Mundus

Mundus or Mundo (, ; died 536) was a Barbarian commander of Gepid, Hun, and/or Gothic origins. He appears to have been the son of the Gepid king Giesmus. In the early 500s he commanded a group of bandits in Pannonia, eventually allying himself to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. After Theodoric's death in 526, Mundus entered Byzantine service under emperor Justinian I, fighting in the Balkans, defending Justinian during the Nika riots, and fighting in the first stage of the Gothic War, during which he died in 536. Etymology Mundus's name is attested as in Jordanes and Marcellinus Comes and as (Mundus) in Greek sources. The differences between the Greek and Latin names are unusual and Gerhard Doerfer suspects that the Greek name has been partially Hellenized. Omeljan Pritsak argues that Mundus's name had the same Turkic etymology as proposed by Gyula Németh and László Rásonyi for Attila's father Mundzuk, from Turkic *munʒu (jewel, pearl; flag). Pritsak also argues that Mundus's father, Giesmus, had a name derived ultimately from the Turkic–Mongolian root kes/käs (protector, bestower of favor, blessing, good-fortune). Otto Maenchen-Helfen, however, takes Giesmus for a Germanic name and in this connection notes Moritz Schönfeld's Germanic etymology of Mundus, comparing it to the Germanic names Mundila and Munderic, both derived from PGmc *munda ("protection). Stefan Krautschik likewise argues that the Germanic name of Mundus's grandson Theudimund speaks for a Germanic etymology. Gottfried Schramm rejects a Germanic origin, arguing that an original East Germanic name would have appeared as *Munda in Jordanes. However, Gudmund Schütte notes other East Germanic names recorded as ending in -o rather than -a, such as Veduco and Tremo, and proposed interference in the Latin transcription from another Germanic dialect.