Cannabaudes or Cannabas (died 271) was a third-century leader of the Gothic tribe of the Tervings, who died in a battle against the Roman emperor Aurelian.
In the third century many Germanic peoples invaded the Roman Empire and plundered the border regions. Among these, the Goths were the largest group crossing the Roman borders and devastating the Balkan peninsula. They also raided the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. Emperor Aurelian, the former magister equitum of emperor Claudius Gothicus, who had died of the plague, was occupied fighting the dead emperor’s brother Quintillus for the Roman throne and later fighting against the Vandals and Juthungi in Italy. The Tervings under their leader Cannabaudes took advantage of this situation and devastated the provinces of the lower Danube and sacked some cities.
On his march to the East to reintegrate the Palmyrene Empire to the Roman Empire, Aurelian drove the Tervings out of the Roman empire and, unlike others before him, followed them over the Danube. In the ensuing battle, Cannabaudes died along with 5,000 of his men.
For this victory Aurelian received the surname Gothicus Maximus.[1] At his triumph after his victory over the Palmyrene Empire, he paraded Gothic women, dressed as Amazons, and a chariot, pulled by four stags, that was said to have belonged to Cannabaudes.
Despite his victory over Cannabaudes, Aurelian abandoned the province of Dacia, which was populated by barbaric tribes such as the Goths.
Through his military achievements, Aurelian averted a further Gothic intrusions into Roman lands for a century.
While some historians call Cannabaudes a king of the Goths,[2] others consider that he was only one of the more powerful leaders of the Goths.[3]
The only ancient source mentioning his name is the Historia Augusta,[4] which is not a generally reliable source. Nevertheless, Cannabaudes is seen as a historic person by most historians. Some historians want to identify Cannabaudes with Cniva,[5] the Gothic leader who defeated and killed emperor Decius at the Battle of Abrittus twenty years earlier, others historians consider that he was Cniva's son.[6]