Balamber (also known as Balamir, Balamur and many other variants) was ostensibly a chieftain of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

, mentioned by

Jordanes Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') an ...

in his ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae oths'), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'', written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of th ...

'' ( 550 AD). Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" () and writes the story of Balamber crushing the tribes of the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who ...

in the 370s; somewhere between 370 and more probably 376 AD. A number of historians argue that Balamber may have never existed, and was a confusion of other rulers or even a fabrication.

Etymology

The name is recorded in three variants by Jordanes, and an additional two by copyists: ''Balaber'', ''Balamber'', ''Balamur'', ''Balambyr'', ''Balamir''. ''Balaber'' with omission of ''-m-'' may be a corruption of ''Balamber''. ''Balamir'' has the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

onomastic suffix ''-mir/-mer''. Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen argued that the original form of the name was ''Balimber'' and that its meaning is unknown. Omeljan Pritsak considered ''Balamur'' as the only original Hunnic form of the name. He derived it from a word akin to Mongolian , , (savage, wild, venturous, daring). Pristak thus reconstructs the name as coming from ''bala + mur'', meaning "the greatest among the venturous, daring". Hyun Jin Kim argues that the name is simply a corruption of the name

Valamir Valamir or Valamer (c. 420 – 469) was an Ostrogothic king in the former Roman province of Pannonia from AD 447 until his death. During his reign, he fought alongside the Huns against the Roman Empire and then, after Attila the Hun's death, ...

, who he argues to have been the basis of the figure in Jordanes. Kim notes that ''Valamir'' was written ''Βαλαμηρ'' (''Balamêr'') in Greek. He argues that the name is of uncertain meaning but "seems to have an eastern origin" and suggests a connection to a city in Central Asia called ''Balaam'' (''Βαλαάμ'').

History

Jordanes recounts: Those events were preceded by the Huns' attack on the Alans at the Don River, who bordered the Greuthungi, and according to

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...

, occurred an alliance between them. The events and names which followed vary according to Ammianus and

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' ...

(from whose ''Gothic History'' was summarized ''Getica''): Ammianus wrote that after death of Ermanaric in 375, Vithimiris became the king of the Greuthungi, he resisted the Huns and Alans, but was killed in battle and was succeeded by young son Videric, so they were ruled by '' duces'' Alatheus and Safrax. They managed to make a confederation of Greuthungi, Alans and Huns, who escaped from the majority of Huns, crossed the Danube in 376, and fought Battle of Adrianople in 378. Cassiodorus, i.e. Jordanes recounts that after Ermanaric's death Goths separated in Western Visigoths and Eastern Ostrogoths, the latter remained in "''their old Scythian settlements''" under Hunnic rule. The Amal Vinitharius retained the "''insignia of his princely rank''", and trying to escape from the Huns, he invaded the lands of the Antes and their king Boz for merely one year, but Balamber put an end to Ostrogoths independence. After the subjection, followed more complex Ostrogoths royal descending; Ermanaric > Hunimund-Thorismund-Berimud moved with his son Videric with the Visigoths to the West because "''despised the Ostrogoths for their subjection to the Huns''". Then happened forty years of interregnum and Ostrogoths decided to give the rule to Vandalaris's son

, a relative of Thorismund. Valamir eventually deserted Attila's sons in c. 454. Herwig Wolfram argued the possibility that unknown river ''Erac'' could be identified with the river Phasis in Lazica. Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen denied the connection with ancient ''Erax'', and considered Tiligul or lower

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

. Wolfram puts the geographical location of events after the battle in 376, in

Scythia Scythia ( Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. ...

, but the term shifted more westward and actually meant

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...

and Pannonia. Maenchen-Helfen considered that Cassiodorus would not admit that the Gothic princess Vadamerca became a wife of Balamber if he was not some sort of a king. Wolfram argued that although scholars often identify "Vithimiris" with Vinitharius, and "Videric" with Vandalarius, onomatological and genealogical methods do not go along with historical events, and many difficulties arise. One of them was that Balamber lived in the time of Valamir. However, although of similar etymological names, Balamber, Wolfram related to Iranian ''Balimber'', and as such considered them two different personalities. A number of scholars such as Edward Arthur Thompson, Hyun-Jin Kim, and Peter Heather consider Balamber's story historically improbable, and he may be a version of the better-attested Valamir, or was an invention by the Goths to explain who defeated them.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balamber 4th-century Hunnic rulers 4th-century monarchs in Europe Hunnic rulers People whose existence is disputed