The Visigoths were the western tribe of the Goths (a Germanic people) who settled west of the Black Sea sometime in the 3rd century CE. According to the scholar Herwig Wolfram, the Roman writer Cassiodorus (c. 485-585 CE) coined the term Visigothi to mean 'Western Goths' as he understood the term Ostrogothi to mean 'Eastern Goths'. Cassiodorus was simply trying to coin a name to differentiate the two extant tribes of the Gothic people in his time who clearly differed from each other; these tribes did not originally refer to themselves by these names. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century CE) refers to the Visigoths as the Tervingi (also given as Thervingi), which may have been their original name. The designation Visigothi seems to have appealed to the Visigoths themselves, however, and in time they came to apply it to themselves.
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Definition
Timeline
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238 CEFirst Gothic invasion of Rome.
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251 CEVisigoth king Cniva defeats Roman emperor Decius at the Battle of Abritus.
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257 CEVisigoths attack Trapezus.
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286 CETheodosius I settles Visigoths in Phrygia.
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376 CEThe Visigoths are fleeing the Huns, entering the Eastern Roman Empire.
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378 CEFritigern defeats Roman emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople.
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395 CEArgos is definitively destroyed by the Visigoth invasion.
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395 CEEleusis is detroyed in the Visigoth invasion.
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396 CESparta is sacked by the Visigoths led by Alaric.
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c. 396 CECorinth burned by the Visigoths under Alaric.
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408 CEAlaric I the Visigoth besieges Rome. As ransom, Rome pays 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper.
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410 CEAlaric of the Visigoths sacks Rome.
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418 CEVisigoths settle in Aquitaine.
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451 CEAetius defeats Attila of the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, together with Rome's allies.
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462 CEVisigoths expand into Spain.
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507 CEClovis defeats the Visigoths and drives them into the Iberian peninsula.
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535 CE - 554 CEThe Gothic War launched by Emperor Justinian I, aimed at reconquering Italy from the Goths.
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536 CE - 562 CEThe Byzantine Empire conquers Italy.
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571 CEVisigoths conquer Cordoba.
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642 CE - 643 CEVisigothic Law Code enacted in Spain.