Ardaric ( la, Ardaricus; c. 450 AD) was the

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the

Gepids The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion a ...

, a

Germanic tribe This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groupings and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. The information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginn ...

closely related to the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

. He was "famed for his loyalty and wisdom," one of the most trusted adherents of

Attila the Hun Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

, who "prized him above all the other chieftains." Ardaric is first mentioned by Jordanes as Attila's most prized vassal at the

Battle of the Catalaunian Plains The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition – led by the Roman general ...

(451): :"The renowned king of the Gepidae, Ardaric, was there also with a countless host, and because of his great loyalty to Attila, he shared his plans. For Attila, comparing them in his wisdom, prized him and Valamir, king of the Ostrogoths, above all the other chieftains." (Jordanes, ''

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 ...

'', trans. C. C. Mierow, 1915) After Attila's death in 453, Ardaric led the rebellion against Attila's sons and routed them in the

Battle of Nedao The Battle of Nedao was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454 between the Huns and their former Germanic vassals. Nedao is believed to be a tributary of the Sava River. Battle After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the subject peoples ...

, thus ending 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 ...

' dominance in Eastern Europe. Since Attila's death, his eldest son Ellak had risen to power. Supported by Attila's chief lieutenant, Onegesius, he wanted to assert the absolute control with which Attila had ruled, while Attila's other two sons, Dengizik and Ernak, claimed kingship over smaller subject tribes. In 454, Ardaric led his Gepid and Ostrogothic forces against Attila's son Ellak and his Hunnish army. The

was a bloody but decisive victory for Ardaric, in which Ellak was killed.Nic Fields, ''The Hun: Scourge of God AD 375-565'', (Osprey, 2006), 16. Ardaric's most immediate achievement was the establishment of his people in

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 thus r ...

. His defeat of the Huns at the River Nedao reduced the threat of invasion posed to the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. While the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

lay in ruins after AD 476, the Eastern Roman Empire survived for almost another thousand years. The name ''Ardaricus'' is assumed to represent Germanic ''*Hardu-reiks''; Schütte (1933) tentatively identified the Heiðrekr of Germanic legend with the historical Gepid king. Ardaric's year of death is unknown. The Gepid king Mundo (''Mundonus''), who ruled in the early 6th century, was probably his grandson. Mundo was called both a Gepid and a Hun, and was probably a descendant of both Attila and Ardaric; Mundo was the son of Giesmos, a son of Attila who had married a daughter of Ardaric's. (Kim 201
p. 94
.

References

Sources

*Charnock, R.S. "The Peoples of Transylvania." Journal of the Anthropological Society of London 7 (1869). *Horworth, H.H. "The Westerly Drifting of Nomads, from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. Part XII. The Huns." The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 3 (1874): 452-75. *Kim, Hyun Jin, ''The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe'' Cambridge University Press (2013). *Makkai, Laszlo, and Andras Mocsy, eds. History of Transylvania Vol. 1: From the Beginnings to 1606. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. * Mierow, Charles C., trans. ''Jordanes: The Origin and Deeds of the Goths.'' Texts for Ancient History Courses. 22 Apr. 1997. Department of Greek, Latin and Ancient History, University of Calgary. 26 November 2008
acs.ucalgary.ca
. *Man, John. Attila : The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2006. *Oliver, Marilyn Tower. Attila the Hun. New York: Blackbirch P, Incorporated, 2005. * Wolfram, Herwig. The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. Trans. Thomas Dunlap. New York: University of California P, 1997. {{Authority control 5th-century deaths 5th century in the Roman Empire Gepid kings Gepid warriors Attila the Hun

See also

References

Sources