be
careful not to confound this Visigoth Theoderic, or his son of
the same name, with the great Theoderic the Amaling, who began
to reign over the Ostrogoths about the year 475. Theoderic the
Visigoth was not such a great man as his namesake, but he must
have been both a brave soldier and an able ruler, or he could
not have kept the affection and obedience of his people for
thirty-two years. His great object was to extend his kingdom,
which was hemmed in on the north by the Franks, ... and on the
west by another people of German invaders, the Burgunds; while
the Roman Empire still kept possession of some rich cities,
such as Arles and Narbonne [the first named of which Theoderic
besieged unsuccessfully in 425, the last named in 437], which
were temptingly close to the Gothic boundary on the south. ...
In the year 450 the Visigoths and the Romans were drawn more
closely together by the approach of a great common danger. ...
The Huns ... had, under their famous king, Attila, moved
westward, and were threatening to over-run both Gaul and
Italy."
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapter 12.
See HUNS: A. D. 451.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths and Visigoths): A. D. 451.
At the battle of Chalons.
See HUNS: A. D. 451.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 453.
Breaking the yoke of the Huns.
See HUNS: A. D. 453.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 453-484.
Extension of the kingdom of Toulouse.
"The Visigoths were governed from 453 to 466 by Theodoric the
Second, son of Theodoric the First, and grandson of Alaric.
... The reign of Theodoric was distinguished by conquests. On
the one hand he drove the Suevians as far as the extremity of
Gallicia. ... On the other hand, in 462, he rendered himself
master of the town of Narbon, which was delivered up to him by
its count; he also carried his arms towards the Loire; but his
brother Frederic, whom he had charged with the conquest of the
Armorici, and who had taken possession of Chinon, was killed
in 463 near Orleans, in a battle which he gave to Count
Ægidius. Theodoric finally extended the dominion of the
Visigoths to the Rhone; he even attacked Arles and Marseille,
but he could not subjugate them. After a glorious reign of
thirteen years, he was killed in the month of August, 466, by
his brother Euric, by whom he was succeeded. ... Euric ...
attacked, in 473, the province of Auvergne. ... He conquered
it in 475 and caused his possession of it to be confirmed by
the emperor Nepos. He had at that period acquired the Loire
and the Rhone as frontiers; in Spain he subjected the whole of
the province of Taragon. ... He afterwards conquered Provence,
and was acknowledged a sovereign in Arles and at Marseille,
towards the year 480. No prince, whether civilized or
barbarian, was at that period so much feared as Euric; and,
had he lived longer, it would undoubtedly have been to the
Visigoths, and not to the Franks, that the honor would have
belonged of reconstituting the Gallic provinces; but he died
at Arles towards the end of the year 484, leaving an only son
of tender age, who was crowned under the name of Alaric the
Second."
J. C. L. S. de Sismondi,
The French under the Merovingians;
translated by Bellingham, chapter 4.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 473-474.
Invasions of Italy and Gaul.
"The Ostrogothic brother-kings, who served under Attila at the
battle in Champagne, on the overthrow of the Hunnish Empire
obtained for themselves a goodly settlement in Pannonia, on
the western bank of the Danube. For near twenty years they had
been engaged in desultory hostilities with their barbarian
neighbours, with Sueves and Rugians on the north, with Huns
and Sarmatians on the south. Now, as their countryman,
Jornandes, tells us with admirable frankness, 'the spoils of
these neighbouring nations were dwindling, and food and
clothing began to fail the Goths.' ... They clustered round
their kings, and clamoured to be led forth to war--whither
they cared not, but war must be. Theodemir, the elder king,
took counsel with his brother Widemir, and they resolved to
commence a campaign against the Roman Empire. Theodemir, as
the more powerful chieftain, was to attack the stronger Empire
of the East; Widemir, with his weaker forces, was to enter
Italy. He did so, but, like so many of the northern
conquerors, he soon found a grave in the beautiful but deathly
land. His son, the younger Widemir, succeeded to his designs
of conquest, but Glycerius [Roman emperor, for the moment]
approached him with presents and smooth words, and was not
ashamed to suggest that he should transfer his arms to Gaul,
which was still in theory, and partially in fact, a province
of the Empire. The sturdy bands of Widemir's Ostrogoths
descended accordingly into the valleys of the Rhone and the
Loire; they speedily renewed the ancient alliance with the
Visigothic members of their scattered nationality, and helped
to ruin yet more utterly the already desperate cause of
Gallo-Roman freedom."
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 3, chapter 7 (volume 2).
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 473-488.
Rise of Theodoric.
The greater mass of the Ostrogoth nation who followed
Theodemir (or Theudemer) the elder of the royal brothers, into
the territories of the Eastern Empire, were rapidly successful
in their adventures. The Court at Constantinople made little
attempt to oppose them with arms, but bribed them to peace by
gifts of money and a large cession of territory in Macedonia.
"Amongst the cities which were abandoned to them was Pella,
famous as the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Just after
the conclusion of this treaty (in the year 474) Theudemer
died, and his son Theoderic, at the age of twenty years, began
his long and glorious reign as king of the Ostrogoths."
Theodoric had been reared in the imperial court at
Constantinople, from his eighth to his eighteenth year, his
father having pledged him to the emperor as a hostage for the
fulfilment of a treaty of peace. He understood, therefore, the
corrupt politics of the empire and its weakness, and he made the
most of his knowledge.
{1561}
Sometimes at peace with the reigning powers and sometimes at
war; sometimes ravaging the country to the very gates of the
impregnable capital, and sometimes settled quietly on lands
along the southern bank of the Danube which he had taken in
exchange for the Maeedonian tract; sometimes in league and
sometimes in furious rivalry with another Gothic chieftain and
adventurer, called Theodoric Strabo, whose origin and whose
power are somewhat of a mystery--the seriousness to the
Eastern Empire of the position and the strength of Theodoric
and his Ostrogoths went on developing until the year 488. That
year, the statesmen at Constantinople were illuminated by an
idea. They proposed to Theodoric to migrate with his nation
into Italy and to conquer a kingdom there. The Emperor Zeno,
to whom the Roman senate had surrendered the sovereignty of
the Western Roman Empire, and into whose hands the barbarian
who extinguished it, Odoacer, or Odovacar, had delivered the
purple robes--the Emperor Zeno, in the exercise of his
imperial function, authorized the conquest to be made.
Theodoric did not hesitate to accept a commission so
scrupulously legal.
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapters 14-15.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 488-526.
The kingdom of Theodoric in Italy.
See ROME: A. D. 488-526.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 493-525.
Theodoric in German legend.
See VERONA: A. D. 493-525.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 507-509.
The kingdom of Toulouse overthrown by the Franks.
"If the successors of Euric had been endowed with genius and
energy equal to his, it is possible that the Visigoths might
have made themselves masters of the whole Western world. But
there was in the kingdom one fatal element of weakness, which
perhaps not even a succession of rulers like Euric could have
long prevented from working the destruction of the State. The
Visigoth kings were Arians; the great mass of their subjects
in Gaul were Catholics, and the hatred between religious
parties was so great that it was almost impossible for a
sovereign to win the attachment of subjects who regarded him
as a heretic." After 496, when Clovis, the king of the Franks,
renounced his heathenism, professed Christianity, and was
baptized by a Catholic bishop, the Catholics of Southern Gaul
began almost openly to invite him to the conquest of their
country. In the year 507 he responded to the invitation, and
declared war against the Visigoth, giving simply as his ground
of war that it grieved him to see the fairest part of Gaul in
the hands of the Arians. "The rapidity of Clovis's advance was
something quite unexpected by the Visigoths. Alaric still
clung to the hope of being able to avoid a battle until the
arrival of Theodoric's Ostrogoths [from his great kinsman in
Italy] and wished to retreat," but the opinion of his officers
forced him to make a stand. "He drew up his army on 'the field
of Voclad' (the name still survives as Vouillé or Vouglé), on
the banks of the Clain, a few miles south of Poitiers, and
prepared to receive the attack of the Franks. The battle which
followed decided the fate of Gaul. The Visigoths were totally
defeated, and their king was killed. Alaric's son, Amalaric, a
child five years of age, was carried across the Pyrenees into
Spain. During the next two years Clovis conquered, with very
little resistance, almost all the Gaulish dominions of the
Visigoths, and added them to his own. The 'Kingdom of
Toulouse' was no more. ... But Clovis was not allowed to
fulfil his intention of thoroughly destroying their [the
Visigothic] power, for the great Theoderic of Italy took up
the cause of his grandson Amalaric. The final result of many
struggles between Theoderic and the Franks was that the
Visigoths were allowed to remain masters of Spain, and of a
strip of sea-coast bordering on the Gulf of Lyons. ... This
diminished kingdom ... lasted just 200 years."
H. Bradley,
The Story of the Goths,
chapter 12.
ALSO IN:
T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 4, chapter 9.
W. C. Perry,
The Franks,
chapter 2.
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 38.
See, also, ARLES: A. D. 508-510.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 507-711.
The kingdom in Spain.
The conquests of Clovis, king of the Franks, reduced the
dominion of the Visigoths on the northern side of the Pyrenees
to a small strip of Roman Narbonensis, along the gulf of
Lyons; but most of Spain had come under their rule at that
time and remained so. Amalaric, son of Alaric II. (and
grandson, on the maternal side, of the great Ostrogothic king,
Theodoric, who ruled both Gothic kingdoms during the minority
of Amalaric), reigned after the death of Theodoric until 531,
when he was murdered. He had made Narbonne his capital, until
he was driven from it, in a war with one of the sons of
Clovis. It was recovered; but the seat of government became
fixed at Toledo. During the reign of his successor, the Franks
invaded Spain (A.D. 543), but were beaten back from the walls
of Cæsaraugusta (modern Saragossa), and retreated with
difficulty and disaster. The Visigoths were now able to hold
their ground against the conquerors of Gaul, and the limits of
their kingdom underwent little subsequent change, until the
coming of the Moors. "The Gothic kings, in spite of bloody
changes and fierce opposition from their nobility, succeeded
in identifying themselves with the land and the people whom
they had conquered. They guided the fortunes of the country
with a distinct purpose and vigorous hand. By Leovigild
(572-586) the power of the rebellious nobility was broken, and
the independence and name of the Sueves of Gallicia
extinguished. The still more dangerous religious conflict
between the Catholic population and the inherited Arianism of
the Goths was put down, but at the cost of the life of his
son, Herminigild, who had married a Frank and Catholic
princess, and who placed himself at the head of the Catholics.
But Leovigild was the last Arian king. This cause of
dissension was taken away by his son Reccared (568-601), who
solemnly abandoned Arianism, and embraced with zeal the
popular Catholic creed. He was followed by the greater part of
his Arian subjects, but the change throughout the land was not
accomplished without some fierce resistance. It led among
other things to the disappearance of the Gothic language, and
of all that recalled the Arian days, and to the destruction in
Spain of what there was of Gothic literature, such as the
translation of the Bible, supposed to be tainted with
Arianism. But it determined the complete fusion of the Gothic
and Latin population. After Reccared, two marked features of
the later Spanish character began to show themselves. One was
the great prominence in the state of the ecclesiastical
element. The Spanish kings sought in the clergy a counterpoise
to their turbulent nobility. The great church councils of
Toledo became the legislative assemblies of the nation; the
bishops in them took precedence of the nobles; laws were made
there as well as canons; and seventeen of these councils are
recorded between the end of the fourth century and the end of
the seventh.
{1562}
The other feature was that stern and systematic intolerance
which became characteristic of Spain. Under Sisebut (612-620),
took place the first expulsion of the Jews. ... The Gothic
realm of Spain was the most flourishing and the most advanced
of the new Teutonic kingdoms. ... But however the Goths in
Spain might have worked out their political career, their
course was rudely arrested. ... While the Goths had been
settling their laws, while their kings had been marshalling
their court after the order of Byzantium, the Saracens had
been drawing nearer and nearer."
R. W. Church,
The Beginning of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5.
ALSO IN:
H. Bradley,
Story of the Goths,
chapters 29-35.
S. A. Dunham,
History of Spain and Portugal,
book 2.
H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 2.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 535-553.
Fall of the kingdom of Theodoric.
Recovery of Italy by Justinian.
See ROME: A. D. 535-553.
GOTHS: (Ostrogoths): A. D. 553.
Their disappearance from History.
"Totila and Teia, last of the race of Ostrogoth kings, fell as
became their heroic blood, sword in hand, upon the field of
battle. Then occurred a singular phenomenon,--the
annihilation and disappearance of a great and powerful people
from the world's history. ... A great people, which had
organized an enlightened government, and sent 200,000 fighting
men into the field of battle, is annihilated and forgotten. A
wretched remnant, transported by Narses to Constantinople,
were soon absorbed in the miserable proletariat of a
metropolitan city. The rest fell by the sword, or were
gradually amalgamated with the mixed population of the
peninsula. The Visigoth kingdom in Gaul and Spain, which had
been overshadowed by the glories of the great Theodoric,
emerges into independent renown, and takes up the traditions
of the Gothic name. In the annals of Europe, the Ostrogoth is
heard of no more."
J. G. Sheppard,
The Fall of Rome,
lecture 6.
GOTHS: (Visigoths): A. D. 711-713.
Fall of the kingdom in Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.
----------GOTHS: End----------
GOURGUES, Dominic de, The vengeance of.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1567-1568.
GOWRIE PLOT, The.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1600.
GRACCHI, The.
See ROME: B. C. 133-121.
GRACES OF CHARLES I. TO THE IRISH.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1625.
GRAF.-GRAFIO.
"The highest official dignitary of which the Salic law [law of
the Sulian Franks] makes mention is the Grafio (Graf, Count),
who was appointed by the king, and therefore protected by a
triple ... leodis [weregild]. His authority and jurisdiction
extended over a district answering to the gau (canton) of
later times, in which he acted as the representative of the
king, and was civil and military governor of the people."
W. C. Perry,
The Franks,
chapter 10.
See, also, MARGRAVE.
GRAFTON-CHATHAM MINISTRY, The.
See ENGLAND: A. D.1765-1768, and 1770.
GRAHAM'S DIKE.
See ROMAN WALLS IN BRITAIN.
GRAMPIANS, OR MONS GRANPIUS.
Victoriously fought by the Romans under Agricola with the
tribes of Caledonia, A. D. 86. Mr. Skene fixes the battle
ground at the junction of the Isla with the Tay.
See BRITAIN: A. D. 78-84.
GRAN CHACO, The.
"This tract of flat country, lying between the tropic and 29°
South, extends eastward to the Parana and Paraguay, and
westward to the province of Santiago del Estero. Its area is
180,000 square miles. About one-third belongs to Paraguay, and
a small part to Bolivia, but the bulk is in the Argentine
Republic. ... The Gran Chaco is no desert, but a rich alluvial
lowland, fitted for colonization, which is hindered by the
want of knowledge of the rivers and their shiftings."
The American Naturalist,
volume 23, page 799.
"In the Quitchoane language, which is the original language of
Peru, they call 'chacu,' those great flocks of deer, goats,
and such other wild animals, which the inhabitants of this
part of America drive together when they hunt them; and this
name was given to the country we speak of, because at the time
Francis Pizarro made himself master of a great part of the
Peruvian empire, a great number of its inhabitants took refuge
there. Of 'Chacu', which the Spaniards pronounce 'Chacou"
custom has made 'Chaco.' It appears that, at first, they
comprehended nothing under this name but the country lying
between the mountains of the Cordilliere, the Pilco Mayo, and
the Red River; and that they extended it, in process of time,
in proportion as other nations joined the Peruvians, who had
taken refuge there to defend their liberties against the
Spaniards."
Father Charlevoix,
History of Paraguay,
book 3 (volume l).
For an account of the tribes of the Gran Chaco,
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAMPAS TRIBES.
GRANADA:
The rise of the city.
Granada "was small and unimportant until the year 1012. Before
that time, it was considered a dependency of Elvira [the
neighboring ancient Roman city of Illiberis]; but, little by
little, the people of Elvira migrated to it, and as it grew
Elvira dwindled into insignificance."
H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 6, chapter 5, note (volume 2).
GRANADA: A. D. 711.
Taken by the Arab-Moors.
See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.
GRANADA: A. D. 1238.
The founding of the Moorish kingdom.
Its vassalage to the King of Castile.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.
GRANADA: A. D. 1238-1273.
The kingdom under its founder.
The building of the Alhambra.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1238-1273.
GRANADA: A. D. 1273-1460.
Slow decay and crumbling of the Moorish kingdom.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1273-1460.
GRANADA: A. D. 1476-1492.
The fall of the Moorish kingdom.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1476-1492.
----------GRANADA: End----------
GRANADA, Treaty of.
See ITALY: A. D: 1501-1504.
GRANADINE CONFEDERATION, The.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1830-1886.
GRAND ALLIANCES against Louis XIV.
See
FRANCE: A. D. 1689-1690, to 1695-1696;
SPAIN: A. D. 1701-1702;
and ENGLAND: A. D. 1701-1702.
{1563}
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.
"The Grand Army of the Republic was organized April 6, 1866,
in Decatur, the county seat of Macon County, Illinois. Its
originator was Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, a physician of
Springfield, Illinois, who had served during the war as
surgeon of the 14th Illinois Infantry. He had spent many weeks
in study and plans so that the Order might be one that would
meet with the general approval of the surviving comrades of
the war, and thus insure their hearty co-operation. He made a
draft of a ritual, and sent it by Captain John S. Phelps to
Decatur, where two veterans, Messrs. Coltrin and Prior, had a
printing-office. These gentlemen, with their employees, who
had been in the service, were first obligated to secrecy, and
the ritual was then placed in type in their office. Captain
Phelps returned to Springfield with proofs of the ritual, but
the comrades in Decatur were so interested in the project,
that, with the active assistance of Captain M. F. Kanan and
Dr. J. W. Routh, a sufficient number of names were at once
secured to an application for charter, and these gentlemen
went to Springfield to request Dr. Stephenson to return with
them and organize a post at Decatur. The formation of a post
was under way in Springfield, but not being ready for muster,
Dr. Stephenson, accompanied by several comrades, proceeded to
Decatur, and, as stated, on April 6, 1866, mustered post No.1,
with General Isaac C. Pugh as post commander, and Captain
Kanan as adjutant. The latter gave material aid to Dr.
Stephenson in the work of organizing other posts, and Dr.
Routh served as chairman of a committee to revise the ritual.
The title, 'The Grand Army of the Republic, U. S.,' was
formally adopted that night. Soon after this, post No.2 was
organized at Springfield with General Jules C. Webber as
commander. ... Nothing was done in the Eastern States about
establishing posts until the opportunity was given for
consultation on this subject at a national soldiers' and
sailors' convention, held in Pittsburg in September, 1866,
when prominent representatives from Eastern States were
obligated and authorized to organize posts. The first posts so
established were posts Nos. 1 in Philadelphia, and 3 in
Pittsburg, by charters direct from the acting
commander-in-chief, Dr. Stephenson; and post 2, Philadelphia,
by charter received from General J. K. Proudfit, department
commander of Wisconsin. A department convention was held at
Springfield, Illinois, July 12, 1866, and adopted resolutions
declaring the objects of the G. A. R. General John W. Palmer
was elected the first Department Commander. ... The first
national convention was held at Indianapolis, Ind., November
20, 1866. ... General Stephen A. Hurlbut, of Illinois, was
elected Commander-in-Chief. General Thomas B. McKean, of New
York, Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief; General Nathan Kimball,
of Indiana, Junior Vice-Commander-in-Chief; and Dr.
Stephenson, Adjutant-General. The objects of the Order cannot
be more briefly stated than from the articles and regulations.
1. To preserve and strengthen those kind and fraternal
feelings which bind together the Soldiers, Sailors, and
Marines who united to suppress the late Rebellion, and to
perpetuate the memory and history of the dead.
2. To assist such former comrades in arms as need help and
protection, and to extend needful aid to the widows and
orphans of those who have fallen.
3. To maintain true allegiance to the United States of
America, based upon a paramount respect for, and fidelity to,
its Constitution and laws, to discountenance whatever tends to
weaken loyalty, incites to insurrection, treason, or
rebellion, or in any manner impairs the efficiency and
permanency of our free institutions; and to encourage the
spread of universal liberty, equal rights, and justice to all
men.
Article IV. defines the qualifications of members in the
following terms: Soldiers and Sailors of the United States
Army, Navy, or Marine Corps who served between April 12, 1861,
and April 29, 1865, in the war for the suppression of the
Rebellion, and those having been honorably discharged
therefrom after such service, and of such State regiments as
were called into active service and subject to the orders of
United States general officers, between the dates mentioned,
shall be eligible to membership in the Grand Army of the
Republic. No person shall be eligible who has at any time
borne arms against the United States. ... The second national
encampment was held in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pa.,
January 15, 1868. ... General John A. Logan, of Illinois, was
elected Commander-in-Chief. ... That which tended most to
attract public attention to the organization was the issuance
of the order of General Logan early in his administration, in
1868, directing the observance of May 30th as Memorial Day.
... At the national encampment, held May 11, 1870, at
Washington, D. C., the following article was adopted as a part
of the rules and regulations: 'The national encampment hereby
establishes a Memorial Day, to be observed by the members of
the Grand Army of the Republic, on the 30th day of May
annually, in commemoration of the deeds of our fallen
comrades. When such day occurs on Sunday, the preceding day
shall be observed, except where, by legal enactment, the
succeeding day is made a legal holiday, when such day shall be
observed.' Memorial Day has been observed as such every year
since throughout the country wherever a post of the Grand Army