Valamir

Valamir (Gothic maybe Walamer ; * around 420; † 468/69) was king of the Eastern Gothic Empire in Pannonia from 447 AD until his death.

Valamir was the son of Vandalarius and came from the Amal family . His predecessor Thorismund was his uncle, whom he inherited after his death. In addition, he was the uncle of the future King Theodoric . As a vassal of the Huns , Valamir supported their king Attila to attack the western Roman provinces on the Danube in 447. Four years later he commanded the Ostrogoth contingent in the Hunnish army, which at that time was fighting the battle on the Catalaunian fields . However, they did not succeed in defeating the Romans under Aetius in this battle. After Attila's death in 453, Valamir switched sides and fought successfully against the Huns between 456 and 457 to achieve the independence of his empire.

But Valamir soon came into conflict with the Romans. His tribe was allowed to settle on the soil of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was contractually agreed, so that the Goths were now Eastern Roman federates . However, the Ostrogoth king was not satisfied with the compliance with the Roman taxes, which prompted him to lead his army against Constantinople in 459 , initially without success. The then emperor Leo I finally agreed to the demand to provide the Ostrogoths with an annual fee of 300 gold pounds, which ended the conflict and the Goths became federated again. During a fight with the Skiren (in recent research mostly related to the year 468 or 469) Valamir fell from his horse and was then killed, whereas the battle for the Goths ended victorious ( Jordanes , Getica 275f.).

literature

• John R. Martindale, John Morris : The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Volume 2. Cambridge 1980, pp. 1135f. (with information on the time of death that differs from recent research).
• Herwig Wolfram : The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the sixth century. Draft of a historical ethnography. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-33733-3 .
• Thorsten Fischer :  Valamir. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018387-0 , pp. 40-41.

predecessor	Office	successor
Thorismund	King of the Ostrogoths 447 (uncertain, at least before 451) –468/69	Thiudimir