Balamber
Şablon:Use dmy dates Balamber (Balamir, Balamur) was ruler of the Huns, mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica (c. 550 AD).<ref>Şablon:Citation</ref> Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" (rex Hunnorum) and tells us the story of Balamber crushing the kingdom of Ostrogoths in the 370s, somewhere between 370Şablon:Sfn and more probable 376Şablon:Sfn AD.
History
Jordanes recounts:
Those events were preceded by Huns attack on the Alans at Don, who bordered the Greuthungi, and according to Ammianus Marcellinus, occurred an alliance between them.Şablon:Sfn
The events and names which followed vary according to Ammianus and Cassiodorus (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.Şablon:Sfn
Cassiodorus, ie. 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 Valamir, a relative of Thorismund.Şablon:Sfn Valamir eventually deserted Attila's sons in c. 454.Şablon:SfnŞablon:Sfn
Herwig Wolfram argued the possibility that unknown river Erac could be identified with the river Phasis in Lazica.Şablon:Sfn<ref>Şablon:Cite book</ref> Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen denied the connection with ancient Erax, and considered Tiligul or lower Dnieper.Şablon:Sfn Wolfram puts the geographical location of events after the battle in 376, in Scythia, but the term shifted more westward and actually meant Dacia and Pannonia.Şablon:Sfn
Maenchen-Helfen considered that Cassiodorus wouldn't admit that Gothic princess become a wife of Balamber if he was not some sort of a king.Şablon:Sfn
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.Şablon:Sfn One of them is 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.Şablon:Sfn Some scholars like Edward Arthur Thompson and Peter Heather consider Balamber's story historically improbable, and he may be a version of better-attested Valamir,Şablon:SfnŞablon:Sfn or was an invention by the Goths to explain who defeated them.Şablon:Sfn
Etymology
The name is recorded in three variants by Jordanes, and additional two by copyists: Balaber, Balamber, Balamur, Balambyr, Balamir.Şablon:Sfn Balaber with omission of -m- is a corruption of Balamber.Şablon:Sfn Balamber and Balambyr probably evolved from a dittography b-b.Şablon:Sfn Balamir has Gothic onomastic suffix -mir/-mer.Şablon:Sfn
Omeljan Pritsak considered Balamur as the only original Hunnic form of the name. He derived it from Mongolian balamut, balamud, balamad (savage, wild, venturous, daring).Şablon:Sfn In the Hunnic suffix "r" appears in the place of Mongolian "d", while the whole suffix corresponds to Bulgarian "ma", Middle Turkic mat, meaning "the greatest among".Şablon:Sfn The name in form bala + mur means "the greatest among the venturous", which would be a suitable designation for Hunnic conqueror.Şablon:Sfn
References
- Sources
