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THE MIGRATION OF THE TEUTONIC TRIBES AND THEIR CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. Peter Dunoff


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THE MIGRATION OF THE TEUTONIC

TRIBES AND THEIR CONVERSION

TO CHRISTIANITY1



In the scope of this essay we intend to follow the migration of the German races and their conversion to Christianity.
 
As the Germans take an important part in the development of human thought and the ideas of the present time, the subject is worthy of our consideration.
 
In treating it we must refer to history as the source of information.
 
As astronomy begins with causation, geology with the formation of the earth, biology /2/ with the appearance of protoplasm; so the human history begins with the appearance of man, and proceeds onward until it reaches our days.
 
The purpose of history is to throw light upon the human race, its development, life, thought, ideas and organization so that we may clearly see the gradual progress of humanity. How far history has succeeded in its endeavors it remains for the learned historians to determine. The fact is acknowledged that much history concerning the earlier development of the human family is obscure.
 
Nevertheless human genius with unceasing labor has succeeded in discovering to us /3/ many facts, and has solved many hard problems.
 
It is certain that future labor will bring new trophies to its possession. The limit of this paper does not allow an elaborate discussion.
 
It is not more that a hundred years since the historians after scientific research came to the conclusion that all races in Europe - Celts, Germans, Slavs, Italians and Greek - and some in Asia belong to the Indo-European race of men.
 
According to later investigations, there were eight principal branches of this race. Five of them found their homes in Europe and three remained in Asia.
 
/4/ It is believed that the earlier home of that great undivided race was somewhere in western Asia, between the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of Indus. However it is not conceded by all.
 
Allowing this view as correct we may suppose that an increase in numbers, or internal divisions caused their search for new homes.
 
Probably one part passed by the way between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea into Europe, while another part went to the East into the valley of the Ganges and formed the great Indian race. A third part of the same race including the Medes and Persians remained set- /5/ tled in the Tigris- Euphrates valley.
 
Of the five branches into which the European portion was divided, the Celts seem to have been in advance; probably they were pushed by the others towards the west and settled in British islands, France and Spain.
 
Behind the Celts were following the Germans, who occupied the central part of Europe from the Alps northward to the sea and were spreading over Scandinavia. After the Germans were advancing the Slavs - a race who had not yet formed a united government. One division occupied the provinces of the Danube and Hungary while the rest settled in Russia and today they form the largest /6/ part of the population in the Empire. Farther to the south came the Italians and the Greeks who occupied the southern part of Europe near the Mediterranean Sea. These two branches of the Aryan race - the Italians and the Greeks - have done much in the preparation of the present civilization which Christianity brought into the world. The Greek mind was prepared by nature to grasp everything which had to do with beauty and delicacy in human thought in the abstract; they left us a splendid inheritance in works of art, literature, philosophy, history and political governments.


The Italians distinguished themselves in the formation of a /7/ great empire with splendid laws. In the work of civilization the Germans alone of the Northmen have taken rank with the Greeks and the Romans.
 
As our main interest in this discourse is with the Germans, we intend to notice several facts - their origin, migration and conversion.
 
In regard to their origin many questions have been asked. Where were they during the distant centuries, in which Phoenicia and Carthage were unfurling the sails of their commerce upon the seas and Greece was flourishing in beauty of her civilization and Rome was building up here colossal iron despotism? These are questions which history cannot answer positively.
 
/8/ Parke Godwin, when he speaks about the origin of the Germans, says: „An impervious cloud overhangs the morning of the old Teutonic world."2
 
Von Hammer3 refers the origin of the Germans to a Persian tribe mentioned by Herodotus the Greek historian under the name reppavioi, but in some texts this word is Kappavioi, which renders it of doubtful authority. Moreover Tacitus4 says expressly that the tribes of north and central Europe had in his time been but recently called Germans; and this is confirmed by Strabo5, who makes the name of Roman origin. They were called Germans from „germanus" - brother - because /9/ they were the brothers of the Gauls. Some refer the name to the Kymric6 „ger" - near, and „man" - people = the neighbors. But Grimm7 says these tribes did not call themselves Germans, and that so far as they had any collective appellation it was „Teuton" from the root „teut" or the people.
 
However one thing is sure - that they came from the East. When, we do not know.
 
The probability is that they were compelled to leave their home either by natural necessities or by the force of some other tribes and that they wandered for many centuries upon the steppes in western Russia with their herds and flocks, moving slowly on their progressive journey.
 
/10/ With the long centuries they increased in number, and this caused the subdivision of the race into other smaller tribes who pressed onward towards the northern part of Europe until they came into the possession of that large portion of the continent called Germany.
 
Parke Godwin in his History of France says: „Early ethnography assigned to Germans that part of central Europe which was bounded on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Rhine, on the north by the Baltic and on the east where they were vaguely blended with the Sarmatians or Schlaves8 by mountains and mutual fear." This was a wild and savage region of woods /11/ and marshes; and the people who occupied it in common with the bears, wolves, bison and wild-boars, were divided into some fifty distinct and independent tribes.
 
Their general resemblance of complexion, language, habits and institutions denoted that they were of common origin.
 
Formerly they represented a vast multitude of petty tribes living each for itself; but after the first great attack of the Romans to subdue them and break up their unceasing disturbances caused to the Empire by their restless disposition, these tribes made a great confederation under their famous leader Hermann. P' Julius Caesar was the first of the Roman /12/ emperors who cast a few glances into the dark continent occupied by the Germans, and checked their rapid advancement upon the Empire. The military genius of this man folded the Teutons into heavy obscurity for more than a century.
 
In the time of Augustus (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.) the Romans made several expeditions across the river Rhine, but the Roman armies suffered defeat.
 
From all other German tribes the Goths first appear prominently in history.
 
The hypothesis adapted by Werth9 traces the Goths to the „Getai" who dwelt on the borders of the Black Sea. He cites /13/ Herodotus, Strabo, Solinus10 as establishing the identity. Humboldt11 indeed says that Grimm12, in a work which I have not seen, clearly demonstrates the fact. If the Goths were Getai, then they were ... (missing words in the text; most probably : a Thracian) race.
 
In the time of Herodotus - 450 B.C. - the Getai occupied both sides of the Danube, in what are now Bulgaria, Bessarabia and Wallachia. How far this supposition is true is a question.
 
Three centuries from this time they appear in history prominently. We hear about their long journey from the mouth of the Vistula, and then we find them near the mouth of the Danube.
 
/14/ Of this long journey we know very little. The Goths according to their tradition believed that they came from Sweden in three ships. „This tradition is not incredible," says Emerton, „if we are willing to multiply the ships a little, and if we remember that to get to Scandinavia they must first have made the same long journey to the northwest which all their German brethren had made. At all events we may believe that the whole nation had moved, perhaps driven by enemies, perhaps in search of new pasture-lands for their cattle, up the valleys of the northward-flowing and down the valleys of the southward-flowing rivers until /15/ they came near the Black Sea and had then spread out westward until they reached the position we have just described."13
 
It is hard for us to imagine such a great migration, but we must remember that the people had no property except such as they could drive or carry upon their wagons. The progress made by them from the Baltic to the Euxine14 was no doubt very slow. Perhaps one journey was made once in a lifetime or a generation, but in later times their movement was more rapid.
 
„In the age of Antonines" (A.D. 248-264), says Gibbon, „the Goths were still seated in Prussia. About the reign of Alexander /16/ Severus, the Roman province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads. In this interval, therefore, of about seventy years, we must place the second migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the conduct of unsettled barbarians. Either a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods or the eloquence of a daring leader were sufficient to impel the Gothic arms on the milder climate of the south."15
 
In the time of Emperor Hadrian, a few months after his /17/ ascension to the Roman throne he was summoned to the banks of the Danube to fight with the Goths who invaded the Roman Empire.
 
Gibbon says: „This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people who afterward broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol,16 and reigned in Gaul, Spain and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the Western Empire that the name of Goths is frequently but improperly used as general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism".17
 
About a century after Emperor Aurelian had given to the Western Goths the province of Dacia they had lived on comparatively /18/ good terms with the Romans neighbors and were inclined to lead a more settled life.
 
But about the year 375 a new difficulty arose. A new people, up to this time unknown, invaded Europe. They were the Huns - a people who did not belong to the Aryan race, but to the Turanian race. „They came from the north of Asia beyond the Great Wall of China, passed the 'gateway of the nations' between Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains, and fell upon the distant settlement of the East- Goths. They surrendered and were obligated to join the Huns in their attack upon the West-Goths."18
 
These later in their despair begged the Roman emperor /19/ Valens to give them shelter in the Empire. The petition was granted and they were allowed to settle in Moesia19 on the condition that they should defend the frontiers of the Empire from new attack, and the Romans should supply them with weapons.
 
But soon there arose new troubles. The Roman officers were careless in their conduct. The ill treatment of the barbarians, their properties and their families aroused the indignation of the whole nation into open revolt.
 
Emperor Valens decided to break up the rebellion and without waiting for any help from the West gave battle near Adrianople. His army was utter- /20/ ly defeated. He himself was killed in the retreat in 378. This decisive battle taught the Germans that they were able to beat the Roman legions in open fight.
 
Gratian, the emperor of the West, invited Theodosius, a Spaniard of great ability, to take the government of the Eastern Empire.
 
The political genius of Theodosius saved the Empire from ruin, and he succeeded in holding them in peace; but soon after his death the Gothic warriors were not to be bound with empty promises. Their restless ambition for conquest brought to the front their greatest leader Alaric. Once more the whole nation /21/ took up its march with the fixed purpose of finding lands in the very heart of the Empire where they might settle once for all.
 
Alaric devastated Greece and then took his march for Italy to plunder Rome. However his advance was stopped by Stilicho, the ablest general of Honorius and he was obliged to retreat.
 
The murder of Stilicho by Emperor Honorius opened the way for Alaric. He drew near Rome with his army, besieged it, and in 410 the city was taken by storm and plundered.
 
Alaric already intended to pass into Africa, but this was prevented by his sudden death. „The sister of Honorius, the /22/ beautiful and learned Placidia, taken captive in Rome, marries the Gothic leader Adolf. (...) The Visigoths served as the allies of Rome. (...) The price of this service was a new and final grant of land in Spain and in the south of Gaul, - extending from the river Loire beyond the Pyrenees and over the greater part of the peninsula. Here the wanderings of the Visigoths came to an end. They made use of what they had learned at Rome to found a great and prosperous kingdom with Toulouse as its capital." 20
 
The Gallic part of the Visigothic kingdom lasted until the 6th c., when the rise /23/ of the Franks reduced it to a Frankish province. The Spanish portion existed until the 8th c. The invasion of the Mohammedans from the south put an end to it.
 
We must now turn our attention to some others of their kinsmen who were in the same way seeking lands, wealth and power.
 
Along the Baltic shore we first hear about the Vandals, who were neighbors to the Goths. In some early period they moved slowly in a southeastern and then in a western course.
 
Reaching Pannonia on the Danube they encamped as though they were going to settle forever.
 
/24/ The Romans, who by experience had learned how to treat the barbarians, used them as their allies and defenders of the frontier of the Empire; and to some extent they had been faithful in the Roman service. However, the success of Alaric, and his example set them in motion. They left their place and moved rapidly to the northwest with their kinsmen the Suevi, carrying also with them an un-German tribe, the Alani.
 
Near the border of Mainz they crossed the Rhine and made a long circuit through the north part of Gaul and then passed into Spain, which became their prey.
 
„Emperor Honorius by the help /25/ of the Gothic kings Adolph and Wallia (this part of the quotation is not correct; the original text says: After the retreat of the Goths the authority of Honorius had) obtained a precarious establishment in Spain, except only in the province of Gallicia," says Gibbon, „where the Suevi and Vandals had fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile independence".21 However the Vandals did not stay long in Spain. They took their march for new countries.
 
Emerton says: „The plan which Alaric had failed to carry out was to be taken up by the Vandals of Spain. They are said to have been 'invited' by a Roman officer named Boniface out of revenge for some injury received from his government."22 Under their famous leader Genseric they /26/ passed over to the shores of Africa and overthrew provinces of Mauritania and Numidia, and then besieged the fortress of Hippo.
 
Ten years had not elapsed before they left the shores of Spain and before they became masters over the whole province of Africa. They had finally entered Carthage.
 
„After an interval of six hundred years," says Emerton, „Carthage became the capital of a great seafaring and fighting people".23 The Vandals became bold and dreadful pirates in the Mediterranean Sea with their light vessels running along the shores of Italy, Gaul or Greece, etc.
 
In 455 a bitter quarrel arose /27/ in the imperial family of Honorius. The Empress Eudokia invited Genseric to bring his Vandals and plunder the city. They came and had a delightful time for 14 days, carrying away everything they could find of value.
 
„The Vandal kingdom in Africa lasted after this," says Emerton, „about eighty years and was conquered by the armies of the Roman emperor Justinian, a successor of Arcadius, the son of Theodosius".24
 
„The whole nation of Vandals," says Emerton, „amounted to about one hundred thousand souls."25 Close kinsmen of the Vandals and the Goths were the Burgundians.
 
/28/ According to the general opinion, the Burgundians formed a Gothic or Vandalic tribe, who from the banks of the lower Vistula made incursions on one side towards Transylvania and the other towards the centre of Germany.
 
At the end of the 3rd c. we hear they were engaged in war with the emperor Probus at the frontier near the Rhine.
 
Gibbon says: „About the middle of the 4th c., the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe, were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians, a warlike and numerous people."26
 
„Early in the 5th c.," /29/ says Emerton, „they received a grant of land from Honorius, and seem to have begun their settled life in the vicinity of the city of Worms."27
 
From here they soon spread westward over the fertile valleys of the Rhine and Saone and rapidly grew to be a powerful kingdom.
 
The most famous of their kings was Gundobald. In his time the laws were written. The rise of the Franks turned the Burgundian kingdom into a Frankish province.
 
In this conflict with the Franks they were led to change their religious belief and became devoted Catholics.
 
Before proceeding further let us notice the cause pro- /30/ ducing that great upheaval of national migration which took place in the latter part of the 4th c.
 
We must speak of it in order to understand the movement of the German races. We mentioned the Huns as just emerging from the desert of Asia driving the Gothic people into conflict with Rome. „For a number of years," says Emerton, „they hover like a distant cloud about the frontiers of the Empire. The excited imagination of the Roman writers described them as the offspring of demons. Their horrid appearance, their filthy habits, their swiftness of motion, their mode of fighting, all combined to give /31/ them a most uncanny reputation."28
 
Their incursion into Europe produced the most remarkable event. The German tribes that had been settled for generations in Europe were removed from their homes, or compelled to join the Hunnish army. Their power reached its limit when Attila became their leader.
 
This wild man of the steppes began to dream of forming a great empire like the Roman. With his innumerable army he swept all over Europe destroying and burning everything on his way. The Romans were so scared that for a long time he was known as the „Scourge of God".
 
/32/ His furious advance however was checked before the city of Orleans where he was met by the Roman general Aetius who was leading his united army of Romans, Goths and Alani.
 
This was the first time that Attila suffered defeat. The battle was so memorable that it is said 300.000 were left dead on the battle-field.
 
With the death of Attila the great plan of Hunnish people ends. Their empire furnished the broken pieces out of which new kingdoms were to be built up.
 
In 453 the great body of the East-Gothic nation had settled in Pannonia where they could watch their chance for /33/ a share of the spoil of Rome. The Ostrogoths were hired to defend the lower Danube.
 
„In the year of the fall of the Western Empire," says Emerton, „the great Theodoric became king of the Ostrogoths."29 He belonged to the royal family of the Amali from which the Ostrogoths had for generations chosen their leaders. He had been educated in Constantinople and had polished manners. Having been made head of his people he offered his services to the emperor of the East to drive the barbarians from Italy. The emperor gladly consented to get ready with such a neighbor.
 
Theodoric moved with the /34/ whole Ostrogothic nation into Italy. He passed the Alps and in several battles crushed the armies led by Odoacer. Theodoric established his power in Rome and all the Western Empire.
 
„Now, for the first time," says Emerton, „Italy was occupied by a barbarian nation, not merely a horde of hungry warriors, but a people with a history behind them and with fixed political system."30
 
In their past history we have seen them as warlike people whose duty in the world was to put down. Now we find a German race beginning to show a disposition to build up. Theodoric extended his power over the Alpine country to the /35/ Rhine by alliance with his German kinsmen.
 
But after the dead of Theodoric, the emperor of the East, Justinian (527-565) succeeded in overturning the Ostrogothic kingdom by the help of his able generals Belisarius and Narses and revived the Western Empire once more.
 
However, in 565 General Narses in rage at his ungrateful treatment sent word to the Longobards who lived in Pannonia to come and avenge the Romans. This was enough. The whole nation took up its march, led by their king Alboin. Soon the beautiful valley of the Po, which ever since has been called 'Lombardy' with many /36/ other provinces became the property of the Lombards. Their kingdom lasted until 774.
 
In the study of this subject we approach the next and most important of the Germanic nations that settled on Roman soil, namely the Franks.
 
We speak of them last not in point of time, but because they were to bring together almost all the Germanic tribes under their rule.
 
We find them to live along the lower Rhine near the river's mouth.
 
In regard to their origin and early history we know nothing positively. The French historians of the present time with laborious investigations have been attempting to prove their /37/ descent from famous ancestors. Gibbon says „Every passage has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that Pannonia, that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany gave birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigration of ideal conquerors (part of the quotation is missing: have acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth). They suppose that about the year 240 a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the lower Rhine and the Weser."31
 
When they received their name has been much disputed. /38/ The Abbe Gilbert (Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire des Gauls, Paris, 1847) has settled the date of 242.
 
The name „Frank" some of their historians, as Adelung32 and Grimm, derive from the word „Frak", „Frank" - wrong, bold or ferocious, and „Frakkar" „France" „Francan" - free.
 
One thing remarkable in the character of the Franks is that they did not leave their country like their kinsmen, the Goths, Vandals and Longobards to go roaming over the world in search of new lands, they held what they had and added more to it. Probably this is the chief reason why they overcame the rest.
 
The Franks were divided: first /39/ the Salians - those who lived near the mouth of the Rhine, and second - the Ripuarians - those who lived further up the river near Cologne.
 
„The more prominent were the Salian Franks" says Emerton „who long before the time of their great conquest in Gaul, had been spreading out toward the south and west, passing the rivers Meuse, Scheldt and Somme".33
 
The name Salian is commonly supposed to be derived from the river Isala or IJssel on which they dwelt; and the name „Ripuarian" from „ripa" - bank, and the Celtic „warii" - occupant.
 
In the year of 486 the Salian Franks came to prominence under their great leader and /40/ king Clovis or Cholodowing. They began an active attack upon the Roman Empire. Near Soissons the Franks inflicted a great defeat upon the Roman army led by Syagrius.
 
Emerton says: „This one battle settled the fate of northern Gaul and moved the southern boundary of the Franks to the river Loire which was the northern frontier of the Visigothic kingdom."34
 
The following 10 years were spent by Clovis in strengthening his power over the land gained.
 
In 496 the Alemanic tribe beyond the Rhine in the Black Forest and the Alps attacked the Ripuarian Franks. They /41/ invited the Salians to help them. Clovis responded to their call and near Strassburg he gained a complete victory.
 
This battle near Strassburg is to be remembered because it was the turning point of the belief of Clovis.
 
He promised that if he gained the battle he would accept the religion of the wife Clotilda, a Burgundian princess. As soon as he gained the victory he received the Catholic faith and was baptized. Three thousand chief men of the Franks followed his example. Clovis did much for the restoration of the Catholic faith among all other German races who were Arians.35 He laid the foundation of the /42/ Frankish Empire which in the time of Charles the Great reached the summit of its glory. He extended his victories over all the German races and brought them together and was crowned king over the Roman Empire in 768 A.D.
 
So far we have related the origin and the migration of the Germans. The last question that remains refers to the mode of their conversion.
 
In solution to the inquiry first of all we must bear in mind the intrinsic value of Christianity so well adapted to all relations of human life. Second, the divine power and agency that stood /43/ behind it. Third, its divine spirit that inserted and agitated its teachings in the very depths of the soul, and gradually brought life and quickening power into the human spirit.
 
We know already that Christianity in a period of three hundred years gained the victory over the learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman Empire, and over the warlike barbarism of Scythia and Germany who overthrew the Empire of Rome. In what manner these barbaric German races were converted we do not have exact knowledge. However it is true that it spread by preaching and personal influence.
 
/44/ The long interaction of the Germans with the Roman Empire where Christianity had stretched its deep root, brought them under its moulding power; and as their minds were already susceptible and prepared for its teaching, it fell as seed on fertile ground, and soon began to bring the barbarian tribes one by one under its influence.
 
The Goths were foremost of these German barbarians who accepted Christianity. From the many records only one has reached to us. In the reign of Gallienus, the Gothic bands who invaded Asia Minor in their retreat led away a great number of Roman provincial citizens /45/ into captivity.
 
Many of them were Christians and some belonged to the ecclesiastical order.
 
When the Goths returned into Dacia those involuntary missionaries were dispersed as slaves in the villages and successfully labored for the conversion of their masters.
 
Gibbon says: „The seeds they planted of the evangelical doctrine were gradually propagated; and before the end of a century the pious work was achieved by the labor of Ulphilas, whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube from a small town of Cappadocia"36
 
Ulphilas became the first bishop and apostle of the /46/ Goths. He gained their love and reverence by his blameless Christian life. He worked with great zeal and enthusiasm for the salvation of his own people, translating the Bible into their own language - omitting the Books of Kings fearing that they might excite their warlike minds.
 
His success was so great that it excited the hatred of paganism.
 
Soon the camps of the Goths divided among their chiefs. Fritigern, the friend of the Romans, became the follower of Ulphilas, while Athanaric joined the pagan party and aroused severe persecution which caused the distressed Goths to implore the protection /47/ of Valens.
 
By permission they passed the Danube with their devoted shepherd and settled at the foot of the Moesian Mountains.37 The place was well suited to support their flocks and herds and enable them to live a harmless and peaceful life.
 
Gibbon says: „During the same period Christianity was embraced by almost all the barbarians who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western Empire, the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia and the various bands of mercenaries that raised Odoacer to the throne /48/ of Italy."38
 
The Franks and the Saxons for a long time persevered in the errors of paganism; but when Clovis became leader of the Franks they were converted to the Catholic faith by example. „The Merovingian Kings and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos,39 extended by their laws and victories the dominion of the cross. England produced the apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually diffused from the neighborhood of the Rhine to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic."40
 
 
-----------------------------------
1 The manuscript of this essay is kept in the STH Thesis Archives, School of Theology Library, Boston University, Boston, MA. Transcription and notes by Harrie Salman, assisted by Nadia Donevska. Editorial remarks (in italics) have been placed in parentheses. Errors in writing, misplaced words, missing quotation marks, mistakes in quoting have been corrected.
2 Parke Godwin, The History of France, Vol. 1 (Ancient Gaul), Harper & brothers, New York, 1860.
3 Joseph von Hammer-Purgstal (17741856), Austrian orientalist.
4 Tacitus (56-117 A.D), Roman historian.
5 Strabo (64 B.C.-c. 24 A.D.), Greek historian.
6 Celtic language of Wales.
7 Wilhelm Grimm (17861859), German philologist and collector of fairy-tales (with his brother Jacob).
8 Probably Godwin meant the Slavs.
9 Werth, unknown scholar. The first historian to identify the Goths with the Thracian tribe of the Getai was Jordanes, in his book The Origins and Deeds of the Goths, written 551 in Constantinople.
10 Solinus, 4th c. A.D., Latin grammarian and compiler.
11 Wilhelm von Humboldt (17671835), German scholar.
12 Jacob Grimm (17851863), German philologist.
13 Ephraim Emerton, An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (375814), Ginn & Company, Boston, 1888, pp 25-26. An electronic version of this book can be found at http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontost00emeruoft
14 The Black Sea.
15 Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published between 1776 and 1788), chapter 10. An electronic version of this book can be found at http://ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/index.htm
16 Capitoline Hill, the administrative centre of Rome.
17 Gibbon, chapter 10.
18 Emerton, p 26.
19 The Roman province of North Bulgaria.
20 Emerton, pp 33–34.
21 Gibbon, chapter 33.
22 Emerton, p 36.
23 Emerton, p 37.
24 Emerton, p 38.
25 Emerton, p 38.
26 Gibbon, chapter 25.
27 Emerton, p 39.
28 Emerton, p 41.
29 Emerton, pp 52-53.
30 Emerton, p 53.
31 Gibbon, chapter 10.
32 Johann Christoph Adelung (17321806), German philologist.
33 Emerton, p 63.
34 Emerton, p 64.
35 Followers of the Christian theologian Arius.
36 Gibbon, chapter 37.
37 The Balkan Mountains in northern Bulgaria.
38 Gibbon, chapter 37.
39 Three kings of the German E

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