The Visigoths (in German Westgoten, or West Goths, or Tervinges) were a Germanic people of Scandinavian origin, from southern Sweden and later incorporated into the Roman West. After the official fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), the Visigoths continued for almost 250 years to play an important role in Western Europe. It is undoubtedly the most prestigious barbarian people in Europe, both by its long history and its mythical origins, and by its traces that it left for a long time in the minds.
While occupying the ancient Roman province of Dacia since the end of the 3rd century, the Visigoths gradually adopted Arianism, from the year 341, that is to say a branch of Christianity which affirms that Jesus Christ is not God, but a distinct being created directly by him. This belief was in total opposition to the Christian belief which was the majority in the Roman Empire and which later split into Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The Visigoths remained loyal to the Arian heresy officially until 589, when King Recared I (Spanish:Recaredo) chose to convert publicly, thus officially joining the Catholic Church to the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain. However, after this date, a strong Arian party remained very active and influential, especially among the nobility. It will still be discussed at the beginning of the 8th century in the last days of the kingdom.
History
The Visigoths cited by Pytheas after his expedition to the Great North in -327, appeared for the first time in history as a distinct people in the year 235, when they invaded and devastated Dacia. From 268, they attacked the Roman Empire and tried to settle in the Balkan Peninsula. This invasion also concerned the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyria and even threatened Italy. However, the Visigoths were defeated near the modern borders of Italy and Slovenia and at the Battle of Naissus in September 269.
Over the next three years they were driven back beyond the Danube by a series of military campaigns led by Emperor Claudius II the Gothic, with the future Emperor Aurelian as commander of the cavalry. However, they were able to maintain themselves in Dacia, which Aurelian evacuated in 271, transferring the population to a new province created south of the Danube under the name of Dacia Ripensis.
They remained established there until 376, when one of their two chiefs, the Arian Fritigern, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens and asked him for authorization to be able to settle on the southern banks of the Danube, in order to protect themselves from the Huns, unable to cross this wide river in force.
Valens granted his permission and even helped the Visigoths cross the Danube. In return, Fritigern had to provide mercenaries for the Roman army.
But, the following year, a famine broke out on the lands occupied by the Visigoths and the Roman governors of their territories treated them cruelly. Since Valens did not respond to calls for help from Fritigern, he took up arms. The ensuing war ended on August 9, 378 at the Battle of Adrianople where Valens died. Fritigern, victorious, was recognized as king by his people and the Visigoths became the main power in the Balkans.
Emperor Valens' successor, Theodosius I, made peace with Fritigern in 379. The treaty was respected until Theodosius' death in 395. That same year, Alaric I, the most famous of the Visigoth kings, ascended the throne, while the Emperor Theodosius was succeeded by his two incompetent sons:Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West.
Over the next fifteen years the conflicts were interspersed with years of wavering peace between Alaric and the powerful Germanic generals who commanded the Roman armies.
But, after the assassination of the general of Vandal origin Stilicho (Stillicho) by Honorius in 408 and after the massacre of the families of 30,000 Visigoth soldiers serving in the Roman army, Alaric declared war. He was soon at the gates of Rome, and faced with Honorius' refusal to negotiate, the Visigoths sacked the city on August 24, 410. This event struck the minds of contemporaries considerably, and sometimes serves as the final event of antiquity.
Timeline
* 235:Beginning of the invasions of the Goths, which devastate Dacia.
* 258:The Goths separate into Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
* 269:Victory over the Goths of Emperor Claudius II (Claudius the Gothic) at Naissus (Today, Niš, Serbia).
* 332:Ariaric, king of the Visigoths, launches an attack against the Sarmatians of the plain, by the valley of Maros, but suffers a total defeat against the Romans, who have come to the aid of the Sarmatians
* 341:The first Visigoths are converted to Arianism by Bishop Ulfila.
* 369:The Roman emperor Valens forces the king of the Visigoths Athanaric to retreat into the Serrorum Montes (South-Eastern Carpathians) and to accept an unfavorable treaty on the border of the Danube.
* 370:Birth of Alaric I, future king of the Visigoths.
* 376:The Visigoth army, led by Athanaric is routed by the Huns near the Dniester. The Visigoths, who had occupied part of Dacia for 150 years, asked the Romans, under pressure from the Huns, to cross the lower Danube. Permission is granted. Athanaric takes refuge in Caucalanda (Transylvania); the majority of the Visigoths, led by Fritigern, settled in Roman territory.
* 378:Emperor Valens is defeated and killed by the Visigoths in Adrianople.
* 380:Athanaric and his retinue take refuge in Constantinople.
* 396:Beginning of the reign of Alaric I, king of the Visigoths.
* 401:The Visigoths invade Italy.
* 402:The Visigoths are beaten by the Roman general of Vandal origin Stilicho and thrown out of Italy.
* 402:To escape the threat of the Visigoths, the imperial court is again moved from Milan to Ravenna, a site easier to defend.
* 410:The Visigoths led by Alaric take and loot Rome for three days. Death at the end of the year of Alaric near Cosenza in Calabria, when he hoped to embark for Sicily and reach Roman Africa. Buried with many riches in the bed of the Busento, which flows in Cosenza (legend of the Treasure of Alaric).
* 412 The Visigoths and their new king Athaulf, brother-in-law of Alaric, enter Gaul, ruined by the invasions of the years 407/409
* 416:The Visigoths and their king Wallia continue their invasion in Spain, where they are sent in the pay of Rome to fight other Barbarians.
* 418:The Visigoths exterminate the vandal tribe of the Silings there and kill their king Frédébal, the Alans, beat and push back the “Suèves” in Galicia, and the Asdings vandals. The Visigoths obtained land in Aquitaine from Rome and official federated status.
* 429:Aetius, winner of the Visigoths and the Franks is appointed commander of the armies of the Western Empire.
* 451:Attila, king of the Huns, invades Gaul, but is beaten in the Catalaunian fields (near Troyes), by the Romans, helped among others by the Franks and the Visigoths of the old king Theodoric I, who finds death in fight.
* 455:Beginning of the reign of Avitus, Roman emperor of the West, brought to power by the Visigoths (end in 456).
* 456:The powerful Suevian king Rechiaire I is defeated and killed by the Visigoths who begin to have the upper hand in Spain.
* 468:Victory of the Visigoths over the Suevi in Lusitania (present-day Portugal) which becomes an integral part of the "Visigothic Empire".
* 475:The Visigoths now control southwestern Gaul and most of Spain, except for the Suevian kingdom of Galicia. Emperor Julius Nepos grants Euric, great king of the Visigoths and fervent Arian, the legal concession of the lands he conquered.
* 476:Euric completes the conquest of the rest of southern Gaul to the Italian border, establishes his power there and his authority over the Iberian Peninsula is official after the deposition of the last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustule by the barbarian chief Odoacer.
* 506:The church of the Visigoths holds a synod and their king Alaric II attempts a late rapprochement with the Catholics. Alaric II promulgates a code of laws for his Gallo-Roman subjects, the Breviary of Alaric, inspired by the Code of Theodosius.
* 507:Allied with Gondebaud, the king of Burgondes, the frank king Clovis Ier defeats the Visigoths with Vouillé and kills Alaric II. The Visigoths are pushed back to Spain.
* 508:Intervention in Gaul of the Ostrogothic troops sent by King Theodoric I who repel the Burgundian and Frankish armies besieging the city of Arles and save the Visigoths from extermination. King Geisalic, elected by the army after the defeat of Vouillé, is expelled on the orders of Théodoric who installs his grandson Amalaric.
* 525:Theodoric the Great imprisons the pope after his failure as mediator between the Visigoths and Byzantium.
* 541:The Franks attack the kingdom of the Visigoths in northern Spain but are repulsed in Zaragoza.
* 554:Beginning of the reign of Athanagild I (end in 567), supported by Byzantium against his predecessor Agila I.
* 585:The great king Léovigild completes the conquest of the kingdom of the “Suèves” in the North-West of Spain and succeeds in part in the union of the Iberian peninsula (considered in Spain as the first “National Unificador”).
* 586:Death of Léovigild, last official Arian king of the Visigoths, and beginning of the reign of his second son Récarède Ier (end in December 601).
* 587:Récarède I announces his conversion to Catholicism.
* 589:Récarède I imposes Catholicism on his subjects at the Council of Toledo and thus officially puts an end to Arianism which is no longer tolerated in the Visigothic kingdom.
* 612:Beginning of the reign of Sisebuth (end in 621). 1st religious law against persistent Arianism.
* 654:King Recceswinth promulgates a code inspired by Roman law establishing total parity between his subjects (Lex wisigothorum).
* 672:Death of Recceswinth, election of Wamba, last great Visigoth king.
* 681:Count Flavius Ervigius (Ervige), supplants Wamba and takes power.
* 687:Beginning of the reign of King Égica.
* 694:Great persecutions against the Jews of the South of the peninsula, considered accomplices of the Muslims of North Africa.
* 709:Deposition of king Wittiza by Rodéric. Civil War.