The Visigoths and Ostrogoths were originally Goths, a Germanic tribe who lived in what is now Scandinavia. In the third century AD, the Goths invaded the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and during the fourth century, they broke into two groups. Those living north of the present-day Danube River became known as the Visigoths, while those living farther east, in present-day Ukraine, were called the Ostrogoths.
When the Huns from Central Asia attacked the Goths, many of the Visigoths escaped into an eastern Roman province. Rebelling against the Roman rulers, the Visigoths destroyed the Roman army at a battle in Adrianople, and killed Valens, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
In 410, they destroyed the city of Rome. The Ostrogoths, on the other hand, were conquered by the Huns. After Attila, king of the Huns, died in 453, the Ostrogoths regained their independence. Most of them were at that time living in what is now Hungary.
The Ostrogoths became a military power under King Theodoric. In 488, with encouragement from Zeno, the eastern emperor at Constantinople, Theodoric invaded Italy. However, after Justinian became emperor, he crushed the Ostrogoths in a long war, and the Ostrogoths soon lost their separate identity in Italy.