They are first mentioned by Roman sources in the third century. In the fourth century, they were among the peoples incorporated into theHunnic Empire, within which they formed an important part. After the death ofAttila, the Gepids under their leaderArdaric, led an alliance of other peoples who had been in the empire, and defeated the sons of Attila and their remaining allies at theBattle of Nedao in 454. The Gepids and their allies subsequently founded kingdoms on theMiddle Danube, bordering on theRoman Empire. The Gepid Kingdom was one of the most important and long-lasting of these, centered onSirmium, and sometimes referred to as Gepidia.[2] It covered a large part of theformer Roman province of Dacia, north of the Danube, and compared to other Middle Danubian kingdoms it remained relatively uninvolved with Rome.
The Gepids were defeated by theLombards andAvars a century later in 567, whenConstantinople gave no support to them. Some Gepids joined the Lombards in their subsequent conquest of Italy, some moved into Roman territory, and other Gepids still lived in the area of the old kingdom after it was conquered by the Avars.
Few archaeological sites remain that can be attributed to them with certainty. After their settlement of theCarpathian Basin, their population was mostly centred on theSomeș andKörös rivers, but they did not intermingle with other nations.[3]
The most common Latin spellings of the Gepid name in plural used a "p", but varied concerning the vowels: Gepidae, Gipidae, Gipedae, Gipides. Similarly, Procopius writing in Greek uses a stem γηπαιδ- which should be transliterated as Giped-.[according to whom?] Despite this, the Gepids have been equated with the people mentioned in theOld EnglishWidsith andBeowulf, asGifðas orGefþas. These names are considered etymologically equivalent Old English forms of Gepidae that could not have arisen through borrowing from attested Latin forms.[4]
AlthoughWalter Goffart has objected that "no serious arguments substantiating the identification seem to me to have been set out", linguists interpret the "p" in Latin and Greek as an insulting Gothic nickname for the Gepids.[5] In addition to the Old English words, placename evidence in Italy, and a single medieval Latingenitive plural form "Gebodorum"[6] are taken to indicate that the "p" was really a fricative sound similar to a "b". Many linguists therefore reconstruct the original Germanic form as *Gíbidoz, based on the Germanic verb "to give", as still found in English (Germangeben, Dutchgeven), apparently indicating that they named themselves gifted or rewarded or generous.[7]
The modern idea that the recorded name of the Gepids was an insult comes fromJordanes in the sixth century, who reported in his Gothic origins story theGetica, that the name of the Gepids came fromgepanta, an insult in Gothic meaning "sluggish, stolid" (pigra), because the Gepids had lagged behind their Gothic kin when they migrated more than a thousand years earlier.[8]
In contrast,Isidore of Seville in his etymologies, interpreted the second part of the Gepid name as "feet" (Latinpedes) and explained that the Gepids were known for going into battle on foot (pedestri), rather than mounted. The much later (12th century) ByzantineEtymologicum Magnum interprets the name using the Greek word for children, making the GepidsGētípaides (Γητίπαιδες) meaning "children of the Goths (equated toGetae)". All three of these texts follow a tradition of seeing the Gepids as "offshoots or close relatives of the Goths".[9]
Tabula Peutingeriana, a 4th century map shows the "Piti" people living next ofPorolissum. Whether or not this is a distortion of Gepid is disputed by historians.[10]
There is little direct evidence for the original language of the Gepids, but they were clearly Gothic in culture during the period when the Romans reported upon them. Most likely, the Gepids used the same language as the Goths, but in a different dialect. They had strained political relations with related peoples:Goths andVandals.[3] The Byzantine chronicler of the 6th century, Procopius, in his "Wars of Justinian", placed the Gepids among the "Gothic peoples" along with the Vandals, Visigoths and Goths proper, "having the same language, white bodies, blond hair andArian form of Christianity".[11]
All information of the Gepids' origins came from "malicious and convoluted Gothic legends",[12] recorded in Jordanes'Getica after 550.[13][14][15] According to Jordanes's narration the northern island of "Scandza", which is associated with Sweden by modern scholars, was the original homeland of the ancestors of the Goths and Gepids.[16] They left Scandza together in three boats under the leadership ofBerig, the legendary Gothic king.[16][17] Jordanes specified that the Gepids' ancestors traveled in the last of the three ships, for which their fellows mocked them asgepanta, or "slow and stolid."[17][18][19] The Goths and Gepids then settled along the southern shore of theBaltic Sea on an island at the mouth of theVistula river, called "Gepedoius", or the Gepids' fruitful meadows, by Jordanes.[15][20] Modern historians debate whether the part of Jordanes's work which described the migration from Scandza was written at least partially on the basis of Gothic oral history or whether it was an "ahistorical fabrication."[21] Jordanes's passage in hisGetica reads:
Should you ask how the [Goths] and Gepidae are kinsmen, I can tell you in a few words. You surely remember that in the beginning I said the Goths went forth from the bosom of the island of Scandza with Berig, their king, sailing in only three ships toward the hither shore of Ocean, namely toGothiscandza. One of these three ships proved to be slower than the others, as is usually the case, and thus is said to have given the tribe their name, for in their languagegepanta means slow. Hence it came to pass that gradually and by corruption the name Gepidae was coined for them by way of reproach. For undoubtedly they too trace their origin from the stock of the Goths, but because, as I have said,gepanta means something slow and stolid, the word Gepidae arose as a gratuitous name of reproach.[22]
According to Jordanes, the Gepids decided to leave "Gepedoius" during the reign of a king namedFastida.[23] He claims the Gepids moved to the south long after the Goths had already moved, and defeated theBurgundians and other races, provoking the Goths in the process.[23] Fastida demanded land fromOstrogotha, King of the Visigoths, because the Gepids' territory was "hemmed in by rugged mountains and dense forests".[12][24][25] Ostrogotha refused Fastida's demand and the Gepids joined battle with the Goths "at the town of Galtis, near which the river Auha flows".[26][24] They fought until darkness fell, when Fastida and his Gepids withdrew from the battlefield and returned to their land.[12][24] Whether they still lived around theVistula or had already conqueredGalicia is debated by historians.[27]
The Roman empire underHadrian (ruled 117–138), showing the location of theGepidae (Gepids) East Germanic tribe, then inhabiting the region around the mouth of the Visula (Vistula) river, Poland.
The Gepids were the "most shadowy of all the majorGermanic peoples of the migration period", according to historian Malcolm Todd.[28] NeitherTacitus norPtolemy mentioned them in their detailed lists of the "barbarians" in the first and second centuries AD. They first appear only in the late3rd century AD, and by this time they are already living in or near the area where they remained for the rest of their known history.
According to a common interpretation of the unreliableAugustan History of EmperorClaudius Gothicus (VI.2), Gepids were among the "Scythian" peoples conquered by the emperor when he earned his title "Gothicus": "peuci trutungi austorgoti uirtingi sigy pedes celtae etiam eruli". These words are traditionally edited by modern editors to include well-known peoples "Peuci,Grutungi,Austrogoti,Tervingi,Visi, Gipedes,Celtae etiam etEruli".[29][12][23][30] The same source also says that EmperorProbus, who ruled between 276 and 282, settled Gepid, Vandals, and Greuthungi prisoners of war in the Roman Empire in the Balkans.[23][31]
In the 11thpanegyric to emperorMaximian given inTrier in 291, which is also the first time theTervingi andTaifali were mentioned, the passage described a battle outside the empire where the Gepids were on the side of theVandals, attacked by Taifali and a "part" of the Goths. The other part of the Goths had defeated theBurgundians who were supported by Tervingi andAlemanni.[32][33][12] They were however "remote enough from the imperial frontier for them not to appear in theVerona list or in the histories ofAmmianus orOrosius".[13]
Modern historians who write of the Gepids' early history sometimes apply a "mixed argumentation", combining Jordanes' narration with results of archaeological research.[34] Historian István Bóna says that the battle mentioned in the panegyric was about 290 in the former province ofDacia, equating it to the battle mentioned by Jordanes, involving Fastida.[12] Archaeologist Kurdt Horedt however also equates it to the battle involving Fastida and proposed that the battle took place east of theCarpathian Mountains after 248 and before the withdrawal of the Romans from the province of Dacia in the early 270s.[23] Walter Pohl only says that the battle must have happened between 248 and 291, and could have been inside or outside the curve of the Carpathians, though he feels it is obvious that it must in the region of the formerly Roman province ofDacia inTransylvania.[35]
The Gepids' history in the4th century is unknown, because no written source mentioned them during this period.[36][13] The silence of the Roman sources suggests that their homeland did not border on the Roman Empire.[13] On the basis of Jordanes' reference to the "rugged mountains" of the Gepids' land, historians locate it near the Carpathians, along the upper courses of either theTisza or theDniester rivers, in the late3rd century.[23] The exact date of the Gepids' settlement in theCarpathian Basin cannot exactly be determined.[36][37] Archaeologist István Bóna says they were present in the northeastern region already in the 260s.[12] According to Coriolan H. Opreanu, they seem to have arrived around 300.[37] Archaeologists Eszter Istvánovits and Valéria Kulcsár write that no archaeological evidence substantiates the Gepids' presence before around 350.[36]
Graves from the4th century which yielded swords, lances and shields with iron boss were unearthed in cemeteries between the rivers Tisza andKörös (in present-day north-eastern Hungary and north-western Romania).[12][36] Many scholars (including Kurdt Horedt, István Bóna and Coriolan H. Opreanu) attribute those graves to Gepid warriors.[12][36][37] Graves of women from the same cemeteries produced artefacts—including bronze and silver clasps, bone combs, and fibulae—which are similar to objects found in the cemeteries of the nearby "Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture".[12][36] István Bóna writes that the spread of these cemeteries shows that the Gepids subjugated the GermanicVictohali, who had previously inhabited the same region, before expanding towards theMureș River in the middle of the4th century.[12]
A large group of diverse peoples from the region of the Middle Danube crossed the riverRhine and invaded the Roman Empire in 405 or 406.[38] Although most contemporaneous sources only listed the Vandals,Alans andSueves among the invaders, according toSt. Jerome, who lived inBethlehem around that time, Gepids also participated in the invasion.[39][40] According to a scholarly theory, the westward migration of theHuns forced the tribes to flee from the Carpathian Basin and seek refuge in the Roman Empire.[41] Whatever the exact sequence of events, the Middle Danube region was subsequently dominated by peoples from the east, associated with Goths and Huns.[42]
Jordanes reported thatThorismund, King of theOstrogoths, who was subjected to the Huns, "won a great victory over" the Gepids, but fell in the battle.[43] Jordanes' report suggests that the Gepids were forced to accept the overlordship of the Ostrogoths, within the emerging Hunnic Empire.[28][12][44] A treasure of gold jewels, which was found atȘimleu Silvaniei, was hidden in the first decades of the5th century, most probably in connection with the struggles ending with the Gepids' subjection to the Huns, according to István Bóna.[12]
The Gepid warriors fought on the side of the Huns during the next decades.[45] According to Jordanes,Attila the Hun prizedArdaric, King of the Gepids, andValamir, King of the Ostrogoths, "above all the other chieftains", who were subjected to the Huns, in the 440s, according to Jordanes.[46][44][47] Goffart, sceptical of Jordanes, has suggested that "scattered evidence", including descriptions of Attila himself as a Gepid, suggests that Ardaric and the Gepids may have been more important than the Ostrogoths under Attila.[48]
The Gepids' participation in the Huns' campaigns against the Roman Empire brought them much booty, contributing to the development of a rich Gepid aristocracy.[44][49] Especially, the isolated graves of fifth-century aristocratic women evidence the Gepid leaders' wealth: they wore heavy silver fibulas on their shoulders, bead necklaces, silver bracelets, large gold earrings, and silver clasps on their clothes and belts.[49] A "countless host" under the command of Ardaric formed the right wing of the army of Attila the Hun in theBattle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451.[50][45][47] On the eve of the main encounter between allied hordes, the Gepids andFranks met each other, the latter fighting for theRomans and the former for the Huns, and seem to have fought one another to a standstill with 15,000 dead.[citation needed]
Attila the Hun died unexpectedly in 453.[51] Conflicts among his sons developed into a civil war, enabling the subject peoples to rise up in rebellion.[51] According to Jordanes, the Gepid king, Ardaric, who "became enraged because so many nations were being treated like slaves of the basest condition",[52] was the first to take up arms against the Huns.[51][53] The decisivebattle was fought at the (unidentified) Nedao River inPannonia in 454 or 455.[54] In the battle, the united army of Gepids,Rugii,Sarmatians andSuebi routed the Huns and their allies, including the Ostrogoths.[45][55] It was the Gepids who took the lead among the old allies of Attila, and establishing one of the largest and most independent new kingdoms, thus acquiring the "capital of esteem that sustained their kingdom for more than a century".[48]
Gepidia at its largest territorial extentSelection of pieces from the second princely tomb ofApahida
After the Battle of Nedao, the Hunnic Empire disintegrated and the Gepids became the dominant power in the eastern regions of the Carpathian Basin.[45][47] According to Jordanes, the Gepids "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"[56] after their victory.[45][48] EmperorMarcian confirmed their status as the allies of the empire and granted them an annual subsidy of 100 pounds of gold.[45][47] The late-5th-century treasures excavated atApahida andSomeșeni show that the Gepid rulers accumulated great wealth in the second half of the century.[53]
The Gepids joined a coalition formed by the Suebi,Sciri, Sarmatians and other peoples formed against the Ostrogoths who had settled in Pannonia.[57][58] However, the Ostrogoths routed the united forces of their enemies in theBattle of Bolia in 469.[57] After the Ostrogoths left Pannonia in 473, the Gepids capturedSirmium (nowSremska Mitrovica inSerbia), a strategically important town on the road between Italy and Constantinople.[48]
In 489,Thraustila [fr;it], King of the Gepids, tried to hinder the Ostrogoths from crossing the riverVuka duringTheodoric the Great's campaign against Italy, but the Ostrogothsrouted Thraustila's army.[48][59] The Gepids also lost Sirmium to the Ostrogoths, according toWalter Pohl.[60] In short, according toWalter Goffart, Thraustila's son, Thrasaric, "regained control of Sirmium but possibly under Ostrogothic underlordship".[61] Theodoric the Great dispatched onecomes Pitzia to launch a campaign against the Gepids who either tried to capture Sirmium or wanted to get rid of Theodoric'ssuzerainty in 504.[60][61][62] Comes Pitzia expelled the Gepid troops from Sirmium without much resistance.[57][63] For some time the Gepids relinquished from the city and built good relationship with the Ostrogoths underKing Elemund. This safety attracted part of theHeruls to take refuge in Gepidia from the neighborhood of the aggressiveLangobards.Wacho married Elemund's daughter in return.[64]
In an attempt to take advantage of the death of Theodoric the Great in 526, the Gepids invaded the region of Sirmium in 528 or 530, butVitiges defeated them.[61][57]
The Gepids reached the zenith of their power after 537, settling in the rich area aroundSingidunum (today'sBelgrade). For a short time, the city ofSirmium (present-daySremska Mitrovica) was the center of the Gepid State and the kingCunimund minted golden coins in it.[65]Justinian I, angered by their expansion, made an alliance with theLombards, who, underKing Alboin, dealt a disastrous defeat on the Gepids in 552. After theBattle of Asfeld, Alboin had a drinking cup made from the skull of Cunimund.[66]
In 539, most of theByzantine army was inPersia, so the Gepids and Heruls plunderedMoesia, killingmagister militumCalluc, while theFrankish kingTheudebert I raidedNorthern Italy. According toJordanes, the clashes were the bloodiest sinceAttila, and theRomans were obliged to pay heavy taxes and recognize new Gepid occupation zones.[67]Thurisind, new king of Gepidia attempted to expel theLombards fromPannonia, and both peoples asked for help from the Byzantines.Justinian I sent his army against the Gepids, however it was routed on the way by theHerulians and the sides signed a two-year truce. Revenging what he felt as a betrayal, Thurisind made an alliance with theKutrigurs who devastatedMoesia before end of the armistice. The Langobard and Roman army joined together and defeated the Gepids in 551. In the battle,Audoin's son,Alboin killedThurisind's son,Turismod.[68]
The Gepids were finally overrun by theAvars in the 567Lombard-Gepid war. Many Gepids followed Alboin to Italy in 568 according toPaulus Diaconus, but many remained in the area of their old kingdom.
In 630,Theophylact Simocatta reported that theByzantine Army entered the territory of theAvars and attacked a Gepid feast, capturing 30,000 Gepids (they met no Avars).[70]
Recent excavation by theTisza River atSzolnok brought up a Gepid nobleman from an Avar period grave who was also wearing Turkic-Avar pieces next to the traditional Germanic clothes in which he was buried.[citation needed]
In the eighth century,Paul the Deacon lists Gepid, Bulgarian, Sarmatian, Pannonian, Suabian and Norican villages in Italy but we do not know if Paul means in his own day or is simply lifting the phrase from an older source.[71]
Gold ring with the inscriptionOmharus found atApahida
Numerous archaeological sites have been attributed to the Gepids.[15] The first scientific excavations of such an attributed Gepid site were done by István Kovács atBand in 1906 and 1907.[72] However, attributing a precise ethnicity to archaeological findings from this period is a difficult and disputable method.[73]
The analysis of the burial sites show that high-status burials with valuable goods are initially clustered in northwesternTransylvania (dated to the mid- and late fifth century), then in the sixth-century cemeteries primarily appear in the Hungarian Plain. The upper class of the Gepid society had access to Thuringian brooches, amber beads, or Scandinavian belt buckles, in particular visible in the female burials, pointing at close relations withScandinavia,Thuringia,Crimea, and theBaltic coast.[74]
InVlaha,Cluj County, Romania, anecropolis was discovered in August 2004 with over two hundred tombs dated to the sixth century AD.[75] Eighty-five percent of the discovered tombs were robbed in the same period. The remaining artifacts are ceramics, bronze articles and an armory. Also in Romania, atMiercurea Sibiului, there is another necropolis with rich artifacts.[citation needed] Other necropolises in Romania are:
Turda: the richest Germanic tomb found in Romania is here. The "Franziska" tomb was found in a Roman site and dated to the fifth century AD.[citation needed]
A study done in 2022 found that from a matrilinear point of view the main mitochondrial ancestry belongs to North-western European group, in line with historical data. In particular it shows similarities with data taken fromWielbark culture andLangobards. Only one Asian lineage was found, indicating the Gepids did not mix with Asian populations in a significant manner on the matrilinear side. The samples were collected from 3 different sites located inCarei-Babold,Șardu, andVlaha.[77]
^Jordanes,Getica,XII.74:Haec Gotia, quam Daciam appellavere maiores, quae nunc ut diximus Gepidia dicitur. Rough translation: "ThisGothia, which our ancestors calledDacia, we now callGepidia."
^Jordanes."Goths" (in Latin and English). Yeat, Theedrichtr. Harbour net. Retrieved2008-03-03.For undoubtedly they too trace their origin from the stock of the Goths, but because, as I have said,gepanta means something slow and stolid, the nameGiped arose as a spontaneous taunt. I do not believe the name itself is very far from wrong, for they are slow of thought and too sluggish for quick movement of their bodies.
^Kiss, Attila (2014).A gepidák Kárpát-medencei története [The history of the Gepids in the Carpathian Basin](PDF) (in Hungarian). Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Műhel. p. 34.
^Nagy, Margit (1984).A gepida királyság (454-567) [The Gepid kingdom (454-567)].A gepidák egy időre lemondtak Sirmiumról, és Elemund királyuk idejében valószínűleg békés kapcsolatokat építettek ki az itáliai keleti gót királysággal. (...) A langobardok királya, Wacho, aki a Dunántúl északi területeinek elfoglalásával a gepidák szomszédságába került, Ostrigotót, Elemund gepida király leányát vette feleségül. A két nép kapcsolata kezdetben békésnek mutatkozott
^Nagy, Margit (1984).A gepida királyság (454-567) [The Gepid kingdom (454-567)] (in Hungarian).539-től a császári seregek nagy részét a gót háború mellett a perzsák elleni háborúba vitték. A seregek távollétét kihasználva a gepidák és a csatlakozott herulok nyomban a Duna vidéki császári területek felé terjeszkedtek. Ugyanekkor a gepidák zövetségese, Theudebert frank király Észak-Itáliában kezdeményezett támadást. A gepida fronton - Jordanes szerint - Attila óta nem látott véres ütközetre került sor, melyben maga a bizánci hadmester, Kalluk is elesett. A császár a nehéz helyzetben a gepidák évi adójának fizetésére és a megszállt területek elismerésére kényszerült.
^Son of Giesmus. He does not appear to have actually ruled, but he is called a king byGeorge Kedrenos. SeePatrick Amory,People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 397–99.
^Leif Inge Ree Petersen,Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400-800 AD): Byzantium, the West and Islam, BRILL, 2013,p. 179.
^Opreanu, Coriolan Horațiu (2003).Transilvania la sfârșitul antichității și în perioada migrațiilor [Transylvania at the End of Antiquity and the during the Migration Period]. Nereamia Napocae. p. 179.ISBN973-7951-12-3.
^Alexandra Gînguță, Bence Kovács, Balázs Tihanyi, Kitti Maár, Oszkár Schütz, Zoltán Maróti, Gergely I. B. Varga, Attila P. Kiss, Ioan Stanciu, Tibor Török, and Endre Neparáczki:Maternal Lineages of Gepids from Transylvania
Genethliacus of Maximian Augustus by an Anonymous Orator (291) (Translation and Notes by Rodgers) (1994). In:In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini (Introduction, Translation, and Historical Commentary with the Latin Text of R. A. B. Mynors by C. E. V. Nixon and Barbara Saylor Rodgers) (1994); University of California Press;ISBN0-520-08326-1.
The Gothic History of Jordanes (in English Version with an Introduction and a Commentary by Charles Christopher Mierow, Ph.D., Instructor in Classics in Princeton University) (2006). Evolution Publishing.ISBN1-889758-77-9.
Bóna, István (1974).A középkor hajnala: A gepidák és a langobardok a Kárpát-medencében[The Dawn of the Dark Ages: the Gepids and the Lombards in the Carpathian Basin] (in Hungarian). Corvina Kiadó.ISBN963-13-0491-4.
Christensen, Arne Søby (2002).Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth. Museum Tusculanum Press.ISBN87-7289-7104.
Goffart, Walter (2009).Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN978-0-8122-3939-3.
Heather, Peter (2010).Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-973560-0.
Kharalambieva, Anna (2010). "Gepids in the Balkans: A Survey of the Archaeological Evidence". In Curta, Florin (ed.).Neglected Barbarians. Studies in the early Middle Ages, volume 32 (second ed.). Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. pp. 245–262.ISBN978-2-503-53125-0.
Opreanu, Coriolan Horațiu (2005). "The North-Danube Regions from the Roman Province of Dacia to the Emergence of the Romanian Language (2nd–8th Centuries AD)". In Pop, Ioan-Aurel; Bolovan, Ioan (eds.).History of Romania: Compendium. Romanian Cultural Institute (Center for Transylvanian Studies). pp. 59–132.ISBN978-973-7784-12-4.
Sarantis, Alexander (2009). "War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and the Northwest Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid Threat and Imperial Responses".Dumbarton Oaks Papers.63.
Southern, Patricia (2001).The Early Germans. Routledge.ISBN0-415-23944-3.
Todd, Malcolm (2003).The Early Germans. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.ISBN0-631-16397-2.
"The Kingdom of the Gepids", in: Lászlo Makkai and András Mócsy, editors, 2001.History of Transylvania, II: István Bóna, "From Dacia to Erdöelve: Transylvania in the period of the Great Migrations (271-896)"
