Cannabaudes

Cannabaudes or Cannabas († 271 ) was a military leader of the Gothic tribe of Tervingen who fell in battle against the troops of the Roman Emperor Aurelian.

Life

In the 3rd century AD, several Germanic tribes were always a the Roman Empire and plundered the border regions ( Reich crisis of the 3rd century ). The Balkans and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea itself were primarily hit by the Goths. Especially during Emperor Aurelian, the magister equitum of the deceased of the plague Emperor Claudius Gothicus, whose brother Quintillus and after the incident in Italy Vandals and Juthungen fought, the inhabitants of the provinces on the lower Danube had a hard time with ideas of Gothic Tervingen under their captain Cannabaudes (or Cannabas ) to fight.

On his train eastward against Zenobia independent special kingdom of Palmyra, which had formed on Roman territory, Aurelian drove the Goths. However, unlike earlier Roman generals he left it not there, but crossed the Danube to track Cannabaudes and his men. In a great battle were 5,000 Goths, including Cannabaudes.

For this victory, Aurelian received the surname Gothicus Maximus. In triumph, which he celebrated after his victory over the Palmyrans, Aurelian led prisoners, dressed as Amazons Gotinnen that should have been fighting at the Gothic defeat like men, and a carriage drawn by four stags, who had heard Cannabaudes, with him.

Despite his victory over Cannabaudes Aurelian left soon after that on the left bank located province of Dacia rooms. The threat of the Goths, however, was subsequently banned for a long time. Deterred by the heavy defeat and engaged in the vacated land to settle in Dacia, a century would pass before they would push back in greater numbers into the Roman Empire.

How great was the power of the Cannabaudes is controversial. While most researchers consider it to be the only king of Tervingen, my other, he had been merely one of the most powerful chiefs of many.

The only ancient source mentions the Cannabaudes, is mainly for Cannabaudes ' time is not always reliable Historia Augusta. Other authors who report on Aurelian Gotensieg, mention the name of Gotenanführers not, but he is generally regarded as a historical person. Some researchers to equate because of the similarity of the two names Cannabaudes with Kniva, the Gotenführer, two decades earlier lost to the Emperor Decius in Abrittus battle and his life, others suspect him in his son.

In the name of the form Cannabas Herwig Wolfram presumed a corruption of the name Cannabaudes so that it sounds like cannabis ( hemp).