The Ostrogoths were one of the two factions of the Goths, a Germanic people who came from the confines of the Baltic and settled in the 4th century in Ukraine and southern Russia, north of the Black Sea - the other faction being that of the Visigoths. They played a considerable role in the events of the end of the Roman Empire.
Etymological hypotheses
The meaning of the name Ostrogoth is controversial. The Goths, in fact, formed a united tribe until the third century, when they split into two branches:the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths.
A geographical explanation was proposed for this terminology of division, at least as early as the 6th century by a historian of Gothic origin:Jordanès. The latter, author of a History of the Goths, is today one of the only sources available on the prehistory of his people, insofar as he summarized a longer text by Cassiodorus. Cassiodorus's text has been lost.
According to Jordanès (XIV,2), the terminology refers to the region of habitat of the Goths, the Visigoths being the Goths of the “western country” and the Ostrogoths being the “Goths of the east”. Nevertheless, in the case of the latter, Jordanes adds another possibility, of an etymological order this time:the name Ostrogoths could also come from the name of their first king:Ostrogotha.
However, we also know that other names existed previously to designate a geographical division of the Goths:the tervingi, that is to say the "people of the forest", and the greutingi, that is to say the "strike people".
Also, the geographical explanation of the origin of the names Ostrogoth and Visigoth given by Jordanes was questioned and an etymological explanation was sought, more likely to explain a difference prior to the 3rd century. In this case, Ostrogoths would mean "bright Goths" (Germanic root ostr-) and Visigoths, "wise Goths" (root wise-).
The debate is not settled, for lack of sufficient evidence. The choice of historians then falls on one or the other of these hypotheses according to the confidence they place in the testimony of Jordanès.
The origins of the Ostrogoths
The two tribes, in any case, shared many cultural traits and formed, still according to Jordanes, only one “nation”. Among other things, the Goths recognized a common tutelary deity that the Romans associated with Mars. Their separation, or more correctly the migration of the western tribes to the Roman province of Dacia, was the result of the overpopulation of the region around the Black Sea where the Ostrogoths established a vast and powerful kingdom. The Gepids, another Germanic people, became their vassals and rivals.
The Huns subjugated the Ostrogoths around 370, and their arrival probably prompted the Visigoths to settle beyond the Danube. According to Jordanes, the defeat by the Huns also caused the Ostrogothic king Ermanaric to commit suicide in 378.
During the following decades, the Ostrogoths remained in the Balkans under the domination of the Huns, becoming one of their many vassal peoples. The Ostrogoths fought in Europe under the orders of the Huns, notably during the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451.
The Ostrogoths rose several times against the Huns. These uprisings were put down, but the contribution of the "culture on horseback" of the Huns was later a major advantage for the Ostrogoths.
Their written history begins with their independence from the Hun Empire after the death of Attila. Allied with their former vassals and rivals, the Gepids, the Ostrogoths led by Thiumidir crushed the Hunnic forces commanded by the sons of Attila at the battle of Nedao in 454.
The Ostrogoths came into contact with the Empire and settled in Pannonia.
For most of the second half of the fifth century, the Ostrogoths played a role in Southeastern Europe equivalent to that played by the Visigoths in the previous century. They were present in all imaginable relations of friendship and hostility with the Eastern Roman power, and that until, as the Visigoths had done before them, they passed from East to West.
The reign of Theodoric the Great
The greatest of all Ostrogothic rulers, Theodoric the Great, was born around 455, shortly after the Battle of Nedao. He spent his childhood as a hostage in Constantinople, where he received a careful education.
He participated in various conflicts, intrigues and wars in the Byzantine Empire and he had as a rival Theodoric Strabo, a distant relative and son of Triarius. This older but lesser Theodoric seems to have been the leader and not the king of the branch of the Ostrogoths which had settled in the Empire a little earlier.
Theodoric the Great was alternately the friend and the enemy of the Empire. In the first case, he adorned himself with various Roman titles, such as those of patrician and consul; but in any case, he remained above all the king of the Ostrogothic nation.
It was in these two roles at the same time that in 488 he conquered Italy at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno I, who was only too happy to get rid of an enterprising warlord whose troops had just ravaged the suburbs. of Constantinople some time before. The peninsula was then in the hands of a Herule chief named Odoacer, passed down in posterity for having deposed the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus in 476.
In 493 Ravenna was taken and Odoacer was killed at the hands of Theodoric himself. The power of the Ostrogoths was then fully established in Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia and in the lands located north of Italy. During this reconquest, Ostrogoths and Visigoths also began to meet, at least if we are to believe the testimony of an author who writes that Theodoric was helped by Visigoth auxiliaries. The two branches of the nation were soon brought together much more closely.
While Theodoric's power extended in practice over a large part of Gaul, it settled over almost all of Spain:indeed, events forced Theodoric to become the regent of the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse. /P>
A moment of confusion had followed the death of the king of the Visigoths Alaric II, the son-in-law of Théodoric, during the battle of Vouillé against the Franks of Clovis. On this occasion, the Ostrogothic king assumed his role as guardian of his grandson Amalaric and reserved for himself the entire Hispanic domain as well as a fragment of Gaul.
Toulouse passed to the Franks but the Goths kept the city of Narbonne and Septimania:this last region was the last part of Gaul which was held by the Goths and it kept the name of Marquisate of Gothia for a long time yet.
As long as Theodoric lived, the Visigoth kingdom remained practically inseparable from its own possessions. He also seems to have established, from this time, a kind of protectorate with regard to the Germanic powers of the West:he profited several times from his authority with regard to these, except in the case of the Franks. P>
Characteristics of Theoderic's kingdom
His accession triggers a major war against the Byzantine Empire in Italy which tries under Justinian to restore the lost imperial order.
Posterity of the Goths in Western Europe
The posterity of the Goths in Western Europe is due more to the Visigoth kingdom than to the Ostrogothic kingdom, since it disappeared prematurely.
See the article Posterity of the Goths in Western Europe.
Timeline
* 242:Cut off from the Roman world, the Cimmerian Bosphorus (current Crimea) falls under the domination of the Ostrogoths settled in Ukraine.
* 257:The Goths separate into Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
* 271:First important withdrawal since the beginning of the Empire, the Romans abandon Dacia to the Ostrogoths.
* 371:The Ostrogothic empire is in the hands of the Huns.
* 375:Strong thrust of the Huns destroying the Ostrogothic kingdom in southern Russia.
* 425:The Vandals, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths settle in the old Roman provinces.
* 456:The Ostrogoths settle on the lower Danube.
* 493:Theodoric the Great, the leader of the Ostrogoths is now king of Italy.
* 508:Beginning of a campaign of the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great towards southern Gaul (end in 511).
* 526:Athalaric succeeds Theodoric the Great as king of the Ostrogoths.
* 526:Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and Italy dies of dysentery.
* 534:October 2, death of Athalaric, king of the Ostrogoths
* 535:Theodat, the new king of the Ostrogoths strangles his wife Queen Amalasonte, the daughter of Theodoric the Great.
* 536:The Ostrogoths depose their inert king, Theodat, and elect Vitiges, a general to replace him.
* 536:The Ostrogoths cede Provence to the Franks.
* 537:Having ensured his rear by conceding Provence, in the hands of the Ostrogoths since 508, to the Franks, Vitigès moves towards Rome and lays siege to it.
* 539:Milan, the most important city of Italy after Rome, is taken over by the Ostrogoths and destroyed. The men are massacred and the women sold as slaves.
* 540:Vitiges, the king of the Ostrogoths is taken by Belisarius who seizes Ravenna.
* 543:The Ostrogoths carry out an agrarian reform favorable to the Italian peasants.
* 543:Totila, the new king of the Ostrogoths, advances in Italy where he takes Naples after a siege, Belisarius returns to Italy.
* 546:Totila, king of the Ostrogoths takes Rome after a siege of one year.
* 552:Narses defeats and kills Totila the king of the Ostrogoths at the battle of Busta Gallorum.
* 553:The Byzantine general Narses defeats Teias, Totila's successor as king of the Ostrogoths, at Mount Lactarius (battle of Mount Lactarius or Vesuvius).
* 554:The Byzantine Emperor Justinian launches a program to reorganize the administration of Italy after the chaos of 20 years of war against the Ostrogoths.