whom 
.ciones. 
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They 
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ion of 
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from 
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ends 
T.. 
§ 6.—SECOND PERIOD IRON AGE (B.C. 50—A.D. 400). 23 
Then, early in the second century, A.D., the northern Goths 
break away from the main body settled on the Vistula, 
and cross to Scandia by way of the islands of Oland and 
Gotland. In Gotland they must have had a wealthy settle- 
ment, the precursor of the greatness of Visby, since not 
ess than 3,234 silver coins of the early Roman Emperors 
from Augustus to Alexander Severus (29 B.C. to 235 A.D.), 
were found in that island, the only others found in any 
quantity of that epoch being 88 in Oland and 584 in Skéne 
(Du Chaillu: Viking Age, Vol. ii., p. 556, Lond. 1889). 
The Goths, when established in the peninsula, and prob- 
ably reinforced by kindred tribes from the south and south- 
west, especially arriving by the Gota River, still find 
Finns or Lapps, who here left their name (Finni) in 
Smaland and West Gothland (Geijer, pp. 17 and 30). 
Of eariy serious conflicts between Goths and Sveas 
we have no striking record, except to some extent in 
Beowulf (canto 35), and we may presume that the latter 
withdrew of their own accord, or by agreement with the 
Goths, from Scandia, and concentrated themselves beyond 
the great lakes and forests at Sigtuna on Lake Malar and 
elsewhere in Upland. We may also suppose, in view of 
the legends preserved by Jordanis in the sixth century, 
that a swarm of Scandian Goths, under their king, Berig, 
rejoined and reinforced the Gythons of the Vistula in their 
southward movements. 
These south-faring Goths, as is well known, had a mar- 
vellous history. Towards the end of the second century 
they came in contact with the Roman Empire in Dacia, 
19 Jordanis (a Bishop of Bruttium, c. 552 A.D.), de rebus 
Geticis, cc. 1 and 2. In the first chapter he speaks of the 
‘“ Suethans ’’ among the northern inhabitants of the Isle of 
Scanzia, and says that, like the Thuringians, they use excellent 
horses. Amongst the names of tribes there he mentions the 
Vagoth, Gautigoth (‘‘acre hominum genus et ad bellum 
promptissimi ’’) and Ostrogothe, as well as the Finni. This 
looks as if West and East Gothland were already separate 
provinces. The ‘‘ Gautigoth’’ may be the Goths of Goéta- 
EIf.