The Story of the Goths

In 410, the Goths surged over what remained of the city walls and sacked the city of Rome.

But who were the Goths?

And how were they able to conquer the greatest city of the ancient world?

Henry Bradley charts a history of the Goths from their emergence in eastern Europe, across the river Danube, to their spread westwards, fighting both against and for the Roman Empire, before they eventually overcame their masters and conquered vast swathes of what remained of the Western Roman Empire.

Through the course of the book Bradley explains how pressure from tribes from the east had continually pushed the Goths westwards, how they had developed relationships with the Roman Empire, and how they eventually gone on to form two Gothic kingdoms: The Visigoths, centred in Spain and the Ostrogoths in Italy.

Bradley removes layers of mystery that surround the Goths and through drawing upon a wide range of primary sources and archaeological evidence is able to provide a compelling history of the rise and fall of these fascinating people.

Henry Bradley was a British philologist and lexicographer who worked as senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. His work, The Story of the Goths, was first published in 1887 and he passed away in 1923.

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