Bisinus - Bessinus

[faltin2001]

Venantius Fortunatus mentioned a Thuringian king Bessinus and a queen
Basina, who would have ruled around 460 AD. The name Bessinus, also
rendered as Bisinus is quite an unusual name. Since B and V are often
interchangible some scholars have argued that the name means Visendus
or Visandus. Others have pointd out that it is strange that Bessinus
had a wife named Basina and therefore argued that these were not names
but some sort of titles.

Now, the Gothic Vesi, meaning 'the nobles', were the elite of the 
Tervingi. There name formed the basis for the ethnogenesis of the Vesi 
people, who would later be called Visigoths. The ancient sources 
render their name also as 'Vessi' and 'Besi'. I wonder if the name 
Bessinus could be rendered with V, i.e. Vessinus and if it was a title 
rather than a name, maybe it meant 'the noble'.

Cheers,

Dirk






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