Cannabaudes or Cannabas (died 271) was a third-century leader of the Goths tribe of the Thervingi, who died in a battle against the Roman emperor Aurelian.
Life
In the third century many
Germanic peoples invaded the
Roman Empire and plundered the border regions. Among these, the Goths were the largest group crossing the Roman borders and devastating the
Balkans. They also raided the coasts of the
Black Sea and the
Aegean Sea. Emperor Aurelian, the former magister equitum of emperor Claudius Gothicus, who had died of the plague, was occupied fighting the dead emperor’s brother
Quintillus for the Roman throne and later fighting against the
Vandals and
Juthungi in
Italy. The Tervings under their leader Cannabaudes took advantage of this situation and devastated the provinces of the lower
Danube and sacked some cities.
On his march to the East to reintegrate the Palmyrene Empire to the Roman Empire, Aurelian drove the Tervings out of the Roman empire and, unlike others before him, followed them over the Danube. In the ensuing battle, Cannabaudes died along with 5,000 of his men.
For this victory Aurelian received the surname Gothicus Maximus.[CIL XII 5549; ILS 8925.] At his Roman triumph after his victory over the Palmyrene Empire, he paraded Gothic women, dressed as Amazons, and a chariot, pulled by four stags, that was said to have belonged to Cannabaudes.
Despite his victory over Cannabaudes, Aurelian abandoned the province of Dacia, which was populated by barbaric tribes such as the Goths.
Through his military achievements, Aurelian averted a further Gothic intrusions into Roman lands for a century.
While some historians call Cannabaudes a king of the Goths,[Goltz 2008, 461; Watson 1998, 54f.; Wolfram ³1990, 106; ²2005, 34.] others consider that he was only one of the more powerful leaders of the Goths.[Burns 1984, S. 31; Heather 1996, S. 44.]
The only ancient source mentioning his name is the Historia Augusta,[ HA Aurelian 22,2.] which is not a generally reliable source. Nevertheless, Cannabaudes is seen as a historic person by most historians. Some historians want to identify Cannabaudes with Cniva,[Groag 1903, 1378; Wolfram ³1990, 46; 2001, 36.] the Gothic leader who defeated and killed emperor Decius at the Battle of Abrittus twenty years earlier, others historians consider that he was Cniva's son.[Barnes 1978, 70.]
Notes
Ancient sources
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Historia Augusta, vita Aureliani.
Modern literature
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Wolf von Barloewen: Geschichte der Germanen bis 376 n.Chr., in: Wolf von Barloewen ed.: Abriss der Geschichte antiker Randkulturen, Oldenbourg, Munich 1961.
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Timothy Barnes: The Sources of the Historia Augusta, Ed. Latomus, Brüssel 1978.
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Thomas Burns: A History of the Ostrogoths, Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington 1984.
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Thomas Gerhardt, Udo Hartmann: Fasti, Die germanischen Herrscher, in: Klaus-Peter Johne ed.: Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser, Berlin 2008, p. 1192-1198.
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Andreas Goltz: Die Völker an der mittleren und nordöstlichen Reichsgrenze, in: Klaus-Peter Johne ed.: Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser, Berlin 2008, p. 449-464.
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Edmund Groag: Domitius 36 Aurelian, Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft V 1, Stuttgart 1903, p. 1347-1419.
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Udo Hartmann: Claudius Gothicus und Aurelian, in: Klaus-Peter Johne ed.: Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser, Berlin 2008, p. 297-324.
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Peter Heather: The Goths, Blackwell, Oxford, Cambridge/Massachusetts 1996.
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Michael Kulikowski: Rome’s Gothic Wars, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge u.a. 2007.
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Bruno Rappaport: Die Einfälle der Goten in das Römische Reich bis auf Constantin, Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1899.
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Alaric Watson: Aurelian and the third Century, London, New York 1998.
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Herwig Wolfram: Die Goten, Beck, Munich ³1990.
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Herwig Wolfram: Kniva, Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 17, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 2001, p. 34-37.
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Herwig Wolfram: Die Goten und ihre Geschichte, Beck, Munich ²2005.
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Herwig Wolfram: Gotische Studien, Beck, Munich 2005.
See also
