GEPIDZ

a people of Germanic origin, whom we first read of in ancient eee history as having settled about the mouth of the Vistula in the 3rd century. They migrated to the Lower Danube in the 4th century, and were subjugated by the Huns, but recovered their freedom on the death of Attila, King of the Huns, and established themselves in Dacia. Here they grew very powerful, and it was to check their inroads that the Emperor Just in i an invited the Lombards to occupy. the Roman provinces between the Danube and the Alps. They found a powerful enemy, however, in the Ostro Goths at the end of the 5th century, and in 566 sustained @ crushing defeat from the Lombards and Avars. The latter seized their a and they were gradually extirpated.