Who were the ostrogoths and the visigoths?

Answer 1

The Visigoths and Ostrogoths were originally Goths, a Germanic tribe who lived in what is now Scandinavia. In the third century A.D. the Goths invaded the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and during the fourth century they broke into two groups. Those living north of the present-day Danube River became known as the Visigoths; those living farther east, in present-day Ukraine, were called the Ostrogoths. When the Huns from Central Asia attacked the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, many of the Visigoths escaped into an eastern Roman province. Rebelling against the Roman rulers, the Visigoths destroyed the Roman army at a battle in Adrianople (in present-day Turkey) and killed Valens (328?-378), the emperor of the eastern Roman Empire. Under their leader, Alaric I (c. 370-340), the Visigoths moved into Italy. In 410 they attacked Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire, stealing treasure, burning buildings, and killing the inhabitants. (The attack left Rome vulnerable to other Germanic tribes, who invaded the Roman Empire and brought about its downfall around 476.) After sacking Rome, the Visigoths traveled westward into Gaul, where they created a kingdom that included most of France and Spain. In 507 the Franks drove out the Visigoths, who escaped to the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) and set up their kingdom with Toledo as its capital. In 711 Muslims from northern Africa, conquered the Visigoths and ruled most of the peninsula until the mid-1400s.

In 375 the Huns conquered the Ostrogoths. After the Huns' leader Attila died in 453, the Ostrogoths revolted against their conquerors. In 493, under their ruler Theodoric (455-526), the Ostrogoths established the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy, only to be overcome by armies of the Byzantine Empire a century later. Eventually, the Ostrogoths became part of the populations of Europe.

Answer 2

The Huns, Visigoths and Vandals were barbaric tribes that either settled within ancient Roman empire boundaries and/ or fought against Rome starting from the first century AD and onwards. These Tribes were not the only intruders upon ancient Rome. Saxons and Angles in Britain, and Franks and Ostrogoth's were among other tribes that Rome encountered in the years leading to the eventual demise of Rome's power in the West.