Hermanaric

Hermanaric was a king of the Goths north of the Black Sea. The Huns destroyed his realm in the 370s.^[1] The two accounts of him disagree on almost everything but his fall.

Ammianus wrote the last book of his history about 395.^[2] He calls Hermanaric Ermenrichus, a most warlike king, feared by his neighbours for his many brave deeds, who held wide and rich lands.^[1] The Huns overran the Alans of the Don and joined the survivors to themselves. Then they fell on his lands with a sudden attack. He held out for a long time. Then, as rumour magnified the danger, he ended his fear by a voluntary death.^[3]

Jordanes makes him the noblest of the Amals, whom some compared with Alexander the Great. In Jordanes he is also the conqueror of a long list of northern peoples.^[4] In his account Hermanaric had a woman of the faithless Rosomoni, Sunilda, torn apart by wild horses because her husband had deserted him. Her brothers Sarus and Ammius wounded him in the side. While he lay sick, Balamber, king of the Huns, invaded the land of the Ostrogoths. Hermanaric died of his wound and of the Hunnic attacks in his hundred and tenth year.^[5] The tale of Sunilda is found only in Jordanes. It probably comes from Gothic saga.^[6] Where Jordanes and Ammianus differ on this war, Ammianus is to be preferred.^[7]

Neither source gives a year. The war is usually dated to 375, but it cannot be dated.^[8] One reckoning gives him a reign from about 351 to 376.^[9] Another describes his realm as reaching from the Don to the Dniester and from the Black Sea to the Pripet.^[10] His death gave the Huns mastery over the Ostrogoths. The Ostrogoths stayed under Hunnic rule until after Attila. The Hunnic conquest of the Goths covers the war.^[11]

References

^ a b Ammianus Marcellinus; Rolfe 1939, xxxi.3.1, p. 395–397
^ Thompson 1948, p. 6
^ Ammianus Marcellinus; Rolfe 1939, xxxi.3.1–2, p. 395–397
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 116–120, p. 84–85
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 129–130, p. 87–88
^ Mierow 1915, p. 163
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 17
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 20
^ Mierow 1915, p. 162
^ Thompson 1948, p. 22–23
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 130, 246, p. 88, 120–121

Sources

Ammianus Marcellinus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

John C. Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English Translation, vol. III: Books XXVII–XXXI (1939)
Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)