Gothic and Vandal warfare
The Goths, Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians were East Germanic groups who appear in Roman records in late antiquity.
At the same time, other Germanic people of the Baltic Sea (associated with the Przeworsk culture) followed other trade routes to the middle-Danubian plains (Vandals) or the Main river (Burgundians).
Many modern historians, including Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, doubt that it was ever particularly extensive (and suggest one or more smaller kingdoms).
[1][2] Gothic armies were primarily composed of heavy infantry equipped with a shield, spatha or scramasax and the occasional francisca and pike formed in wedge formation, with a supporting heavy cavalry force equipped with lance and sword.
[3] Although Goths were the first of the Germanic tribes to place more honour in fighting on horse than on foot, equipping cavalrymen was expensive and infantry remained the larger force.
The Goths also recruited mounted archers from the Alans and Sarmatians, and light sword cavalry from the Heruli and Taifali, although all of these also fielded lancers.
[6] For a Gothic or Vandal nobleman the most common form of armour was a mail shirt, often reaching down to the knees, and an iron or steel helmet, often in a Roman Ridge helm style.
Some of the wealthiest warriors may have a worn a lamellar cuirass over mail, and splinted greaves and vambraces on the forearms and forelegs.
Athanaric and his supporters avoided battle; his army abandoned the Danubian plains and retreated into the Carpathian Mountains.
Athanaric and his supporters sought battle; the main Gothic army assembled on the Dnestr river, with forward units scouted 30 km ahead.
The Hunnic rulers had thus an empire at their disposal with the resources of subject people who were required to supply additional forces for their ongoing raids and conquests.
Late Roman representational evidence, including propaganda monuments, gravestones, tombs, and the Exodus fresco, often shows Late Roman soldiers with one or two spears; one tombstone shows a soldier with five shorter javelins.
[48][49] Archaeological evidence, from Roman burials and Scandinavian bog-deposits, shows similar spearheads, though the shafts are rarely preserved.
Constructed of overlapping metal plates laced together, lamellar was more rigid than mail or scale armour and offered considerably greater protection against blunt force trauma from weapons such as maces or axes, commonly used by heavy cavalry of the time.
[52][53] Archaeological evidence shows that the gladius has disappeared; various short semispathae supplement the older pugiones[54][55] while medium-long spathae replace the medium-short gladii.
[57][58] Representational evidence and recovered laths, as well as arrowheads and bracers, show Roman use of composite bows.
These terms reflect the Gothic military organization that grew from its Germanic roots under Roman and Central Asian (Hunnic) influence.
