This class introduces you to the history of one of the 'lost civilizations' of Europe. The sack of Rome in 410 AD by the Goths under their king, Alaric, is infamous, and they have been blamed by later historians for setting in motion the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, but they are also the real 'heirs of Rome'. Gothic kings forged 'Romano-Barbarian' kingdoms in Italy and Spain, and even ruled over a large area of France, the Kingdom of Toulouse. Through illustrated lectures and online resources you will uncover the history of the Goths from their early contacts with Rome, their migrations from north of the Black Sea, their conversion to Christianity, the societies that they ruled over, and their final disappearance. Heroes preserved in medieval epics, a name remembered in architecture and appropriated by contemporary 'pop culture', the cultural roots of Europe may well be found in the Gothic kingdoms in the Sun