Balamber
| Balamber | |
|---|---|
 Detail of the Hun king from theHuns enteringPannoniain 373 ADminiature in theChronicon Pictum | |
| Kingof theHuns | |
| Reign | 370s |
| Successor | Uldin |
| Born | c. 313 |
| Died | c. 378(aged 64–65) |
| Spouse | Vadamerca |
| Issue | Uldin(?) |
Balamber(also known asBalamir,Balamurand many other variants) was ostensibly a chieftain of theHuns,mentioned byJordanesin hisGetica(c.550 AD).[1]Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" (Latin:rex Hunnorum) and writes the story of Balamber crushing the tribes of theOstrogothsin the 370s; somewhere between 370[2]and more probably 376[3]AD.
A number of historians argue that Balamber may have never existed, and was a confusion of other rulers or even a fabrication.[4][5][6][7]
Etymology
[edit]The name is recorded in three variants by Jordanes, and an additional two by copyists:Balaber,Balamber,Balamur,Balambyr,Balamir.[8]Balaber,with omission of-m-,may be a corruption ofBalamber.[8]Balamirhas theGothiconomastic suffix-mir/-mer.[8]
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfenargued that the original form of the name wasBalimberand that its meaning is unknown.[2]
Omeljan PritsakconsideredBalamuras the only originalHunnicform of the name. He derived it from a word akin toMongolianbalamut,balamud,balamad(savage, wild, venturous, daring).[8]Pristak thus reconstructs the name as coming frombala + mur,meaning "the greatest among the venturous, daring".[9]
Hyun Jin Kimargues that the name is simply a corruption of the nameValamir,who he argues to have been the basis of the figure in Jordanes. Kim notes thatValamirwas writtenΒαλαμηρ(Balamêr) inGreek.[4]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 calledBalaam(Βαλαάμ).[10]
History
[edit]Jordanes recounts:
"Balamber, king of the Huns, took advantage of his ill health to move an army into the country of the Ostrogoths, from whom theVisigothshad already separated because of some dispute. MeanwhileHermanaric,who was unable to endure either the pain of his wound or the inroads of the Huns, died full of days at the great age of one hundred and ten years. The fact of his death enabled the Huns to prevail over thoseGothswho, as we have said, dwelt in the East and were calledOstrogoths."[11]
"When he had ruled with such license for barely a year, Balamber, king of the Huns, would no longer endure it, but sent for Gesimund, son of Hunimund the Great. Now Gesimund, together with a great part of the Goths, remained under the rule of the Huns, being mindful of his oath of fidelity. Balamber renewed his alliance with him and led his army up againstVinitharius.After a long contest, Vinitharius prevailed in the first and in the second conflict, nor can any say how great a slaughter he made of the army of the Huns. But in the third battle, when they met each other unexpectedly at the river named Erac, Balamber shot an arrow and wounded Vinitharius in the head, so that he died. Then Balamber took to himself in marriageVadamerca,the grand-daughter of Vinitharius, and finally ruled all the people of the Goths as his peaceful subjects, but in such a way that one ruler of their own number always held the power over the Gothic race, though subject to the Huns."[12]
Those events were preceded by the Huns' attack on theAlansat theDon River,who bordered theGreuthungi,and according toAmmianus Marcellinus,occurred an alliance between them.[13]
The events and names which followed vary according to Ammianus andCassiodorus(from whoseGothic Historywas summarizedGetica):
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 byducesAlatheus 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 foughtBattle of Adrianoplein 378.[14]
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. TheAmalVinitharius retained the "insignia of his princely rank",and trying to escape from the Huns, he invaded the lands of theAntesand their kingBozfor 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 ofinterregnumand Ostrogoths decided to give the rule to Vandalaris's sonValamir,a relative of Thorismund.[15]Valamir eventually desertedAttila's sons in c. 454.[16][14]
Herwig Wolframargued the possibility that unknown riverEraccould be identified with the riverPhasisinLazica.[17][18]Otto J. Maenchen-Helfendenied the connection with ancientErax,and consideredTiligulor lowerDnieper.[19]Wolfram puts the geographical location of events after the battle in 376, inScythia,but the term shifted more westward and actually meantDaciaandPannonia.[20]
Maenchen-Helfen considered that Cassiodorus would not admit that the Gothic princessVadamercabecame a wife of Balamber if he was not some sort of a king.[2]
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.[21]One of them was that Balamber lived in the time of Valamir. However, although of similar etymological names, Balamber, Wolfram related to IranianBalimber,and as such considered them two different personalities.[20]
A number of scholars such asEdward Arthur Thompson,Hyun-Jin Kim, andPeter Heatherconsider Balamber's story historically improbable, and he may be a version of the better-attested Valamir,[6][7][4]or was an invention by the Goths to explain who defeated them.[22]
References
[edit]- ^Mitchell, Stephen (2007),A history of the later Roman Empire, AD 284-641.,Oxford: Blackwell,ISBN978-1-4051-0856-0
- ^abcMaenchen-Helfen 1973,p. 414.
- ^Wolfram 1990,p. 248, 253.
- ^abcKim 2013,p. 108.
- ^Thompson 1996,pp. 62–63.
- ^abHeather 2007,p. 357–358.
- ^abHeather 2010,p. 666.
- ^abcdPritsak 1982,p. 433.
- ^Pritsak 1982,p. 435.
- ^Kim 2013,p. 236.
- ^Jordanes 1908,p. §130.
- ^Jordanes 1908,p. §248–249.
- ^Maenchen-Helfen 1973,p. 18–22.
- ^abWolfram 1990,p. 249.
- ^Wolfram 1990,p. 251.
- ^Maenchen-Helfen 1973,p. 156.
- ^Wolfram 1990,p. 252–253.
- ^Schütte, Gudmund(2013) [1929–1933].Our Forefathers.Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781107674783.
- ^Maenchen-Helfen 1973,p. 25.
- ^abWolfram 1990,p. 254.
- ^Wolfram 1990,p. 253–255.
- ^Sinor 1990,p. 181.
Sources
[edit]- Heather, Peter(2007).The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195325416.
- Heather, Peter(2010).Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780199752720.
- Jordanes(1908).The Origin and Deeds of the Goths.Translated byMierow, Charles Christopher.Princeton:Princeton University– viaProject Gutenberg.
- Kim, Hyun Jin (2013).The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe.Cambridge University Press.ISBN9781107009066.
- Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J.(1973).The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture.University of California Press.ISBN9780520015968.
- Pritsak, Omeljan(1982)."The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan"(PDF).Harvard Ukrainian Studies.IV(4). Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.ISSN0363-5570.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 13 December 2016.Retrieved24 November2015.
- Sinor, Denis(1990).The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia.Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521243049.
- Thompson, E. A.(1996). Heather, Peter (ed.).The Huns.Blackwell Publishers.ISBN978-0-631-15899-8.
- Wolfram, Herwig(1990).History of the Goths.Translated by Dunlap, Thomas J.University of California Press.ISBN9780520069831.