Westgoten

...As a result, many of the stadts were tribal groups with strong political and military control centered around a powerful king or royal family, especially a military commander, compared to the civitas of Tacitus' time. Thus, in the 4th century, the Germanic peoples as a whole were roughly divided into three tribal groups: East Germanic, West Germanic, and North Germanic. Among the stadts of the East Germanic group, namely the Ostgoths (Ostrogothae), West Goths (Visigothae), Vandals, Burgunds, and Lombards, elements of various different ethnicities and races that lived in the eastern steppes of present-day southern Russia were strongly mixed in, and they were the first to adopt the military system, equipment, and tactics unique to the East, which emphasized cavalry and bows and arrows, and they also saw the expansion of a new royal authority with a military kingly character, replacing the old chieftaincy system. The East Germanic tribes' vigorous and rapid movement over long distances during the Great Migration Period was possible in part because of this historical background.

*Some of the terminology that mentions "Westgoten" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…そのためシュタムの多くは，タキトゥス時代のキウィタスに比し，実力ある特定の王または王族，特に軍指揮者を中心とした政治的･軍事的統制力の強い部族集団という性格を帯びていた。こうして4世紀に入ると，ゲルマン人の全体は，大きく分けて東ゲルマン，西ゲルマン，北ゲルマンの三つの部族群に分類されることとなるが，中でも東ゲルマン群に属する諸部族，すなわち東ゴートOstgoten(Ostrogothae)，西ゴートWestgoten(Visigothae)，バンダルVandalen，ブルグントBurgunder，ランゴバルドLangobarden等のシュタムの中へは，現在のロシア南部，東方ステップ地帯にいた種々の異民族･異人種の要素が色濃く混入したため，そこではいち早く騎馬を重視し弓矢を重視する東方独特の兵制，装備，戦術がとりいれられ，さらに古い首長制の代りに，軍王的性格をもつ新しい王権の伸張をみた。やがて民族大移動期に展開する東ゲルマン諸部族のあの活発かつ遠距離への迅速な移動の可能性は，一つにはこうした歴史的背景があったせいである。…

※「Westgoten」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報