Mundus

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Mundus

Mundus (died 536), was an East Roman

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
general

General

A General officer is an Officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called general....
during the reign of Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
.

us was of the son of Giesmus, a king of the Gepids, and nephew to another Gepid king, Trapstila. The exact date of his birth is unknown. His father was killed in battle against the Ostrogoths of Theoderic

Theodoric the Great

File:Theodoric bronze weight inlaid with silver issued by prefect Catulinus Rome 493 526.jpg'Theodoric the Great' , known in Latin as 'Flavius Theodericus' and in Greek sources, was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , and regent of the Visigoths ....
in 488, after which Mundus accepted the latter's invitation to join him. He remained in Italy until Theodoric's death in 526, at which point he returned to his homeland.

29, he sent envoys to Justinian, offering his allegiance.

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Encyclopedia

Mundus (died 536), was an East Roman

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
general

General

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
.

Origin and early life

Mundus was of the son of Giesmus, a king of the Gepids, and nephew to another Gepid king, Trapstila. The exact date of his birth is unknown. His father was killed in battle against the Ostrogoths of Theoderic

Theodoric the Great

In Roman service

In 529, he sent envoys to Justinian, offering his allegiance. His offer was accepted, and Mundus was appointed magister militum
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
per Illyricum, head of all military forces Illyria

Illyria

'Illyria' was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by tribes of Illyrians, an ancient people who spoke the Illyrian languages....
and the Danube

Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
frontier. During the next two years, he defeated the incursions of Slavs and Bulgars

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a seminomadic people, probably of Turkic peoples descent, originally from Southern Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards dwelled in the steppes north of the Caucasus and around the banks of river Volga ....
into the Balkans, and sent large booty to Constantinople.

In 531 he was for a short time appointed as magister militum
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
per Orientem replacing Belisarius after his failure at Callinicum

Battle of Callinicum

The Battle of Callinicum took place between the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire under the command of General Belisarius and Sassanid Empire under Azarethes on 19 April AD 531 during the Iberian War....
, but it seems that he never actually travelled to the East to assume that command. In January 532 he was again re-appointed as commander of the Illyricum forces. In the same month, he happened to be in Constantinople with a force of Heruli

Heruli

The Heruli were a nomadic Germanic people, who were subjugated by the Ostrogoths, Huns, and Byzantine Empires in the 3rd to 5th centuries. The name is related to earl and was probably an honorific military title....
mercenaries, when the Nika riots

Nika riots

The Nika riots , or Nika revolt, took place over the course of a week in Constantinople in 532. It was the most violent riot that Constantinople had ever seen to that point, with nearly half the city being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people killed....
broke out. Mundus remained loyal to Justinian and, along with Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius is often described as one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Byzantine Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previously....
, was responsible for the massacre of the supporters of Hypatius in the Hippodrome

Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a Race track that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and the largest city in Europe....
.

Mundus remained in command of the Illyricum forces thereafter. In 535, as Justinian launched his attempt to reconquer Italy from the Goths, he led his forces into Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, situated mostly in modern Croatia and spreading between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor in the southeast....
, which the Goths held, while Belisarius invaded Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
by sea. Mundus defeated the Goths and took the capital, Salona

Salona

Salona was an ancient Illyrian Delmati city in the first millennium Before Christ. After conquest by the Romans, Salona became the capital of the Roman Empire province of Dalmatia....
, but early in the next year, a new Gothic army arrived to reclaim the province. In a skirmish near Salona, Mundus' son Mauricius was caught with only a few men by a larger Gothic force, and was killed. Enraged by the loss of his son, Mundus sallied out and defeated the Goths, but was mortally wounded in the pursuit.

Sources

Procopius
Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine Empire scholar of the family Procopius . A participant himself in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he was the major historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History....
, , (Project Gutenberg)
John Malalas
John Malalas

John Malalas or Ioannes Malalas was a , Byzantine Empire chronicler. He was born at Antioch....
, Chronographia
Theophanes the Confessor
Theophanes the Confessor

Saint Theophanes Confessor was a member of the Byzantine Empire aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicler. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church ....
, Chronicle
Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes

Marcellinus Comes was a Byzantine Empire chronicler....
,