[[file:coronarecesvinto01.jpg|thumb|right|detail of the votive crown of reccesuinth from the treasure of guarrazar, hanging in madrid. the hanging letters spell [r]eccesvintus rex offeret [king r. offers this].the first r is held at the musÃ©e de cluny, paris.]]  the visigoths (uk: ; us: , ) were branches of the nomadic tribes of germanic peoples referred to collectively as the goths. these tribes flourished and spread during the late roman empire in late antiquity, or the migration period. the visigoths emerged from earlier gothic groups (possibly the thervingi)heather, 52&ndash;57, 300&ndash;301. who had invaded the roman empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the romans at the battle of adrianople in 378. the visigoths invaded italy under alaric i and sacked rome in 410. their long history of migration led the visigoths to compare themselves to the biblical hebrew people who purportedly wandered for forty years in the sinai desert. after the visigoths sacked rome, they began settling down, first in southern gaul and eventually in spain and portugal, where they founded the kingdom of the visigoths. the visigoths first settled in southern gaul as foederati of the romans - a relationship established in 418. however, they soon fell out with their roman hosts (for reasons that are now obscure) and established their own kingdom with its capital at toulouse. they next extended their authority into hispania at the expense of the suevi and vandals. in 507, however, their rule in gaul was ended by the franks under clovis i, who defeated them in the battle of vouillÃ©. after that, the visigoth kingdom was limited to hispania, and they never again held territory north of the pyrenees other than septimania. a small, elite group of visigoths came to dominate the governance of that region at the expense of those who had previously ruled there, particularly in the byzantine province of spania and the suebic kingdom of galicia. in or around 589, the visigoths under reccared i converted from arianism to nicene christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their hispano-roman subjects.dietrich claude, in walter pohl (ed.) strategies of distincti
Ancient_Germanic_peoples Ethnic_groups_in_Europe Germanic_peoples History_of_the_Germanic_peoples Iron_Age_Europe Visigoths