AAUGUSTINE’S CITY OF GOD was written in response to the conquest of Rome by an army of Visigoths, one of the many peoples the Romans—and later historians—labeled “barbarians.” Scholars have been hampered in investigating barbarian society because most groups did not write and thus kept no written records before Christian missionaries introduced writing. Greek and Roman authors did describe barbarian society, but they were not always objective observers. Thus, written records must be combined with archaeological evidence to gain a more accurate picture. In addition, historians are increasingly deciphering and using the barbarians’ own written records that do exist, especially inscriptions carved in stone, bone, and wood and written in the runic alphabet.

Barbarians included many different ethnic groups with social and political structures, languages, laws, and beliefs that developed in central and northern Europe over many centuries. Among the largest groups were Celts (whom the Romans called Gauls) and Germans. Celts, Germans, and other barbarians brought their customs and traditions with them when they moved southward, and these gradually combined with classical and Christian patterns to form new types of societies.