Thurisind Thurisind ( Latin : " Turisindus " , died c . 560 ) was king of the Gepids , an East Germanic Gothic people , from c . 548 to 560 . He was the penultimate Gepid king , and succeeded King Elemund by staging a coup d ' état and forcing the king ' s son into exile . Thurisind ' s kingdom , known as Gepidia , was located in Central Europe and had its centre in Sirmium , a former Roman city on the Sava River ( now the town of Sremska Mitrovica , Serbia ) . His reign was marked by multiple wars with the Lombards , a Germanic people who had arrived in the former Roman province of Pannonia under the leadership of their king , Audoin . Thurisind also had to face the hostility of the Byzantine Empire , which was resentful of the Gepid takeover of Sirmium and anxious to diminish Gepid power in the Pannonian Basin , a plain covering most of modern Hungary and partly including the bordering states . The Byzantines ' plans to reduce the Gepids ' power took effect when Audoin decisively defeated Thurisind in 551 or 552 . The Byzantine Emperor Justinian forced a peace accord on both leaders so that equilibrium in the Pannonian Basin could be sustained . Thurisind lost his eldest son , Turismod , in the Battle of Asfeld , during which the prince was killed by Alboin , son of Audoin . In about 560 , Thurisind died and was succeeded by his remaining son Cunimund , who was killed by Alboin in 567 . Cunimund ' s death marked the end of the Gepid Kingdom and the beginning of the conquest of their territories by the Lombards ' allies , the Avars , a nomadic people migrating from the Eurasian Steppe . Early sources . Of the four early medieval sources relevant to Thurisind that survive , the only one providing independent evidence of the king , accounts of Justinian ' s wars , and a detailed account of the relations between Gepids and Lombards and their kings is " De Bellis " ( 550s ) , the most important work of Procopius . Considered the greatest historian of the 6th century , Procopius was a Greek writer born in Caesarea in Palestine in 527 . The Lombard – Gepid wars are well described in Procopius ' work , as the conflict played an important part in the Byzantine plans to invade Italy by a land route . Less relevant is the other 6th - century source , Jordanes ' " Romana " . Of Gothic ancestry , Jordanes served as a notarius for a Byzantine Master of the Soldiers before entering into the ranks of the Catholic clergy and writing his two surviving books , the " Romana " and the " Getica " . The latter is a summary of Gothic history , while the lesser known " Romana " is an abridged account of Roman history written in 551 or 552 . According to James O ' Donnell , the two works share a pessimistic view of human life in which all secular accomplishments are insignificant compared to religious goals . Jordanes does not explicitly mention Thurisind in the " Romana " , but speaks of the third Lombard – Gepid War , in which Thurisind participated , in the last passages of the work . Paul the Deacon was the most important Italian writer of the 8th century . Born in the 720s or 730s , he came from a noble Lombard family from Friuli . He entered the clergy early , and eventually became a monk of the monastery of Monte Cassino . His most famous work is the " Historia Langobardorum " , a history of the Lombard nation . Written after 787 , it is a continuation of his previous major historical work , the " Historia Romana " , which was based on the " Breviarium " of Eutropius , with six books added describing historical events up to Justinian ' s empire . Both of these works mention Thurisind and the third Lombard – Gepid War , which represent the only overlap between the " Historia Langobardorum " and the " Historia Romana " . Both books also mention the duel between the kings ' sons , an event which is absent in Procopius ' writing and is thought to have originated through oral tradition . Similarly , the meeting between Thurisind and Audoin ' s son at the former ' s court derives from an oral source . Rise to power . The Gepids were a major Germanic people in what is now eastern Hungary , western Romania , and northern Serbia . Although the details of his early life are not known , Thurisind is believed to have risen to power in about 548 . After the death of Elemund , the previous king , he seized the throne in a coup d ' état and forced Elemund ' s son Ostrogotha into exile . Ostrogotha and his followers found refuge among the Gepids ' neighbours and enemies , the Lombards , another Germanic people who had just settled in the western part of the Pannonian Basin . The Gepids had inhabited parts of the basin since the 3rd century . They reached prominence in the 5th century when , under King Ardaric , they played a key role in destroying the Hunnic Empire . Ardaric and his people benefited more than anybody else from this victory , gaining the former Roman province of Dacia . In 504 the Gepids ' power was significantly reduced by the Ostrogoths , who cut short their expansion into the Danubian plains . The Gepids restricted themselves to the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin ; this was to form the core of Thurisind ' s dominions , just as it had under the previous Gepid kings . By the early 6th century , the Gepid nobility converted to Arian Christianity , while most of the Gepids remained pagans . According to the scholar István Boná , Thurisind ' s rise to power is a typical example of the conflicts among the leading families for the kingship that plagued Gepidia in the 6th century and made it difficult to maintain the succession within the king ' s family . To contain these obstacles Thurisind made Turismod , his oldest son , commander of the Gepid forces in Sirmium , an important position that made Turismod the king ' s heir apparent ( in early Germanic custom the eldest son was not necessarily the first in line of succession ) . After Turismod died , his younger brother Cunimund became commander in Sirmium and thus heir apparent . First war with the Lombards . On becoming king in 548 , Thurisind immediately found himself in a difficult situation . Sometime during 546 – 548 , the Byzantine Empire had conspired to convince the Lombards under Audoin to move into Pannonia ( modern Hungary ) , a former Roman province bordering the Danube river . Justinian hoped this would keep open the land route from the Balkans to Italy while containing the Gepids , who he considered a serious menace to Byzantine interests on the Balkan frontier . The Gothic War between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines had been raging on the Italian peninsula since 535 ; Justinian wanted to be able to rush troops to Italy if they were needed . According to the contemporary Procopius in the " De Bello Gothico " ( the section of the " De Bellis " regarding the Gothic War ) , Justinian resented the takeover by the Gepids of the formerly Roman city of Sirmium in 537 , which may have been voluntarily surrendered by the Ostrogoths to create difficulties for the Byzantines . The Ostrogoths were also occupied with the war in Italy and sought to retain their possessions in the peninsula . Sirmium ' s takeover was followed in 539 by a bloody confrontation between the Gepids and the Byzantines that had cost the latter the life of Calluc , their Master of the Soldiers , and also the loss to the Gepids of Dacia ripensis ( Serbia ) and Singidunum ( Belgrade ) . Because of this , Justinian ended the alliance that had bonded the Gepids and Byzantines , and had ceased paying tributes to the Gepids , finding an enemy to set them against in the Lombards . The build - up towards a war involving Lombards , Gepids , and Byzantines started possibly in 548 or 549 , with Audoin and Thurisind each sending an embassy to Justinian ' s court at Constantinople , in attempts to obtain military support from Justinian or at least , in the case of Thurisind , to get a pledge of neutrality . To sway Justinian , Thurisind ' s envoys reminded him of their long tradition of alliance and promised to fight against Byzantium ' s enemies . However , the emperor sided with the Lombards ; he made them formal allies and promised to provide troops against the Gepids . From Justinian ' s perspective , this war was of major importance in the larger context of the Gothic War , because possession of Pannonia was strategically necessary to keep open land communications between Italy and the Balkans . Historians debate as to when the conflict started . Proposed dates for the first war are either 547 or 549 . At the same time as the two peoples took the field , a 10 , 000 - strong Byzantine horse army under the command of John , the magister militum of Illyricum , marched against the Gepids . Before John ' s arrival , Thurisind offered a truce to Audoin that was accepted . As a result , when the Byzantines arrived , the war had already ended , but not before they had clashed with the Gepids ' Heruli an allies . To seal the truce , Audoin demanded that Thurisind should give up Ildigis , a pretender to the Lombard crown who lived as a guest at his court . Thurisind refused , but he did force Ildigis to leave the Gepids and search for another refuge . Second Lombard – Gepid War and tensions with Justinian . In either 549 or 550 , the Gepids and Lombards again marched against each other but , according to Procopius , both armies panicked and no battle took place . As a result , a new war was avoided and Thurisind accepted Audoin ' s request for a two - year truce . According to István Boná , the panic may be linked to a natural phenomenon : a lunar eclipse took place on June 25 / 26 , 549 . Confronted by an openly hostile Byzantine Empire , and faced with the eventuality that the war with the Lombards would be renewed at the truce ' s expiration , Thurisind searched for new allies as a way to pressure Justinian . He found assistance from the Kutrigurs , who he ferried across the Danube into the Byzantine Illyricum in 550 or 551 , before the truce expired and probably before the Gepids were ready to precipitate a new conflict . In retrospect , it may be they arrived too late instead of too early , if the agreement had been made with the Second Lombard – Gepid War in mind . Faced with the Kutrigur invasion , Justinian activated his alliance against the invaders , mobilizing the neighbouring Utigurs , who in turn asked for help from the allied Crimean Tetraxites . The latter invaded the Kutrigur homeland , taking advantage of the fact that many warriors were employed at that moment in the Balkans . Informed of the attack , the Kutrigurs were forced to leave the Balkans to defend their homeland on the north - western shore of the Black Sea . Thurisind protected and promoted another enemy of Byzantium , the Sclaveni . As with the Kutrigurs , Thurisind used his control of the Danube to ferry Slavic raiders to and from Byzantine territory , and obtained payment from them in the process . Third Lombard – Gepid War . Justinian ' s plans to send expeditionary forces against the Ostrogoths in Italy were repeatedly hampered by Thurisind ' s initiatives . For example , Narses ' army left Constantinople in April 551 for Salona , with hopes of finally defeating the Goths , but found itself blocked at Philippopolis ( Plovdiv ) by the Kutrigurs . This brought Justinian to search for an accord with Thurisind to stop the trans - Danubian raids , and the latter was more than happy to accept . Thurisind ' s envoys asked for an alliance like the one bonding Byzantines and Lombards . In addition to strengthening the alliance , they demanded , and got , 12 senators to swear to uphold the treaty . After this , in 551 , 400 Gepids were sent to fight in Narses ' army , which was sent to Italy — a modest army compared to the 5 , 500 Lombards sent by Audoin and the thousands of Heruli . When the truce expired in 552 , Thurisind and Audoin again took to the field , and this time the clash was unavoidable . Audoin had reached an agreement with Justinian by which the Byzantines promised to send him military support in exchange for the 5 , 500 Lombards sent to help the Byzantine general Narses in the Emperor ' s war in Italy . The two - year truce was now close to expiry and the Lombards asked the Byzantines to respect the alliance which had been established between them . The Emperor found an excuse to break the new alliance with the Gepids by claiming they had again ferried Slav raiders . He put together an army with renowned commanders in its ranks such as Germanus ' sons Justin and Justinian , Aratius , the Herulian Suartua , and Amalafrid , brother - in - law of Audoin . A revolt that erupted in Ulpiana diverted the bulk of the army ; only a force under Amalafrid reached the battlefield . Scholars debate when the third Lombard – Gepid War started ; it is agreed that it took place two years after the second war . The possible dates are either 551 or 552 . The 551 date is upheld by those who argue that since in 552 Audoin had already dispatched 5 , 500 of his warriors to Narses ' Italian campaign , the third Lombard – Gepid War must have already ended by then ; against this scholars such as Walter Pohl protest that this is in contradiction with Audoin ' s reproaches to Justinian on the few troops sent against the Gepids , despite his massive support to Narses . When the treaty expired , Audoin attacked the Gepids and Thurisind was crushed in the decisive battle of the Asfeld held west of Sirmium . The battle was mentioned by Jordanes in the " Romana " as one of the most bloody ever fought in the region , with no fewer than 60 , 000 warriors killed . The king ' s son Turismod also died , killed by Audoin ' s son Alboin in a duel that according to Paul the Deacon decided both the battle and the war . After the battle , the Gepids were never again able to play a formative role in the shaping of events . Peace . The Gepids ' defeat caused a geopolitical shift in the Pannonian Basin , as it ended the danger represented by the Gepids to the Empire . The Gepids ' utter defeat could have meant the end of their kingdom and its conquest by the Lombards , but Justinian , wanting to maintain an equilibrium in the region , imposed an " eternal peace " that saved the Gepids ; it was observed for ten years , surviving both Thurisind and Audoin . It may be on this occasion , and not before the war , that Lombards and Gepids sent troops to Narses as part of the peace treaty imposed by the Byzantines . In this interpretation , the small number of Gepid warriors sent could be explained with the heavy losses taken in the war and the resentment felt towards Justinian . The Emperor also imposed some territorial concessions on Thurisind , obligating him to return Dacia ripensis and the territory of Singidunum . To reach a complete peace Thurisind had first to deal with Ildigis who had found hospitality at Thurisind ' s court . Audoin demanded yet again to have him turned in , and Justinian joined in the request . Thurisind , despite his reluctance to resume the war with both Audoin and Justinian , did not want to openly breach the rules of hospitality and thus tried to evade the request by demanding in his turn to have Ostrogotha given to him ; in the end , to avoid both openly giving in and at the same time renewing the war , both kings murdered their respective guests but kept secret their involvement in the act . Thurisind features prominently in a tale told by Paul the Deacon set in 552 , just after the death of the king ' s son Turismod and the end of the war . The story , generally thought to track its origins to an heroic poem dedicated to Alboin , revolves around the characters of Alboin and Thurisind : in accordance with a custom of the Lombards , to obtain the right to sit at his father ' s table , Alboin must ask for hospitality from a foreign king and have the latter arm him . To submit himself to this initiation , Alboin went with 40 companions to Thurisind ' s court . Thurisind , in observance of the laws of hospitality , received Alboin and his companions and organized a banquet in their honour , offering Alboin the place where his dead son habitually sat . Following a mockery by Turismod ' s brother Cunimund and Alboin ' s rejoinder , a clash was avoided by Thurisind ' s intervention , who restored the peace and sent Alboin away with Turismod ' s arms . According to István Boná , who believes in the veracity of the story , the event may have taken place as described by Paul , but it also could reflect a secret peace condition imposed by Audoin on Thurisind under which the Gepid king had to arm his son ' s killer . Thurisind died around 560 and was succeeded by his son Cunimund , last king of the Gepids ; under him Thurisind ' s people were annihilated in 567 by a joint coalition of the Lombards and the Avars , a Turkic nomad people that in 558 had migrated to Central Europe . Cunimund was killed on the battlefield by the new Lombard King Alboin , and his daughter Rosamund was taken captive .