The Goths. You may well have heard of them. During the fourth and fifth centuries

AD as the Roman Empire declined, these Germanic people rose to prominence. They

fought the Romans on several occasions, ultimately sacking Roman 410 under the leader

Alaric. But that is just one part of a much bigger story. To talk through the tale of the Goths,

from their origins to their great migration, to their

invasions of Italy, well I was delighted to interview Dr David Gwyn from Royal Holloway University

of London. We did this interview in person at London's Spotify

studio and I really do hope you enjoy. So without further ado, here's David.

David, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast today.

Thank you very much.

And to do it in this stunning setting, wrote the Spotify Studios to talk about an awesome

topic which is The Goths. Much more to their story

than just the sack of Rome. That is definitely true. The Goths get around the

map of Europe and indeed beyond, far beyond.

Well, before we go to their origins, let's kind of actually look at the sources we have

available. What types of sources do we have for learning about the Goths?

There's always a problem trying to understand so-called barbarians that they don't write down enough to tell us what is happening.

Almost always you depend on people they fought against who had no reason to treat them fairly or evenly.

With the Goths were a little bit lucky.

There are a lot of Roman sources, some of them fairly even-handed, and there is a Gothic writer.

He's not exactly your axe-wielding barbarian, because Jordanis, the author of the Getica,

is actually a civil servant in Constantinople, but he was a goth, he knew gothic stories.

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