[Edit] Etymology of Greuthungi and Ostrogothi

"Greuthungi" may mean "steppe dwellers" or "people of the pebbly coasts".^[3] The root greut- is probably related to the Old English greot, meaning "flat".^[9] This is supported by evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea both before and after Gothic settlement there and by the lack of evidence for an earlier date for the name pair Tervingi-Greuthungi than the late third century.^[10] That the name "Greuthungi" has pre-Pontic, possibly Scandinavian, origins still has support today.^[10] It may mean "rock people", to distinguish the Ostrogoths from the Gauts (in what is today Sweden).^[10] Jordanes does refer to an Evagreotingi (Greuthung island) in Scandza, but this may be legend. It has also been suggested that it may be related to certain place names in Poland, but this has met with little support.^[10]

"Ostrogothi" means "Goths of (or glorified by) the rising sun".^[3] This has been interpreted as "gleaming Goths" or "east Goths".

[Edit] Prehistory

The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.(March 2008)

The Goths were a single nation mentioned in several sources up to the 3rd century when they apparently split into at least two groups, the Greuthungi in the east and Tervingi in the west. Both tribes shared many aspects, especially recognizing a patron deity that the Romans named Mars. This so-called "split" or, more appropriately, resettlement of western tribes into the Roman province of Dacia was a natural result of population saturation of the area north of the Black Sea.^{[citation needed]} The Goths there established a vast and powerful kingdom, during the 3rd and 4th centuries, between the Danube and the Dniepr in what is now Romania, Moldavia and western Ukraine^{[citation needed]} (see Chernyakhov culture; Gothic runic inscriptions). This was a multi-tribal state ruled by a Gothic elite but inhabited by many other interrelated but multi-tongue tribes including the Iranic speaking Sarmatians, the Germanic speaking Gepids, the Thracian speaking Dacians, other minor Celtic and Thracian tribes and possibly early Slavs.^{[citation needed]}

[Edit] History [edit] Hunnic invasions

The rise of the Huns around 370 overwhelmed the Gothic kingdoms. Many of the Goths migrated into Roman territory in the Balkans, while others remained north of the Danube under Hunnic rule. They became one of the many Hunnic vassals fighting in Europe, as in the Battle of Chalons in 451. Several uprisings against the Huns were suppressed. The collapse of Hunnic power in the 450s led to further violent upheaval in the lands north of the Danube, during which most of the Goths resident in the area migrated to the Balkans. It was this group that became known as the Ostrogoths.

Gothic was still spoken sporadically in Crimea as late as the 16th century: the Crimean Gothic language.

[Edit] Post-Hunnic movements

Their recorded history begins with their independence from the remains of the Hunnic Empire following the death of Attila the Hun in 453. Allied with the former vassal and rival, the Gepids and the Ostrogoths led by Theodemir broke the Hunnic power of Attila's sons in the Battle of Nedao in 454.

The Ostrogoths now entered into relations with the Empire, and were settled on lands in Pannonia. During the greater part of the latter half of the 5th century, the East Goths played in south-eastern Europe nearly the same part that the West Goths played in the century before. They were seen going to and fro, in every conceivable relation of friendship and enmity with the Eastern Roman power, until, just as the West Goths had done before them, they passed from the East to the West.