The Goths were an East Germanic tribe who from the 2nd century settled Scythia, Dacia and Pannonia.
Though many of the fighting nomads who followed them were to prove more bloody, the Goths were feared because the captives they took in battle were sacrificed to their god of war, Tyz, and the captured arms(weapons) hung in trees as a token-offering. Their kings and priests came from a separate aristocracy and their mythic kings of ancient times were honored as gods. Their mythic lawgiver, named Deceneus, traditionally dated about the 1st century BC, ordered their laws, which they possessed by the 6th century in written form and called belagines.
In the 3rd century, the Goths split into two groups, the Tervingi or Visigoths ("West Goths"), and the Greuthungi or Ostrogoths ("East Goths"). The Visigoths carried out one of the first major "barbarian" invasions of the Roman Empire from 263, sacking Byzantium in 267. A year later, they suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Naissus and were driven back across the Danube River by 271. This group then settled north of the Danube and established an independent kingdom centered on the abandoned Roman province of Dacia.
Both the Ostrogoths and Visigoths became heavily Romanized during the 4th century due to the influence of trade with the Byzantines, and by their membership in a military covenant centered in Byzantium to assist each other militarily. They converted to Arianism during this time. Hun domination of the Ostrogoth kingdom began in the 370s, and under pressure of the Huns, Visigothic king Fritigern in 376 asked Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. Valens allowed this, and even helped the Goths cross the river, probably at the fortress of Durostorum, but following a famine the Gothic War (377–382) erupted, and Valens was killed at the Battle of Adrianople.
The Visigoths under the rule of Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Honorius gave the Visigoths Aquitania, where they defeated the Vandals and by 475 ruled most of the Iberian peninsula.
In the meantime the Ostrogoths freed themselves from the rule of the Huns following the Battle of Nedao in 454. At the request of emperor Zeno, Theoderic the Great from 488 conquered all of Italy. The Goths for a short time reunited under one crown in the early sixth century under Theodoric the Great, who became regent of the Visigothic kingdom following the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Procopius, writing at this time, interpreted the name Visigoth to mean "western Goths", and the name Ostrogoth as "eastern Goth" which corresponded to the current distribution of the Gothic realms.
The Ostrogothic kingdom continued until 553 under Teia, when Italy briefly fell back under Byzantine control, until the conquest of the Langobards in 572. The Visigothic kingdom lasted longer, until 711 under Roderic, when it had to yield to the Umayyad invasion .
So there you have it folks...next time someone gives you a hard time about being "Goth" remember that the originals were some pretty bad individuals...
The information given here was taken from Wikipedia.org and copied down in my own words...(no plagerism here thank you very much)...lol
