Battle of Bolia

Background

Following the death of Attila, various Germanic and other tribes sought their independence from his empire. 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. While the role of the Ostrogoths in that battle is unclear, it resulted in their independence as well. 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.

Battle

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, and the battle marked the end of the Sciri as a separate people.

Location

While some authors have simply stated that the Bolia River remains unidentified; nonetheless, in 1934 the historian Ludwig Schmidt attempted to identify the Bolia with the Ipeľ, and this identification continued to be followed by Wolfram, and several other modern authors, without further analysis. However, as Émilienne pointed out such an identification would not place the battle in Pannonia. In order to fix that, Wolfram then suggested that the battle was across the Danube from the mouth of the Ipeľ at , 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, 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 .

References

References

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2. Wolfram, Herwig. (1990). "History of the Goths". University of California Press.
3. (2014). "The Ostrogoths in Late Antique Southern Pannonia". Acta Archaeologica Carpathica.
4. Christie, Neil. (2007). "The Transition to Late Antiquity, On the Danube and Beyond". Oxford University Press.
5. Maenchen-Helfen, Otto. (1973). "The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture". University of California Press.
6. Hodgkin, Thomas. (1891). "Theodoric the Goth: The Barbarian Champion of Civilization". G. P. Putnam's Sons.
7. {{harvnb. Wolfram. 1990
8. Kim, Hyun Jin. (2013). "The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe". Cambridge University Press.
9. {{harvnb. Wolfram. 1990
10. Kim, Hyun Jin. (2015). "Huns". Routledge.
11. Thompson, E. A.. (2002). "Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire". University of Wisconsin Press.
12. Schmidt, Ludwig. (1934). "Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis zum Ausgang der Völkelrwanderung: Die Ostgermanen". C.H. Beck.
13. (2014). "The Ostrogoths in Late Antique Southern Pannonia". Acta Archaeologica Carpathica.
14. {{harvnb. Émilienne. 1983
15. [[Jordanes]] ''[[Getica]]'' LIII ([http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=193.0 paragraph 278])