Glad (, , , ) was the ruler of Banat (in present-day Romania and Serbia) at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the Gesta Hungarorum. The Gesta, which was written by an author known in modern scholarship as Anonymus in the second half of the 12th century or in the early 13th century, is the earliest extant Hungarian chronicle. The Gesta did not refer to the enemies of the conquering Hungarians (or Magyars), who had been mentioned in earlier annals and chronicles, but wrote of a dozen persons, including Glad, who are unknown from other primary sources of the Hungarian Conquest. Therefore, modern historians debate whether Glad was an actual enemy of the conquerors or only a "fictitious person" made up by Anonymus. In Romanian historiography, based on the mention by Anonymus some 300 years later, Glad is described as one of the three Romanian dukes who ruled a historical region of present-day Romania in the early 10th century. According to the Gesta, Glad came from Vidin in Bulgaria. He occupied Banat with the assistance of "Cumans" before the arrival of the Magyars. Anonymus wrote that Cumans, Bulgarians, and Vlachs (or Romanians), supported Glad against the invading Magyars, but the latter annihilated their united army in a battle near the Timiș River. The Gesta presents Ahtum, who ruled Banat in the early 11th century, according to the longer version of the Life of St Gerard, as Glad's descendant. Background The earliest record of the Magyars (or Hungarians) is connected to their alliance with the Bulgars against a group of Byzantine prisoners who were planning to cross the Lower Danube in an attempt to return to their homeland around 837 AD. They dwelled in the steppes north and northwest of the Black Sea. A group of rebellious subjects of the Khazar Khaganate, known as Kabars, joined them, according to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The Annals of St. Bertin states that the Magyars launched their first military expedition against the Carolingian Empire in 861. The Magyars invaded Bulgaria in alliance with the Byzantine Empire in 894. In retaliation, the Bulgars entered into an alliance with the Pechenegs. They jointly invaded the Magyars' lands, forcing them to leave the Pontic steppes and cross the Carpathian Mountains in search of a new homeland. In the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars "roamed in the wildernesses of