File:Ridpath's Universal history - an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the (14804098113).jpg

Identifier: ridpathsuniversa05ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's Universal history : an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the civilized life among men and nations, from recent and authentic sources with a preliminary inquiry on the time, place and manner of the beginning
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Jones
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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Romans,we have discussed thequestion of their North-ern origin. It is oneof the few instances inwhich the laws of rightreason and of the data inour possession do notseem to coincide. Thelaws of right reason wouldnot lead us to expect thereturn of the Goths outof the south of Swedenand their transmigrationacross a considerable por-tion of Europe to reachtheir historical seats onthe Danube. Yet thefacts seem to warrant sucha hypothesis; and it wouldappear probable that theMoeso-Gothic nation ofthe fourth and fifth cen-turies, gathered in itsstronghold in the dipperof the Danube, was de-rived by migration froman original Gothland onboth sides of the Baltic. In the earliest times atwhich we are acquaintedwith the Northern Goths,we find them under thegovernment of pettykings. The reader shouldbe reminded that aking in the barbariansense of the word corre-sponds to no fact withwhich we are acquaintedin the political structureof the modern world.He was sometimes mere-ly a petty lord, one of
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70 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. Gothic king;Upsala seat of■Wodin. tlie smaa-kongar of whom we havealready spoken, a mere chieftain, whoseCharacter of influence on the generalcourse of affairs, evenamong his own people, wasso slight as to be almost neglected.Sometimes the king rose toward the re-gion of monarchy as that institution isunderstood in our ages. At the earliesttimes to which our acquaintance extendsin Sweden tliere was a King of Upsala,who was a kind of over-sovereign tothe smaa-kongar. It is thought that ditions, and the Gota as well as thevSvea were bound to the common wor-ship, the vSwedish center of which wasat Upsala. At our earliest acquaintance with theraces inhabiting vSweden we find theGoths the most enterprising condition andand active. Their most ^^Sv^swed-populous districts were on ish Goths,the borders of the Baltic and among theislands, the principal of which is to thepresent day known as Gothland. Theyhad the same social ors^anization as most

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