OUR KINSMEN – The Goths
They Enabled Israel To Complete The Trek To The Isles
Part One
MOST PEOPLE today think of the Goths as the savage barbarians who destroyed the Roman Empire and ushered in the Dark Ages. Such is the ignorance of our untutored times! Yet it requires only a little study to discover that the Goths, far from being the destroyers of culture, were in fact its saviours. The degenerate regime which they brought down had been ‘weighed in the balances’ of Almighty God and found wanting: it was no longer a fit repository of civilisaton. It is true that ‘conquering Rome became herself subdued by the Arts of Greece’ and was for a period custodian of ordered progress. However, as Christians realise, the true civilisation is not to be achieved by the outward adorning of magnificent temples and civic buildings, but through the inner adorning of human hearts yielded to God through Christ.
Not that we would for a moment disparage the astonishing achievements of the ancient artists, writers and philosophers. They had a noble part to play in raising mankind’s aspirations. As the Law prepared Israel for the coming of Christ, so Greek culture, in its own way, helped to prepare mankind for the coming of the Saviour. Nevertheless, however great the revelation of Greek art, literature and philosophy, it is and must always remain a shadow of the glorious substance of the Gospel of Christ.
The Goths came from Scythia
God’s ultimate purposes were not to be fulfilled through the tyrants of Rome, but through the peoples already gathering in the islands and coastlands of the North-West, to whom the Goths were kinsmen. These were being colonised by branches of the so-called ‘Scythian’ tribes, who suddenly appeared in recorded history in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., and who were actually gentilised tribes of Israel who had disappeared as such from about 720 B.C. onwards.
Celts, Picts and Scots and Anglo-Saxons were all branches of the ‘Scythian’ migrations. Ancient history and literature testify that the Goths also were a Scythian people – the Getae. Jordanes, the Goths’ own historian, called his history ‘A Getic History’ and his account of Gothic migrations begins with the history of the Scythians and the Getae. Cassiodorus, the mighty Theodoric’s secretary, also wrote a divided history of the Goths connecting them with the Scythians. Helvius Portinax suggested that Caracalla add ‘Geticus Maximus’ to his titles as ‘he had defeated in irregular battles the Goths who are called the Getae’. In the poems of Claudius, the Goths are also called the Getae and they were so named on the Roman Arch of Triumph. Herodotus writes of them as being the bravest and most honest people of Thrace and relates how they alone opposed Darius when he approached the Danube. The Goths first appear in history in the ancient lands of the Getae.
According to Ulfila, the name of the Get in their own language was Gut-thiuda which means ‘the People of God’. A fragment a Gothic calendar contains the word Gut- thiuda. Jacob Grimm, the great scholar confirmed the testimony of ancient history and literature. Some modern historians have opposed this evidence and have suggested that the Goths originated in Scandinavia. However, the Gothic settlements there prove that they were late incomers from the east, who had settled territories outside the most fertile and attractive parts of Europe, which were already in the possession of other strong peoples. Furthermore, the vast territory over which they moved, and the huge armies which they could deploy to meet and defeat the disciplined forces of Rome make it highly improbable that they could have so recently arrived from a remote obscure region of the north.
The Baltic – A Gothic Halting Place
Pytheas, a Greek traveller of c. 300 BC wrote of the Goths as the Guttones who dwelt in what is now East Prussia and traded in amber which they gathered on the shores of the Baltic. They were dwelling there around A.D. 70 according to Pliny, the Roman writer. About A.D. 200 the Goths divided into two branches:Visigoths (West Goths) and the Ostrogoths (East-Goths). The fact that these names remained appropriate throughout the history of the two branches surely suggests that they were a people with a purpose.
The Gothic tribes were organised in clans under the rule of a king who had to be of Royal blood. Each clan had its chieftain, who was elected for his valour and ability. There was a council of leading men, with a general assembly of warriors. There was a certain degree of democracy, for when the Visigoths entered the Roman Empire in A.D. 376, the decision was made not by the king alone, but by a general assembly of the people. They had a regular priesthood under a High Priest, which has been likened by modern historians to the Druids. Each clan had its own priest.
The similarity to the Clan system of ancient Scotland is striking. When migrating, their temple was replaced by a sacred tent, reminiscent of the Tabernacle of the Israelites. According to Bradley, no mention is made by any ancient writer of any Gothic deity. However, it would appear that, until their conversion to Christianity, they were deluded by the prevailing idolatry of the times. Nevertheless, like the ancient Greeks, they had a strong sense of righteousness.
Blue-eyed, Fair-haired Giants
Sylvian called the Goths ‘a treacherous people but a chaste one’, and of the Saxons he wrote ‘ferociously cruel but remarkably chaste’. Faithfulness in marriage was demanded by law and proven cases of adultery were severely punished – often by death. They kept themselves separate from other races and forbade intermarriage. The Romans usually described them as blue-eyed ‘giants’ with reddish or blond hair. Gothic cemeteries of the Iron Age and Roman period reveal them as large-limbed and long-skulled.
The Goths owned vast herds of cattle. They were great beer-drinkers and enjoyed gathering together for feasts in which they entertained themselves with songs exalting their heroes. At the season of the new moon they assembled to administer justice.
The Runic alphabet which is found on countless monuments in Scandinavia, Iceland and Britain originated with the Goths. This is a corruption of a Greek alphabet, used by colonies on the west coast of the Black Sea. The Gothic language as found in Bishop Ulfila’s translation of the Bible is similar to old Anglo-Saxon, and students of English study it to learn the origins of English words and grammar. English, German, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian were all originally dialects of the same languarge spoken by the Scythian tribes, which diverged through the centuries.
Scourge of Rome
The martial prowess of the Goths gained them the respect of the Romans, who at one period paid them to defend the borders of their empire. When the Romans defaulted in their payments, the Goths reacted by plundering the provinces. Attacked by a punitive Roman army under General Decius, the Goths retreated safely across the Danube, joined by large numbers of deserters from the Roman army. In A.D. 251 Decius, now Emperor of Rome, confronted the Goths in Moesia. The Emperor’s son was slain at the commencement of the battle, and Decius was killed when he rushed madly into the fray seeking revenge. The Romans were taught a grim lesson and were glad enough to pay the Goths a huge sum to leave their territory.
A Gothic fleet of 500 vessels sailed through the Bosporus, and Greece was their next victim. The magnficent Temple of Diana of the Ephesians – one of the Seven Wonders of the World – was destroyed. Athens was plundered; but the Goths did not burn the city which had produced the greatest culture the world had ever known: most of its wonderful buildings were left undamaged. Through the Black Sea and the Hellespont, a huge fleet sailed carrying an army of 300,000 Gothic warriors. Their reverse at the hands of the Emperor Claudius II delayed for a while the inevitable doom of the empire.
Part Two
A Rearguard Remains in the Asgard Region
CLAUDIUS TREATED the Goths with great respect and granted them the province of Dacia, including what is now Roumania and the eastern part of Hungary. They then became allies of Rome and provided her army with 2,000 cavalrymen. For fifty years the Goths rested peacefully, only to try their strength once again against the Romans. They were defeated by Constantine in A.D. 322. They were granted honourable terms of surrender. When Constantine fought a decisive battle the following year, which resulted in him becoming sole Emperor of Rome, he was assisted by 40,000 Goths. Eight years later Constantine was again having trouble with them, losing one battle but winning others. Again he treated them kindly and was rewarded with a further 30 years of peace.
The Beginning of the End for Rome
A large Gothic population still remained in Southern Russia under king Ermanaric, a hero in Anglo-Saxon and Viking poetry, who extended the dominions of the Goths until the onslaught of the savage Huns. In his old-age he was unable to defeat this terrible foe whom the Goths swore were the offspring of witches and demons. Modern scholars believe the Huns to have been the Hsiung-nu, who are frequently mentioned in Chinese annals. The aged Ermanaric took his own life in A.D. 375.
The Ostrogoths submitted to the Huns; but the Visigoths decided to ask the eastern Emperor Valens for permission to enter Moesia. A population of Christian Goths had already settled in Moesia to escape persecution by their pagan brethren. Valens made it a condition of his permission that the Visigoths accept Christianity as their national religion. Agreeing to this condition, a small, unique, proud nation, now numbering a mere 70,000, crossed the Danube and entered the Empire.
Unfortunately, the Emperor’s representatives failed to organise adequate provisions, and threatened by famine, the Visigoths revolted. The Emperor and two thirds of his army perished near Adrianople in A.D. 378. The Visigoths were recognised as Foederati by Emperor Theodisius in A.D. 382, but after his death the Visigoths, under Alaric, attacked Thrace, threatened Constantinople and invaded Greece. In A.D. 399, the Emperor Arcadius bestowed on Alaric the title of Magister Militae and authorised him to settle in lllyria.
In A.D. 401, Alaric with his people descended upon North Italy. The Divine purpose in the use of this Gothic ‘Battleaxe’, at this time, can be seen in the immediate withdrawal of the Roman Legions from Britain to meet threat to Rome. Alaric retreated safely across the Danube, and when Stilicho – the only able leader the Romans had – was assassinated, the Visigoths again invaded Italy. Alaric, assured that he was divinely directed, made straight for Rome. After three sieges, his army entered Rome. Alaric commanded his warriors not to harm unresisting citizens and to spare churches. When the gold and silver, belonging to the Church of St. Peter, was discovered by a Gothic captain, it was promptly returned escorted by a detachment of Goths. The victorious Goths left Rome laden with plunder, but at the end of the year-A.D. 410- Alaric died. The Visigoths, once again allies of the Romans, went to Gaul and defeated the Huns, thus delivering civilisation from destruction by a ferocious heathen menace. Restlessly, they moved to conquer Spain and to found the Gothic monarchy which ruled that country until the Moorish conquest. The Goths gave Spain national unity; their goldsmiths inspired her great traditions in art; and their writers – such as Isadore of Seville- influenced her literature.
The Ostrogoths
The Ostrogoth’s destiny was to conquer and control Italy. They revolted against the all-conquering Huns and regained their independence. With a commission from Emperor Zeno to recover Italy from Odoacer the Hun and his Heruli, the entire Ostrogoth people trekked 700 miles at the end of which they fought and defeated the Hunnish Heruli. Rome received the Gothic King, Theodoric, as Deliverer; and Italy came under Gothic rule for almost 60 years. Theodoric enforced a rigid separation between his people and the Italians – intermarriage was forbidden. The Ostrogoths were a martial community of about 200,000 warriors and their families distributed throughout the country. They were governed by their own laws and the Italians continued to be governed by Roman laws. The Goths kept to their Arian brand of Christianity, but tolerated the Roman Catholic Church.
Theodoric The Magnificent
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Ravenna wrote of Theodoric: ‘He was an illustrious man and full of goodwill towards all. He reigned 33 years and during 30 of them so great was the happiness of Italy that even the wayfarers were at peace.. . belonging himself to the Arian sect, yet he ordained that the civil administration should remain for the Romans as it had been under their Emperors.. . He attempted nothing against the Catholic Faith. He pleased all the nations around him for he was a lover of manufactories and a great restorer of cities.’ Procopius, an official in the Imperial Army wrote:
‘Theodoric was an extraordinary lover of justice and adhered rigorously to the laws. He guarded the country against barbarian invasions and displayed the greatest intelligence and prudence. There was in his government scarcely a trace of injustice….’ Gibbon writes: ‘The Gothic Kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity, were anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had subdued. The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, the neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves. A professed architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of gold, twenty-five thousand tiles and the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port, were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the walls and public edifices. A similar care was extended to the statues of metal or marble of men or animals.’
What Italy needed desperately was a long period of peace and prosperity; and this the Goths gave her. The great cities were restored and national life revived. However, whereas the Visigoths in Spain eventually became Catholics and thus ensured the continued favour of their subjects, the Ostrogoths in Italy remained Arians and this inevitably resulted in their ultimate rejection.
Decline of the Goths in Italy
After Theodoric’s death, there was a continual power struggle between the Gothic rulers and Roman factions which eventually resulted in the final defeat of the Goths. After the last great battle between the Goths and Romans, the Goths worn out with fatigue sent ambassadors to treat for peace. They refused to humble themselves to become the subjects of Justinian, but promised that on the condition of being allowed an unmolested passage out of Italy and of being provided with money to meet the expenses of the journey, they would never again take up arms against the Romans. The Romans had such a respect for their ancient foe that they gladly agreed to the conditions rather than continue the grim struggle. In A.D. 553 the remnant of the Ostrogoths marched northward out of Italy and out of history.
Of this great people, Chambers’s encyclopaedia says:
‘A completely unjustified reputation for barbarism has been attached to the Gothic name. In reality their disappearance had the most disastrous consequences… the Empire was incapable of protecting Italy: three years after Justinian’s death the Lombards invaded, unopposed.’
Goths in Britain
It is not generally realised that branches of the Goths migrated to Britain. When the ambassadors of the Gothic Kingdom in Italy told Belisarius that they had restored Sicily to the Emperor, he replied: ‘But we assent to the Goths holding the whole of Britain ‘The historian Alex Del Mar writes of the Goths occupying the area of the Firth of Forth. Caithness is believed to have derived its name from the Getae, also the island of lnchkeith in the Firth of Forth.
Robert Craig Maclagan, M.A. wrote in his book, Our Ancestors: ‘Bede, speaking of the separation of the Picts and Scots from the Britains by the Firths of Forth and Clyde, says that the eastern inlet has in the midst of it the city Giudi. This is undoubtedly “lnchkeith” meaning “Geatas island,” and the name Giudi identifies it with the Jutes. Nennius tells how Octa and Ebissa, Hengist’s son and nephew, at the invitation of Vortigern, occupied many regions even to the Fresic (Frisian) Sea, our Firth of Forth, the Scotwater. Connecting gew withju, it is interesting to note that, in the genealogy of St. Patrick, Hengist is introduced as an ancestor, from an earlier belief that he was connected with the Jutes, and he is said to have been of ‘Jewish’ descent. In Anglo-Saxon, Gjudeas equates with the Latin Judaei, according to Cleasby. The Jutes were a branch of the Goths. Old Danish monuments have Gutland for Jutland. In Edward the Confessor’s Laws, Jutland is Gutlandia. Alfred the Great renders the Juti of Bede by Geatas.
Our Ancestors
The question: ‘what became of the Goths?’ has long puzzled the historians. We who are conscious of our Israel ancestry can confidently accept that the greater part of their descendants dwell in Great Britain and her ‘white’ Commonwealth, in the coastal fringe of north west Europe and in the United States of America. In all of these lands of the modem Israel nations, they continue to fulfil their great destiny as the Gut-thiuda; the People of God.
AUTHORITIES
The Goths (H. Bradley).
Letters of Cassiodorus.
Gothic Handbook (W M. Ramsay),
Our Ancestors (R. C. Maclagan, M.A.).
Everyday Life of the Barbarians (M. Todd).
Chambers’s Encyclopaedia.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(Gibbon).
Theodoric the Goth (Thomas Hodgekin).
Courtesy of ‘COVENANT REPORT’- BIWF[NZ]
