(in Latin Gothi, Goti, and Gothones), a secondary denomination of that great, powerful, and victorious race which, after a protracted struggle, at length overthrew the Roman empire, and diffused itself throughout the whole of Europe, excepting Russia, Poland, and Hungary. The Scythians or Goths were distinguished from the Celts, with whom they have often been confounded, by characteristics equally obvious and remarkable. This we shall have occasion to establish in the sequel of the present article. Many learned authors, however, have contended for the identity of these races; all antiquity has been ransacked for proofs and authorities by the writers on the opposite sides of the question; and in a discussion which might surely have been carried on with moderation and good manners, the utmost heat and exacerbation of feeling have unaccountably been evinced. Amongst those who have contended for the identity of the Goths and Celts, the first place is due to Cluverius and Pelloutier, who have asserted this proposition in its most unqualified form; and likewise to Sir William Jones, though he contends for nothing more than an identity of origin, leaving the question of subsequent divergence and secondary distinction untouched. On the other hand, of all the champions for the diversity of these races, Mr Pinkerton is by far the most formidable, and, seconded as his views have been by an able writer in the Edinburgh Review, and also by Dr Jamieson in his Hermes Syltensis, they must be allowed to have great weight by all who attentively consider and examine the question at issue. Conceiving that the arguments and reasonings of Cluverius and Pelloutier have been entirely overthrown, and that the diversity contended for has been established by a mass of evidence and authority which cannot be shaken, what we propose in this article, therefore, is to lay before our readers the substance of Mr Pinkerton's very learned argument, modified however by the views of succeeding writers.
Of the Scythians an ample account is given by Herodotus in his fourth book, where he also mentions the Getæ, whom Darius subdued whilst advancing against the wandering Scythians who lived on the other side of the Ister or Danube. From the earliest periods of history, therefore, mention is made of the Seythæ and Getæ as only separated by a river. But the name of Gothi is not nearly so ancient. The first mention of it occurs in the time of the Emperor Decius, in the year of Christ 250, when part of them invaded the empire from Getia, and Decius, in attempting to expel them from Thrace, was vanquished and slain. After this they are as frequently mentioned in the Latin authors by the names of Getæ and Gothi, as the Seythæ formerly were in the Greek; and, subsequently to this period, all the Greek writers uniformly call those Seythæ whom the Latin authors denominate Gothi. This being the case, Mr Pinkerton shows, first, that the Getæ and Gothi were the same people; and, secondly, that the Getæ or Gothi were the same with the Seythæ.
1. That the Getæ and Gothi were the same, is proved by a multitude of authorities, which our limits prevent us from enumerating in detail. It may suffice to mention, that Dio, who wrote under Alexander Severus, about the year 230, entitles his history of the Goths Tervingæ, or the Gele history; that Spartan, who wrote about the year 300, says, in his Life of Antoninus Caracallus, *Gotti Geta dicere*; "the Goths were then called Getæ," and, again, in his life of Antoninus Geta, *Getticus quasi Gothicus*, "Goticus, we would now say Gothic;" that Claudian always calls the Goths *Getae*, and entitles his poem on the Gothic war *de bello Getico*; that Sidonius Apollinaris frequently calls the Goths *Getae*, and denominates the Ostrogoths *Massagetae*; that Orosius says, *Getae qui et nunc Gothi*, "the Getæ, who are now also called Goths;" that St Jerome states that the Goths were anciently called Getæ; that in the panegyric of Ennodius, on Theodoric, king of the Goths, it is said, "*Nam illud quo ore celebrandum est quod idici instrumenta roboris, dum provides ne interpellentur in nostra, custodis*;" that, according to Procopius, "the Goths are a Getic race;" that Jornandes entitles his history *De Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus Gestis*, and instantly uses the names *Getae* and *Gothi* as synonymous; and, finally, that Isidorus says the Getæ and Gothi are the same. This identity, therefore, seems to be completely established; especially as there is not even a shadow of authority on the opposite side.
2. It appears equally certain that the *Getae* or Goths are the same with the Scythians. Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, all rank the Getæ as Scythians. Trebellius Pollio, in *Calieno*, says, "*Scythia autem, id est, pars Gothorum, Asiam habet.*" Dexippus, who is supposed to have written in the reign of Gallicius, entitled his history of the wars between the Romans and Goths *ΣΚΥΘΙΚΑ*, or Scythic histories, and called the Goths *ΣΚΥΘΕΣ*, Scythæ. Priscus employs the words *Scythians* and *Goths* synonymously. Eutropius denominates the *Scythians*, whom Valens planted in *Moesia*, *Gothi*. Procopius speaks of "all the other Gothic nations, who were also called *Scythians* in ancient times." Theophanes, writing in the year 370, states "that the Scythians are in their tongue called Goths," according to the relation of Trajanus Patricius, "in the history of his own time." Syncellus states that "the Scythians are also called Goths in their own language;" and the same author likewise says, "when a great many Scythians, called Goths, had passed the river Ister in the time of Decius, they ravaged the Roman empire." Jornandes always speaks of the Goths, Getæ, and Scythæ, as one people, and uses these names synonymously. Isidorus commences his chronicle of the Goths in Spain with these words: "*Gothorum antiquissimum esse regnum certum est, quod ex regno Scythicum est extortum.*" Procopius frequently calls the Federati, so well known in the Lower Empire, *Goths*; and Suidas, in roce, denominates them *Scythians*. Lastly, Ammianus Marcellinus, mentioning the death of Decius, who fell battle against the Goths or Getæ, denominates the latter *γυλικες γενες*. "That the *Scythians* and *Getae* were the same people," says Dr Jamieson, "is attested by incontrovertible evidence."
Having thus established that the Scythians, Getæ, and Goths, are all one people, Pinkerton next proceeds to consider the question whether the Scythians or Goths came from Scandinavia into Asia, or whether, on the contrary, they came from Asia into Europe. And, in prosecution of this curious and important inquiry, he endeavours, in the first place, to show that the common notion of the Scythians having originated from Scandinavia is groundless. His opinion, which has been somewhat hastily adopted by Montesquieu, Gibbon, and other writers of the first name, has been built on a single sentence in the fourth chapter of Jornandes, namely, "*Ex hac igitur Scania insula, quasi vicina gentium, aut certe velut vagina nationum, cum regio nomine Berig Gothi quondam memorantur egressi.*"
But no weight can reasonably be attached to this single authority, however direct and explicit; first, because the work of Jornandes being, as is commonly supposed, only an abridgment of a large history of the Goths by his contemporary Cassiodorus, it is possible that in this as well as in other particulars, the abridgment may be inaccurate, more especially as it would seem to have been written solely from memory, after a perusal of three days; secondly, because though he generally followed Cassiodorus, he added many things from the Greek and Roman writers; thirdly, because Scandinavia having been, down to a late period, almost overrun with impenetrable forests, there was neither room nor subsistence in that country for so vast a population as that which so often invaded, and at last overturned, the Roman empire; fourthly, because we learn from Adam of Bremen, who wrote in the eleventh century, that, even in Denmark, the sea coasts alone were then peopled, whilst the interior parts of the country were one immense forest; and, lastly, because it can be proved from many authorities, in opposition to the single one of Jornandes, which is moreover highly improbable in itself, that the Scythians originated from Asia. On this last point some of Pinkerton's authorities have been disputed both by the author of the *Vindication of the Celts*, and also by the able writer in the *Edinburgh Review* already referred to, who have each convicted him of sundry errors and inaccuracies of detail; but such is the redundancy of evidence which he has produced in support of his views, that, after every reasonable deduction has been made, enough remains to establish the position, that at a period probably as early as the year 1400 before Christ, the Scythians had advanced from the vicinity of the river Araxes, entered the Cimmerian Bosphorus, whence they afterwards spread themselves westward and northward over a considerable part of Europe. He shows that Herodotus, Diodorus, and indeed all the writers who have occasion to mention the subject, down to the sixth century, when Jornandes wrote, are in opposition to this monastic historian, and uniformly represent the Scythians as having passed, from the south of Asia, in a north-westerly direction, until, in process of time, they spread themselves all over Europe.
We pass over the chapter upon the real origin and first progress of the Scythians or Goths, whom Pinkerton traces from the banks of the Indus, through Persia, to the shores of the Caspian, and proceed to state the results at which he has arrived in the succeeding one, which treats of the western settlements of this people. From their intermediate position on the Euxine, the Scythians gradually extended themselves over the most part of Europe; and, according to Pinkerton, the Greeks and Romans, though refined by adventitious circumstances, certainly belonged to the same great family of mankind. We may also mention here, that, both on historical and on philological grounds, Dr Jamieson, in his Dissertation and in his *Hermes Scythicus*, contends strenuously for the Scythian origin of the Greeks, and, by many new and ingenious arguments, supports this, which forms one of the principal points of Pinkerton's hypothesis. According to the latter, the Scythians successively invaded and settled in Thrace, Illyricum, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia; in other words, he endeavours to show that the Thracians, Illyrians, Greeks, Italians, Germans, and Scandinavians, were all Scythians or Goths. And all this seems to us to be proved, as far at least as such a subject can be established by ancient authorities. The Scythian origin of the Thracians and Illyrians is indisputable. But there is more difficulty respecting the ancient inhabitants of Greece, taking that denomination in the large sense given to *Hellas*, as including Ma-
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1 *Hermes Scythicus*, Dissert. on the Origin of the Greeks, sec. 2. Goths.
cedon, and extending from Thrace and Illyricum to the Cretan, Ionian, and Sicilian Seas. From the concurrent testimony of the Greek writers, it appears, first, that the ancient inhabitants of Hellas were the Pelasgi; and, secondly, that the Hellenes were the same people who had formerly been called the Pelasgi, being, in fact, a small tribe of the Pelasgi who, having last settled in the country, had the good fortune to give their name to the whole. Pinkerton next considers, first, who the Pelasgi were not, and, secondly, who they were. They were not Egyptians, because the two small colonies of Egyptians who settled in Athens and Argos from the earliest times, were specially distinguished as a different people from the Pelasgi; because the Greek mythology has little or no affinity to the Egyptian; and because the Greek language differs entirely from the Coptic, in which are embodied the remains of the old Egyptian. They were not Phoenicians, because of all the reasons urged respecting the Egyptians. They were not Celts, because the latter were confined to the farthest west, whereas Greece was surrounded by Scythians; because the form and structure of the Celtic tongue are as remote as possible from that of the Greek; and because the manners, customs, and usages of the Celts, as described by the Greek and Roman authors, are entirely dissimilar to those of the earliest Greeks. They were not Sarmatae, because there is reason to doubt whether the latter entered Europe more than a thousand years before our era, whereas the progressive advancement of the Scythians dates from a much earlier period; because the manners of the earliest Greeks had nothing in common with those of the Sarmatic or Tartar tribes; and because the Slavonic language, which was spoken by the Sarmatians, differs from the Greek in grammatical structure as well as in nomenclature. But the Pelasgi, or Hellenes, were Scythians of Thrace; a position which, besides being established by authority, is rendered highly probable from the circumstance that ancient Hellas was everywhere surrounded either by the Scythians or the sea. For the full illustration of this branch of the subject, however, we must refer the reader to the fourth chapter of Mr Pinkerton's Dissertation, to Dr Doig's paper on the Ancient Hellenes, and to the Hermes Scythicus of Dr Jamieson, passim. A similar mode of reasoning leads to the conclusion that the Italians, as well as the Greeks, were Scythians.
In the second part of his Dissertation, where he contemplates the extended settlements of the Scythians or Goths over all Germany, and in Scandinavia, Mr Pinkerton endeavours, in the first place, to show, negatively, that the Germans were not Sarmatic nor of Celtic origin; and, secondly, he attempts to prove, positively, that they were Scythians, from identity of language, from the testimonies of the ancient authors, and from similarity of manners and institutions. The details required for the illustration of both branches of his argument are necessarily complicated, and do not admit of abridgment. But the reasoning is throughout strictly logical, and the conclusion can only be affected by impeaching the accuracy or validity of the premises. This, we are aware, has, to a considerable extent, been done in the Vindication of the Celts, in the Edinburgh Review, and in other works; and it must be confessed that the most unsparing severity of criticism is provoked, and in some measure justified, by the tone of insolent dogmatism which Pinkerton thought proper to assume, no less than by the contemptuous language in which he is pleased to characterise almost every writer whose opinions happened to differ from his own. But notwithstanding all his errors, aggravated as they unfortunately are by some misrepresentations, the stability of his argument remains as yet unshaken; and even those who have been most successful in detecting his blunders, will, if impartial, be the first to admit the great learning which he has brought to bear on his subject, and the ability with which he has throughout conducted his reasoning. In tracing the distinctive characteristics of the Goths and the Celts, he has, in fact, established his case, independently altogether of the positive evidence derived from authorities, which is afterwards supplied in profusion. Races of men which are found to differ in person, in manners, in laws, in religion, and in language, cannot, upon any known principle of reason, be admitted to have had a common origin, whatever we may be led to believe upon the paramount authority of revelation.
Upon the whole, in reference to the subject of the Goths and Celts, the following points may be considered as established by the best evidence which the case admits of, viz.:
1. At a period so early as the age of Sesostrius, that is, at least 1400 years before Christ, the Scythians, previously established on the western shores of the Caspian and the eastern shores of the Euxine, had extended their conquests into Europe, and advanced at least as far as Thrace and the surrounding countries.
2. About 640 years before Christ, the Scythians drove the Cimmerians (believed to be the same people with the Cimbri and the Cyans) out of Europe, or forced them to take refuge in wild, mountainous, and inaccessible regions.
3. The Scythe were afterwards known in history by the names of Getæ, Gōdi, and Germāni; but whether distinguished by these names, or by the more comprehensive appellation of Scythians, they are to be regarded as one and the same people.
4. The principal part of the population of every country in Europe, excepting Russia, Poland, and Hungary, where the Slavonic race predominates, is of Gothic origin and descent, though variously modified by the force of adventitious circumstances.
5. With regard to the Celts, the testimony of the earliest writers authorizes us to place their principal settlement, in the fifth century before our era, in the southwest of Gaul, or neighbourhood of the Pyrenees, whence they appear to have been driven by the Germans or Goths on the east, and the Aquitani (probably an Iberian race) on the south, to that part of Gaul where they were found in the time of Caesar.
6. The Slavi, who invaded the north-west of Europe after the destruction of the Roman empire, were an Asiatic tribe; and the present inhabitants and languages of Russia, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Dalmatia, are derived from them.
Dr Jamieson, in the Dissertation prefixed to his Hermes Scythicus, adopts the same views, and follows nearly the same line of argument, as Mr Pinkerton, in considering the historical proofs of the Scythian origin of the Greeks. He shows that the Scythians and Getæ were one people, that the Goths were identical with the Getæ, and that the Thracians were of Scythian origin. He then treats of the diffusion of the Pelasgi throughout Greece; the identity of the Hellenes with the Pelasgi; the erroneous opinions which have been entertained respecting the origin of this people; the origin of their name; the proofs from testimony of the Scythian origin of the Pelasgi; the progress of this people as illustrative of their origin; the language of the Pelasgi; and, lastly, the resemblance of the Greek language to that of the Scythians. He next adverts to the origin of the religion of the Greeks, and of those called Hyperboreans, and, by an elaborate analytical examination, endeavours to show that the mythology of the Greeks, or at least their theocracy, was of Scythian descent, and merely an improved or polished form of the ruder system of superstition which the Goths imported into Europe from their
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1 Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. iii. part 2, p. 131. GOT
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et seqq. Jamieson's *Hermes Scythicus*, or the Radical Affinities of the Greek and Latin Languages to the Gothic, &c. Edinburgh, 1814. Doig on the Ancient Hellenes, *Edinburgh Transactions*, vol. iii.)
GOTENBURG, a city, the capital of the province of that name, in Sweden. It is built on the south side of the Goetzeifl, about two miles from its mouth. The harbour is good, and capable of admitting ships of war. It contains 1500 houses, and 21,540 inhabitants. The trade is very considerable, as well for the export of native productions, wood, iron, and copper, as for the import of East and West India goods and articles from the south of Europe. It is situated in longitude 11.33. E. and latitude 57.42. N.