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The Peoples of Europe

Goths

Peter Heather

The

The Goths

Peter Heather

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 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. At its heart lies a new

vision of Gothic identity, and of the social caste

by whom it was defined and transmitted.

LAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

LIBRARY AND MFDIA SERVICES

137

-H425.

1996

Heather,

(Peter

The Goths

LAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

| IBRARY AND MFIDIA SERVICES