Balamber

Balamber (Balamir) is only mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica,[1] abbreviated c. 550CE from memory of Cassiodorus's History of the Goths.[2] Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" (rex Hunnorum) and tells us the story of Balamber crushing the kingdom of Ostrogoths in around 375.[3]

Balamber's story seems historically improbable.[4][5] He may well be a version of the better-attested Valamir, displaced in time and confused with stories of the Hunnic assault on the Goths.[6] Valamir/Valamer/Βαλαμερ/Balamber was an important Gothic vassal of Attila the Hun in the 400s,[7] who after Attila's death resisted the Huns and consolidated his hold over a large group of Goths.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Jordanes, Getica 130, 248 and 249.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Stephen (2007), A history of the later Roman Empire, AD 284-641., Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-4051-0856-0
  3. ↑ JORDANES. THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS. translated by Charles C. Mierow. Scanned and corrected by J. Vanderspoel, Department of Greek, Latin and Ancient History, University of Calgary http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html accessed 22 April 2012.
  4. ↑ According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Huns had no kings at that time. Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae 31,2,7.
  5. ↑ Thompson, E.A. (1996), The Huns, The Peoples of Europe (Revised ed.), Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-21443-7
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Heather, Peter (2005). The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-98914-2. pp. 356-357.
  7. ↑ Martindale, J.R. (1980), The prosopography of the later Roman Empire, vol. 2, A.D 395-527. (Fourth printing 2006 ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 1135–1136, ISBN 978-0-521-20159-9
Preceded by
Unknown		 Hunnic rule
360 — 378 (?) 		Succeeded by
Baltazár