Glad (duke)
Anonymus wrote that Cumans, Bulgarians, and Vlachs (or Romanians), supported Glad against the invading Magyars, but the latter annihilated their united army in a battle near the Timiș River.
The Gesta presents Ahtum, who ruled Banat in the early 11th century, according to the longer version of the Life of St Gerard, as Glad's descendant.
The earliest record of the Magyars (or Hungarians) is connected to their alliance with the Bulgars against a group of Byzantine prisoners who were planning to cross the Lower Danube in an attempt to return to their homeland around 837 AD.
[7][8] In the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars "roamed in the wildernesses of the Pannonians and Avars" before attacking "the lands of the Carinthians, Moravians and Bulgars",[9] according to the contemporaneous Regino of Prüm.
[13] Anonymus did not write of Svatopluk I of Moravia, Braslav, Duke of Lower Pannonia and the invading Magyars' other opponents who had been mentioned in works written in earlier centuries.
[15][16] On the other hand, Anonymus wrote of local polities and rulers—including Gelou, the Vlach duke of Transylvania, Menumorut, the lord of the regions between the rivers Mureș, Someș and Tisza, and Salanus, the Bulgar ruler of the lands between the Danube and the Tisza—unknown from other primary sources.
[16][17] Stirrups, horse bits and spear points from inhumation graves unearthed at Sânpetru German suggest that the Avars settled along the Mureș River in Banat soon after their conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late 560s.
[21][22] A rich burial yielding weapons unearthed at Pančevo and the Treasure of Sânnicolau Mare show that an important center of power existed in Banat in the "Late Avar" period, according to archaeologist Florin Curta.
[31][32] According to a memorial inscription from Provadia, a Bulgar military commander, Onegavonais, drowned in the Tisza, implying Omurtag of Bulgaria's attempts to expand his rule in the region in the 820s.
[40] Other historians, including Sălăgean and Pop, say that the earth-and-wooden or stone fortresses unearthed at Bulci, Cenad, Ilidia, Orșova, Pescari, and Vladimirescu were Glad's forts.
[42] According to the Gesta Hungarorum, Rus' princes gave a short description of the Carpathian Basin to the Magyar commanders before they decided to invade the territory.
[47][48] Among these local rulers, the Rus' prince listed Glad who had "taken possession of the land from the river Mureș up to the castle" of Ursua[49] (Orşova or Vršac)[50][51] with the help of the Cumans.
[65][66] In connection with Glad, Anonymus also emphasized that "from his line was born"[61] a chieftain, named Ahtum, whom Stephen I of Hungary defeated in the first half of the 11th century, according to the Long Life of Saint Gerard.
[67] According to the Gesta Hungarorum, the Magyars conquered the lands between the Danube and the Tisza, Transylvania, the western regions of present-day Slovakia and Transdanubia before their supreme head, Árpád, and his chieftains decided to send an army to invade Glad's duchy.
[50] Ioan-Aurel Pop writes that Glad must have survived his defeat and recovered at least parts of his duchy in exchange for paying a tribute to the Magyars, because his descendant, Ahtum, ruled the territory some decades later, according to Anonymus.
[74] According to other historians, including Dennis Deletant, György Györffy and Carlile Aylmer Macartney, Anonymus's reference to the three peoples is an anachronism, which reflects the ethnic composition of the late 13th-century Bulgaria.
[79] Oţa also says, "the historical geography of the Banat is reflected quite accurately in the chronicle", which suggests that Anonymus knew the geographical features of the region, but does not prove that Glad was a real person.
[81] Deletant, Macartney and other scholars also say that Anonymus seems to have borrowed many episodes of his narrative of Glad (including his connection with Vidin) from the story of his alleged descendant, Ahtum, in the Long Life of Saint Gerard.
