battle of Bolia

Following the death of Attila, various Germanic and other tribes sought their independence from his empire.{{Cite book|last=Maenchen-Helfen |first=Otto |year=1973 |title=The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture |url=https://archive.org/details/worldhunsstudies00maen |url-access=limited |translator=Knight, Max |location=Berkeley, California |publisher=University of California Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldhunsstudies00maen/page/n168 143]–144 |isbn=978-0-520-01596-8}} They allied under the command of Ardaric, the Gepid king, and defeated the Huns and supporting forces at the Battle of Nedao in 454 CE.{{Cite book|last=Hodgkin |first=Thomas |year=1891 |title=Theodoric the Goth: The Barbarian Champion of Civilization |location=New York |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |page=[https://archive.org/details/theodoricgothba00hodggoog/page/n59 29] |oclc=218093 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20063}} While the role of the Ostrogoths in that battle is unclear,{{harvnb|Wolfram|1990|page=259}} it resulted in their independence as well.{{Cite book|last=Kim |first=Hyun Jin |year=2013 |title=The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe |location= Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jCpncXFzoFgC&pg=PA113 113] |isbn=978-1-107-00906-6 }} After the Battle of Nedao, the newly freed tribes jockeyed for supremacy in Pannonia for the next fifteen years, most eventually becoming federates of the Eastern Roman Empire.{{harvnb|Wolfram|1990|page=260}}

The Amal Goths were led by Theodemir, brother-in-law to the Ostrogoths' chief Valamir, who had been killed prior to the battle. The coalition included the Suevi under Hunimund, the Sciri under Hunulphus and Edicon (Edeko, Edica, Edika), the Sarmatians, the Gepids, the Rugians, and likely included the Heruli. The Roman Emperor Leo I supported the anti-Goth coalition, despite the advice of his general Aspar. Despite Valamir's death, the Ostrogoths won,While Jordanes, and most other authors, state that the Ostrogoths won, Kim states that they lost, apparently based upon the fact that they subsequently moved south further into the Roman Empire. {{Cite book|last=Kim |first=Hyun Jin |year=2015 |title=Huns |location=Milton Park, Oxfordshire |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mcf4CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT119 119] |isbn=978-1-317-34090-4}} and the battle marked the end of the Sciri as a separate people.

While some authorsFor example {{Cite book|last=Thompson |first=E. A. |year=2002 |title=Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire |location=Madison, Wisconsin |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=BiXgsE7vsjcC&pg=PA19 19] |isbn=978-0-299-08704-3}}, originally published in 1982. have simply stated that the Bolia River remains unidentified; nonetheless, in 1934 the historian Ludwig Schmidt attempted to identify the Bolia with the Ipeľ,This identification was made in 1934 in the second edition of his book on the eastern Germanic tribes. {{Cite book|last=Schmidt |first= Ludwig |year=1934 |title=Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis zum Ausgang der Völkelrwanderung: Die Ostgermanen |edition=second |language=de |location=Munich |publisher=C.H. Beck |page=275 |oclc=895461758}}, and followed by Wolfram, as stated in his review by {{Cite journal|last=Émilienne |first=Demougeot |year=1983 |title=Herwig Wolfram, Geschichte der Goten, 1979 |language=fr |journal=Revue des Études Anciennes |volume=85 |issue=3 |pages=314–319 |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1983_num_85_3_5542_t1_0314_0000_3 }} using the 1941 printing of Schmidt. and this identification continued to be followed by Wolfram, and several other modern authors, without further analysis. See authors cited at {{Cite journal|last1=Gračanin |first1=Hrvoje |last2=Škrgulja |first2=Jana |year=2014 |title=The Ostrogoths in Late Antique Southern Pannonia |journal=Acta Archaeologica Carpathica |volume=49 |pages=165–205, page 176, note 64}} However, as Émilienne pointed out such an identification would not place the battle in Pannonia.{{harvnb|Émilienne|1983|page=318}} In order to fix that, Wolfram then suggested that the battle was across the Danube from the mouth of the Ipeľ at {{Coord|47|47|N|18|53|E|display=inline}}, which would have placed it near what is now the village of Pilismarót, in present-day Hungary; however, that area is not a plain. As the battle is described as occurring in Pannonia on a plain,Jordanes Getica LIII ([http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=193.0 paragraph 278]) some authors place it some sixty-five kilometers further west on the eastern side of the Little Hungarian Plain, which would make the Bolia River the Concó River, and place the battle near present day Csém at {{Coord|47|41|N|18|03|E|display=inline}}.

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Category:469

Bolia

Bolia

Bolia