The Goths

Description

The Goths are truly a 'lost civilization'. Sweeping down from the north, ancient Gothic tribes sacked the imperial city of Rome and set in motion the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire. Ostrogothic and Visigothic kings ruled over Italy and Spain, dominating early medieval Europe. Yet the last Gothic kingdom fell more than a thousand years ago, and the Goths disappeared as an independent people. Over the centuries that followed, the vanished Goths were remembered both as barbaric destroyers and as heroic champions of liberty. This engaging history brings together the interwoven stories of the original Goths and the diverse Gothic legacy: a legacy that continues to shape our modern world. From the ancient migrations to contemporary Goth culture, through debates over democratic freedom and European nationalism and across the work of writers from Shakespeare to Bram Stoker, David M. Gwynn explores the ever-widening gulf between the Goths of history and the Goths of popular imagination. Historians, students of architecture and literature and general readers alike will learn something new from 'The Goths'. Chronology 7 Introduction 13 1. From Legend To History 15 2. Alaric and the Sack of Rome 31 3. A New World Order 47 4. Ostrogoths and Visigoths 62 5. Renaissance and Reformation 83 6. Barbaric Liberty 103 7. The Struggle for Gothic Identity 125 8. Gothic Culture 147 Epilogue: Goths and the Gothic in the Twenty-first Century 173 Further Reading 175 Acknowledgements 181 Photo Acknowledgements 183 Index 185