It is of great importance for any Lithuanian scholars to delve into the past of the Gothic people, because there are mighty good evidences indicating that the vanished Gothic nation was closely akin to the Lithuano-Prussian nation.

Guttones, otherwise named Guddae, Goths, Gottheudi, Getae, Getvi, Gytae, ---belonged to the Aestian race (R. G. Latham, The Germania of Tacitus, Notes on Section XLV, p. 166-171).

The Gothic nation branched itself into several tribes, namely: Austrogudae (Amali), Balthi (Baltgudae, Visigoths, or Thervingi), Heruli, Gepidae, Rugians, Brenti, Varni, etc.

The history of the powerful Goths is interesting and amazing: interesting, because in a short time they succeded in dominating half of the European continent and demolishing the Roman Empire; amazing, because those blue-eyed, fair-complexioned, athletic, mead-drinking "barbarians" were not at all barbarous. Goths, for their valor, endurance, perseverance, firmness, justice, mercy, and decency in family life, were admired by the highly civilized Romans. Whenever the Goths were victorious over the Roman army, Roman inhabitants rejoiced as if it were their salvation. And indeed it was less troublesome and better for the Romans to live under the Gothic dominion than under the tyranny of their own rulers.

Queer enough, that such a mighty nation, risen to such a height of greatness, vanished altogether, leaving behind them neither important literature, nor any treasures of art, nor any relics of their culture. Consequently, the origin of the Goths is puzzling to the ethnologists; and the Gothic history is a true complex. Certain German and Scandinavian scholars endeavored to claim the Goths, depending on the tales of Jornandes and Wulfila's (the Germanized Greek) Bible. But there are many prominent scientists that do not agree with Grimm's, Mullenhof's, Lembke's, Niebuhr's, Zeuss's inferences, and are skeptical concerning the "Teutonic" origin of the Goths. And why should there be no doubts, if nobody ever called the Germans "GOTHI", and even lately nobody calls them so? The Poles, the Russians, the Czechs and all other Slavonic people call Germans "niemcy"; the Lithuanians call Germans "vokie…iai"; the Frenchmen call them "l'Allemands"; the English people call them "Germans"; even the Germans call themselves "Deutsche".

That the Gothic nation was the nearest kindred to the Lithuanian nation, is proven by the following facts:---

1. THE GEOGRAPHIC PROOF. The original geographic area of the Gothic people coincides with the present Lithuanian territory.
(a) Ptolomaeus (A.D. 161-182), the famous ancient geographer, mathematician and astronomer, in his treatise Geogr. lib. 3. cap. 5. writes:

Elattova de eunh vemetai Saomatian, paoa men ton Ouistoulan potamon. Upo touj Ouenedaj, Guuwnej. Eita Finnoi. Eita Boulanej. Uf ouj Foougondiwvej. Eita Auaohnoi, paoa thn cefalhn tou Ouistoula potamou.

This, when translated into English, means: "The less significant people abide in Sarmatia, near the mouth of the Vistula river. Beyond the Venedi are Guthones. Then the Finns. Then the Boulanes (= Poles). Beyond them are the Frugundians. Then the Avarens, near the head of the Vistula river". Here we notice, that Ptolomaeus enumerated different nations starting from north southward. Hence his statement "beyond the Venedi, are Guthones" is correct. Venedi were the ancient people living near Vindau, in Latvia; and the Guthones living alongside Venedi surely could be no other people but the inhabitants of old Lithuania.

(b) Tacitus (ca. A.D. 100), the prominent Roman historian, in his treatise de situ, moribus et populis Germaniae c. XLIII. writes:

"Trans Lygios Gothones regnantur, paullo jam adductius, quam ceterae Germannorum gentes, nondum tamen supra libertatem. Protimus deinde ab Oceano Rugii, et Lemovii:"

Tacitus' statement "trans Lygios" (= beyond the Poles) is remarkably precise, and he chose to enumerate the nations from the south northwards. If Tacitus wrote that "trans Lygios" the Gothones live and near by the Ocean there are the Rugians and the Livonians, neighbors of the Courlanders, ---then it is evident that the Goths lived within Lithuanian territory.

(c) Pytheas, who lived ca. 320 before the Christian era, according to Plinius' statement in his HIST. NATUR. I. XXXVII, c. 2. has recorded the following information about the Goths: "Pytheas credidit Guttonibus Germaniae genti, accoli Aestuarium oceani, MENTO NOMON nomine, spatio stadiorum sex millium. Ab hoc die navigatione insulam abesse Abalum. Illo vero fluctibus advehi et esse concreti maris purgamentum. Incolas pro ligno ad eo uti, proximique Teutonis vendere". This, when translated into English, means: "Pytheas believed that the Guttones were of German race, living by the Aestuarian sea (Baltic sea), at the mouth of the river named NOMON, at the stretch of 6,000 stadii. Sailing a day from here there is Abalum island. Here indeed the waves cast out the amber and this is a petrified manure of the sea. The natives burn it instead of wood, and sell it to the neighboring Teutons."

From the statements of Pytheas we get quite definite information, namely:--- that the native land of the Goths was by the Aestuarian sea (by the Baltic sea), exactly where the Aestians (Aestii = Lithuanian ancestors) lived. The same author is still more definite when he points out that they lived nowhere else but at the mouth of NEMON river. Plinius copying down what is written in Pytheas' manuscripts, and fearing lest he might mislead his readers, copied down the name exactly as it was written in Greek, namely "MENTO NOMON". And in the original Greek manuscript would be Men to Nouon. Hence the word "MENTO" equals the Greek men to which means "MOUTH of the RIVER"; --- and the word "NOMON" means "NEMON" (= Niemen).

Compare with § (a) Ptolomaeus' expression men ton Ouistoulan, in which men ton means "the mouth of the river".
II. AMBER LAND, was the common fatherland of the Goths as well as of the Aestians. Ancient writers, when mentioning the Goths, add that in their country amber is found. Tacitus and others writing about the Aestiorum gentes (Old Prussians, Courlanders, Galindians, Samogitians, Getvingians and other Lithuanian tribes) always state that they have plenty of amber.
III. The ancestors of the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians, called the Prusso-Lithuanian territory "Reið-gota-land". --- "En austr fra Polena er Reið-gota-land". (= "East of Poland, there is Reið-Got-hic-land") --- Zeuss p. 500, fragm. Fornaldar Sogur.
IV. In the Anglo-Saxon MS. from VII-X century, known as "Codex Exoniensis", in Widsid's poem, the Prussian cheiftain is called "Hreð-cyninges"; and the Prusso-Goths are called "Hreð-Gotum".

From Widsid's poem we can't surmise anything else, because here he plainly relates that the native land of "Hreð-Gotum", and "Hraeda here" was situated on the shores of Vistula river, east from Angles. I am not the only one who firmly believes that the Hreð-Gotum really were the Prusso-Lithuanians. Many other famous scholars stated that Hreð-Gota was the ancient name for the Lithuanian people. For instance, one of the most prominent of England's ethnologists and philologists, Dr. R. G. Latham, in his book "The Germania of Tacitus, Epilogomena XLIX, c. 5" says:--- "In the name Reudingi, the Reud--- may, possibly, be the Hreð--- in Hreð-Gotans. Now the Hret-Gotan were Lithuanians".

V. SLAVONIC PEOPLE (the Poles, Russians etc.) USED TO CALL LITHUANIANS AND PRUSSIANS "GUCI", "GOCI" etc., which means "the GOTHS". In old chronicles, the synonym for Lithuanians and Prussians was "Gethos":
(a) Adam Bremensis (A.D. 1073), in his chronicle De Situ Daniae, c. 224, & Scriptor. rer. Livon. I. p. 322, writes "Gethas id est Litwanos."
(b) W. Kadlubek, chronicler of the XII century, writes: "Gete dicuntur omnes Lithuani, Prutheni et aliae ibidem gentes"--- Scriptores rer. Prussicarum, I. 201.
(c) "Sunt autem Pollexiani Getharum seu Prussorum genus, gens atrocissima...." ---Kadlubkonis Historia Polon. lib. III. c. 19.
(d) "Gethe seu Prussi" --- Boguchwal, Script. rer. Pruss. I. 753, 7544.
(e) "Gethos id est Letwanos" --- Chronicon Polono --- Silesiacum. Pertz. Monum. Germ. hist. Scriptores XVIII, 558; 559; 562-3; 565.
(f) "Preterea licet terra Sudorum sive Gettarum que mediat inter terram Lythuaniam et Prussiam......" --- Prochaska. Codex Epistolaris Vitoldi. p. 468.
VI. Not very long ago, the people about Koenigsberg, when they wanted to express their contempt towards Prussians, Samogitians and Lithuanians, used to call them "Guddae". Undoubtedly this irritated the people so much that Praetorius wrote a book on Orbis Gothicus, A.D. 1688, in which he devotes two sections to discussing this question:--- "Unde nominis Guddae contemptus hodie in Prussia?" In one of the passages he says: "Guddarum infidelium nomen existit, adeo ut Gothus sive Guddus idem iis qui paganus et ethnicus, hostisque Christianitatis audierit".
VII. Up to date the Lithuanians of Prussia, when inclined to reproach a Samogitian, call him "Gudas" (=Goth); Samogitians apply the name "Gudai" to the Lithuanians of Dzuka's dialect living in the Vilna district; and the Dzukes fling the name "Gudai" upon all the Russianized Lithuanians of Grodno and Minsk districts. There must be a historical reason if Lithuanians call each other "Gudas", just because his neighbor speaks a slightly different dialect. If Guttones (the Goths) would have been a Germanic people, then why do the Lithuanians not call the Germans "Gudai"? Why is it that neither Slavs, nor French, nor any other people adjoining Germany do not call the Germans "Guddae"? It is obvious that Guttones, in other words the Goths, did not belong to a Germanic, but to a LITHUANO-PRUSSIC race!
VIII. The term "guda", "goda" (= "honor") by itself is purely Lithuanian. The verb "gudoti" means "to honor"; "pa-godoti" means "to exalt". Gudonai (Guttones), then, means "noble, honorable people".
IX. In old documents the Samogitian territory is called "Samo-getia". On ancient Lithuanian coins we note "Samogitia". And up till now the Lower Lithuania (ðemaitija) is called in Latin "Samogitia". Now the word "Samo-getia" means "Low Getia", or "the Lower Gothia". Let us bear in mind this fact that the Latin alphabet has no "Z". In its place, "S" is used. Hence the Lithuanian word "ðEMA", meaning "Low", was written "Sama" or "Samo" by the medieval Latin scribes; and "ðema Gudija" (= Low Gothia) was written "Samo-getia" or "Samo-gitia".
X. In Lithuania over 40 per cent of the inhabitants have Gothic surnames, such as:


Notes: