Peter Heather was born in Northern Ireland and educated at Maidstone Grammar School and New College, Oxford. He briefly joined HM Treasury before being awarded the Murray Fellowship in History at Worcester College, Oxford. His previous books include Goths and Romans, 332-489 (1991) and The Goths in the Fourth Century (1991).

"...a volume of central importance on the place of the Goths in early European history and a fine contribution to the study of the transformation of Europe after Rome." Times Literary Supplement, January 1998. "... an excellent introduction to the student" Archaeological Review from Cambridge

• List of Plates. List of Figures.Preface.Abbreviations.Acknowledgements.1. The Gothic Problem.Part I: In Search of the Goths:.2. From the Baltic to the Black Sea.3. The Fourth Century Kingdoms.Part II: Goths, Huns and Romans:.4. The Hunnic Revolution.5. Goths and Romans: Remaking the Gothic World.6. The Transformation of the Goths 376-476.Part III: The Kingdoms of the Goths:.7. The First Gothic Successor State.8. Ostrogothic Italy: Kingdom and Empire.9. Sixth Century Crises and Beyond.10. Symbols, Mechanisms, and Continuities.Appendix 1: Procopius and the Gothic Elite.Appendix 2: Non-Goths in the Army of Totila.Bibliography.1. Primary Sources.2. Secondary Sources.3. The Wielbark and Cernjachov Cultures.Index.