Gunthamund

Siliqua of Gunthamund, Carthage 484 AD

Gunthamund (* around 450; † 496 ), the king of the Vandals and Alans (484-496), was the third rex of the North African Vandal Empire . He was the successor of his apparently very unpopular uncle Hunerich and was very popular for this reason alone.

origin

Gunthamund was the second son of Gento , the fourth and youngest son of Geiserich , the founder of the Vandal Empire in Africa. Because numerous family members of Geiserich died at a young age, Gunthamund considered himself the oldest male family member after Hunerich died in 484. In accordance with his grandfather's laws about succession to the throne (see seniorate ), he was proclaimed king.

Regency

Gunthamund benefited for his government from the fact that powerful enemies of the Vandals, namely the Visigoths , Ostrogoths and Eastern Romans , were involved in heavy wars or internal turmoil. Although the power of the Vandals had declined since Geiseric's death, Gunthamund enjoyed generally peaceful times. Gunthamund also distanced itself from the persecution of the Catholic Church , which had started with Hunerich, and stabilized the economy of the empire, which had also suffered a crisis under Hunerich.

To this end, the king had a comprehensive coin reform carried out. In the decades before, the Vandal Kings had orientated themselves towards the traditional Roman currency system and only counterstamped or re-minted a few imperial coins to document their claim to rule, Gunthamund left the gold currency, the solidus , unchanged, but introduced a new silver currency. This had the face values ​​100, 50 and 25 denarii , whereby the 100 denarius coin was also called siliqua . The silver currency was then supplemented by a further series of coins made of base metal - for everyday business - with a face value of 42, 21, 12 or four nummi . Twelve 42 nummi coins corresponded to a denarius and 12,000 nummi to a solidus . This coin reform, which massively increased the volume of small coins in particular, proved so successful that the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius carried out a major coin reform in the Roman Empire in 498 , which, with some deviations in detail, was based on Gunthamund's system.

Gunthamund died in his mid-forties. His brother Thrasamund followed him and was confronted with threatening developments for his empire during his reign.

literature

• Roland Steinacher: The vandals. The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-94851-6 , pp. 275ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hunerich	King of the Vandals 484–496	Thrasamund