Ardaric

Ardaric (died around 460) was the king of the Gepids, a Germanic tribe closely related to the Goths. He was "famed for his loyalty and wisdom", one of the most trusted adherents of Attila the Hun, who "prized him above all the other chieftains". After Attila's death, Ardaric led the rebellion against Attila's sons and routed them in the Battle of Nedao, thus ending the Huns' supremacy in Eastern Europe.

Background: the Gepids

Nothing is known of Ardaric’s early life. Presumably he was a member of the nobility among the Gepids. The Gepids were an East Germanic tribe that first appears in historical record in the sixth century in Jordanes’s Origins and Deeds of the Goths. They first settled along the Vistula River between the first and third centuries A.D. In the fourth century they moved closer to the Eastern Roman Empire, and converted to Arian Christianity, as did their neighbours the Goths. This southward shift is demonstrated by archaeology; Gepids buried their dead with swords, spears, or shields, which their Gothic neighbours did not.

Gepidic society was divided by wealth. From burial grounds found scattered throughout the Carpathian Basin and Hungarian Plain, archaeologists can divide Gepidic sites into two distinct groups. Large burial grounds indicate villages of common people with no significant wealth, and small burial grounds of larger houses which often have weapons, jewelry, and religious icons, wealth far greater than the goods found in the mass gravesites of the larger and poorer villages.

Under Attila

Attila had unified the Eastern European tribes outside the Roman Empire’s border and attacked the Western Roman Empire, in 451 CE facing a coalition put together by Flavius Aëtius in northern Gaul. Ardaric is first mentioned by Jordanes as Attila's most prized vassal at the battle of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. "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."

The battle ended with the retreat of Attila's forces. However, the Gepids and Ardaric still remained loyal to their Hunnish overlord. When Attila made another attempt to penetrate Italy, he and his armies were successful in capturing Aquileia, Pavia, and Milan. But disease struck the Hun forces, forcing Attila to retreat once again back to the Hungarian Plain. Here Attila died in 453 CE.

After Attila

After Attila’s burial, his eldest son Ellak rose to power. Supported by Attila’s chief lieutenant, Onegesius, he wanted to assert the absolute control with which Attila had ruled. However, Attila’s other two sons, Dengizik and Ernak, objected to the idea of their brother being the sole ruler. They claimed kingship over smaller subject tribes. In 454 CE, Ardaric led his Gepid and Ostrogothic forces against Attila’s son Ellak and his Hunnish army. The Battle of Nedao was a bloody but decisive victory for Ardaric, in which Ellak was killed.

Aftermath of the battle

"But the Gepidae by their own might won for themselves the territory of the Huns and ruled as victors over the extent of all Dacia, demanding of the Roman Empire nothing more than peace and an annual gift as a pledge of their friendly alliance. This the Emperor freely granted at the time, and to this day that race receives its customary gifts from the Roman Emperor."

Death

Nothing is known about Ardaric after the battle of the Nedao. He may have died shortly afterwards.

Analysis

Ardaric’s most immediate achievement was the establishment of his people in Dacia. His defeat of the Huns at the River Nedao not only banished and dispersed the Huns, but cut the thread that strung the Eastern European tribes together. With the divisions between these formerly federated tribes, the Eastern Roman Empire had less fear of barbarian invasion. While the Western Roman Empire lay in ruins after 476 CE, the Eastern Roman Empire was allowed to continue on for almost one thousand years. This is due in great part to Ardaric.

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.
• 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 Nov. 2008.
• 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.

See also

• Theodoric I
• Pelagius of Asturias
• Charles Martel
• Nicholas, Count of Salm
• Roger I of Sicily
• Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
• John of Austria
• Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg