The Gepid Kingdom (455-567)

Contemporary reports and the history of the Goths written by the Gothic Jordanes both highlight the importance of the role played by the "innum er­

able forces of the Gepids" in Attila's campaigns against Gaul (451). The Gepid troops were led by "the most famous king", Ardaric, who enjoyed a special privilege among all the vassal kings: he was allowed to participate

in Attila's council (445-453). This rare privilege of the Gepids can be as­

cribed to the fact that they were the only Eastern Germanic people who had not fled in panic on hearing of the Hunnish advance. In his campaigns against the towns of both Roman empires, Attila relied heavily on the mass of Gepid foot warriors. Their new king, Ardaric, who had been designated by the Huns, wielded the same measure of power over his own people as Attila over the H unnish nobles and the common peoples of his empire. This kind of power was granted to Ardaric and a few other vassal kings by Attila and his Huns; and Ardaric, an astute and cunning man by nature, used this power for the benefit of his own people. No other area in the Carpathian Basin has yielded as many gold grave oboli as the settlement territory of the Gepids. Their Hunnish overlords supplied them with "hom e-m inted" solidi of Theodosius II when the flow of eastern Roman gold dried up after the death of the emperor. W hen Attila died in 453, the Gepids were the best equipped and wealthiest of the Germanic tribes, and had the richest mili­

tary aristocracy. It was "the Gepids raging with the sword" and "A rdaric's sword" that led the coalition of the Danubian peoples to victory in the Bat­

tle of the Nedao River fought against Attila's son and successor, Ellak (455).

After their victory, "th e Gepids occupied by force all of the Hunnish settlements and held sway over the borders of all of Dacia. Being valiant men, they asked only for a friendly alliance, peace and an annual subsidy from the [Eastern] Roman Em pire".9 This contemporary report that has sur­

vived probably on the basis of Priscus's description strongly suggests that after their victory the Gepids annexed the Hunnish territory on the left bank of the Danube to their own settlement territory, which thus becam e m ulti­

plied in size. The boundaries of their kingdom in the first half of the sixth century can be reconstructed from a description by Cassiodorus, who drew his information from a Byzantine source. According to him, the Gepids lived to the w est of Scythia Minor: the Danube bordered their land in the south, the Olt in the southeast, the Alpine mountain chain (i.e. the eastern and northern Carpathians) in the east and the north, and the Tisza in the w est.10 Right after 550, Jordanes remarked that the "present" country of the Gepids lay right across from Moesia on the far bank of the Danube, in a land for­

merly called Dacia and later Gothia, which was "now " called Gepidia and which was bordered by the Danube in the south.11 ,

The most significant war waged by the Gepids dates to the period be­

tween the above-quoted two descriptions of the location and size of Dacia.

The war happened after the work of Cassiodorus was finished, and before Jordanes has finished his Getica, the Gepids had lost their newly-won terri­

tories. It must be noted here in passing that the Eastern Empire never ac­

knowledged the Gepid conquest. Jordanes, who lived in the territory of the Eastern Empire only alluded to these events in passing. The w ar that broke out in 539 was launched by the Gepids who had concluded an alliance with Theudepert, the Frankish king, against Byzantium. They routed the east Roman army led by General Calluc, and occupied the Danubian zone of

9 . J o r d a n e s , Getica 26 4 . 1 0 . Jo rd a n es, Getica 3 3 . 1 1 . Jo rd a n es, Getica 7 4.

Moesia Prima and Dacia Ripensis between Singidunum (Belgrad) and the region opposite the mouth of the Olt River. This area remained under Gepid control until the close of 551. The twelve year-long Gepid control of the Lower Danubian border can, in retrospect, be said to have shaped the later history of Europe: they opened the frontiers of the Eastern Empire to the permanent intrusions and attacks of various Slavic groups — and in 550, of the Kutrigurs. The romanized population of Dacia evacuated to the Lower Danubian region by Emperor Aurelian in 270 now fled to the inner regions of the Balkan Peninsula to avoid "slavery" under Gepid rule, and to escape recurrent Slavic-Kutriguric attacks. They took with them the m emory of their Trajanic origins and their "D acian" heritage, as well as their Latin dialects. And though Justinian I ordered the Gepids to evacuate the east Roman territory after the victory of his Langobard allies in 551, and again closed the Lower Danubian border, he could not resurrect its former inhab­

itants to populate the towns. After 552, only small forts were erected on the site of the former castella, counter forts and towns on both banks of the Lower Danube. For three decades, these were manned by soldiers of semi- or entirely barbarian descent, until the Avar and Slavic cam paigns swept even these small forts away.

The Gepid finds from the Age of Migrations — the fifth and sixth cen­

tury — are exceptionally well documented. In fact, the very first Gepid grave find, jew els from the burial of a noblewoman, came to light in Transyl­

vania at Kisselyk, in the year 1856. J6zsef Hampel recognized as early as 1880 on the basis of a grave find from Nagyv^rad that these and similar jew ellery from the Carpathian Basin were ornamented in the "M erovingian style". By the end of the century he could confidently assert — on the basis of the finds rapidly growing in number and of his profound knowledge of historical sources — that the graves and burial grounds yielding com para­

ble finds to the east of the Tisza could be regarded as an evidence of the Gepids. In his publication of the first Gepid cemetery to be expertly exca­

vated at Mezdband in 1906-1907, Istvan KovScs proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the cemetery should be assigned to the Gepids of the Age of Migrations (1913). And although the conceptual confusion pervading ar­

chaeological research after the First World War did not spare Gepid archaeo­

logy either, investigations and excavations have continued in the area that had formerly been Gepidia, but which now lies in three different countries:

Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Although research in Transylvania was carried out between 1951-1956 within the fram ework of a "Slavic-A ntes Program m e", the 1960s brought a more professional approach. The claim that the settlements and cem eteries of the period in question do indeed belong to the Gepids has not been seriously challenged by any well-trained Hungarian, Yugoslavian or Romanian archaeologist to this day. It is, how ­ ever, an infinitely more difficult task to reconcile their views with those of western scholars of the "M erovingian period", for there are quite a number of western historians and archaeologists who are loath to admit the very existence of the Gepids. The few who do, tend to associate with the Gepids only the simple commoners' finds. The contemporary Gothic and Langobard chronicles describing the Gepids as an abomination alas still influence schol­

arly attitudes, and it is still as fashionable to generously ascribe to the Goths

Map 5. The Gepids in Transylvania and in the Eastern Great Plain, 445/455-567

1 SetHem ent, grave cem etery; 2. K in g 's grave, hoard; 3. G old coins paid as tribute by Byzantium from the tim e o f T h eod osiu s II (the 440s) un til the death o f Ju stin ian I (565); 4. C oin hoard; 5. G epidia up to cca 455; 6. G epid settlem ent area betw een 474 and 567

their lavish treasures, their royal burials resplendent with dazzling jew el­

lery, and their military victories as to denigrate the people themselves. These attitudes occasionally influenced local research on Gepidia. One virulent example is the claim, borne out by no historical source, that the royal buri­

als of Apahida and the Szamosfalva treasure should be linked to an Ostro- gothic elite who possessed Transylvania until 474 or 490. And yet, the his­

toric victory of the Gepids over the Huns and their firm alliance — with the exception of the above-mentioned twelve years — with the Eastern Roman Empire provides a more than adequate explanation for the extraordinary wealth of the Gepid kings and nobles.

T,he distribution of the solidi issued under Theodosius II, M arcian and Valentinian III — gold coins that were lovingly deposited in the burials of Gepid nobles by their relatives so that they would be able to pay for their entrance to the netherworld — clearly shows that at the time of the Hun overlordship, Gepidia lay to the east of the Bodrog-Tisza line, to the north of the Koros-Sebes-Koros line, and north of the source area of the Nagy- Szam os in the east. International research generally tries to fit the solitary lavish burials from the Partium and northern Transylvania (e.g. Ermihaly- falva) into the chronological framework of "M erovingian civilization" es­

tablished on the basis of coin finds. The almost nouveau riche fashion worn by Gepid noblewomen, the dress ornamented with huge silver fibulae worn in pairs on each shoulder, the cast silver belt clasps, golden earrings and arm rings, and an array of glittering beads evolved at around this time.

Graves comparable to the noblewomen's burials uncovered in northeastern H ungary have also come to light in the Partium (at Erdengeleng and Genes), and a veritable noblem en's cemetery was set up at Nagyvarad at this time.

Since the weapons, male and female dress and various other products of the Gepid m aterial culture of the Hun period are known from various cem ­ eteries of Hungary and the Partium (Artand I—II, Ermihalyfalva, etc.) it is relatively easy to trace the settlement of Transylvania after the end of its Hun occupation. The first settlers obviously arrived still wearing the ear­

rings, fibulae and other ornaments manufactured in their form er homeland.

Their grave oboli were still picked from among the late issues of Theodosius II which reached the Hun Empire in enormous quantities, or the late issues of Valentinian III but they were soon supplanted by the solidi of Leo I and Zeno. The distribution of these coins is concordant with the early Gepid grave finds that have come to light as far south as the valleys of southern Transylvania (Segesvar, Szekelyudvarhely, Brass6, Szelindek, and the Hat- szeg area). The m ajority of these finds come from sm all, fam ily burial grounds established in the vicinity of newly founded manors or farmsteads, since larger villages had not yet been formed. Most of these early finds have been reported from Kolozsvar and its environs, suggesting the emergence of a major Gepid centre in that area.

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