Visigoth

:This article treats the Visigoths on the Continent. The name can also rarely refer to Västergötland, Sweden.

Visigoths as "Tervingi"

The naming of this people is problematic. Some time shortly after 291 Mamertinus made a eulogy of Emperor Maximian (285-308) in which he says that the "Tervingi, another division of the Goths" (Tervingi pars alia Gothorum) joined with a band he calls the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae (Genethl. Max. 17, 1). The term "Vandals" may have been erroneous for "Victohali" because, around 360, the historian Eutropius reports that Dacia was currently (nunc) inhabited by Taifali, Victohali, and Tervingi (Eutr. Brev. 8, 2, 2) http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/chk/chk04.pdf. But about a hundred years later the term changes to Vesi. Correspondingly, the other branch was originally called Greutungi (cf. Jordanes' Evagreotingi, i.e. Island Greotingi in Scandza), but this was soon replaced by Ostrogothi ("gleaming goths"), and from the 390s and onwards the earlier terms are only found in epic poetry (Hervarar saga).

Related Topics:
291 - Maximian - Vandals - Gepidae - 360 - Eutropius - Jordanes - Scandza - Hervarar saga

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By the 5th century the two main branches were known as Vesi and Ostrogothi whenever sources cared to specify them more specifically than Goths. When Cassiodorus wrote the history of the gothic peoples in the early sixth century, he interpreted Ostrogothi as "East Goths" and invented the term Visigothi to denote "West Goths." There was some logic in this invention, since, at the time, the Vesi ruled the Iberian Peninsula and the Ostrogothi parts of Italy. This usage has continued to this day, though since the 1970s, modern historians have started to use the contemporary terms instead of Cassiodorus' interpretations.

Related Topics:
5th century - Cassiodorus - Sixth century - Iberian Peninsula - Italy - 1970s

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