Ardaric

Ardaric, Arcadius, Aldigar (died around AD 460) was the king of the Gepids, a Germanic tribe closely related to the Goths. He was "famed for his loyalty and wisdom", one of the most trusted adherents of Attila the Hun, who "prized him above all the other chieftains." After Attila's death, Ardaric led the rebellion against Attila's sons and routed them in the Battle of Nedao, thus ending the Huns' dominance in Eastern Europe.

Background: the Gepids

Nothing is known of Ardaric’s early life. Presumably he was a member of the nobility among the Gepids. The Gepids were an East Germanic tribe that first appears in historical record in the sixth century in Jordanes’s Origins and Deeds of the Goths. They first settled along the Vistula River between the first and third centuries A.D. In the fourth century they moved closer to the Eastern Roman Empire, and converted to Arian Christianity, as did their neighbours the Goths. This southward shift is demonstrated by archaeology; Gepids buried their dead with swords, spears, or shields, which their Gothic neighbours did not.