Kindins is a Gothic word (attested only in the Gothic Bible, translating Greek ἡγεμών) that is identified by some scholars as the vernacular title for what may have been a political or judicial position among the 4th century Goths, identified in Greek and Latin sources as a "judge" (iudex, δικαστής).
[2] Herwig Wolfram suggested that the term also equated with the Burgundian hendinos and carried the meaning "representative of the kindred".
[1] Heather also noted that the title of this type of judge passed from father to son through Ariaric, Aoric and Athanaric.
[3] Wolfram described the office of kindins as "the judge who, elected for the duration of a specific threat and limited in his authority to the territory of the tribal confederation, exercised special monarchical power."
[5] Wolfram considered Ariaric likely to have been the first reliably and independently recorded Thervingian kindins.