Balamber is only mentioned by Jordanes

Jordanes

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....

, who simply called him "king of the Huns" (rex Hunnorum) and who tells us the story of Balamber crushing the kingdom of Ostrogoths in around 375. Balamber may have been a member of a royal house, but more probably he was - if he ever existed - just a warrior chieftain, because according to Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...

, the Huns had no kings at that time. Under his leadership the Huns crossed the Volga river and attacked the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

. Alans retreated to Northern Caucasus. After the war broke out between Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

 and Ostrogoths in 370 AD, Balamber invited the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

 to join the Hunnic tribes. After defeating the Ostrogoths in 378 AD, he died on the feast of victory celebration. His death is a mystery. After 75 years his great-grandson Attila the Hun

Attila the Hun

Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...

died same way, on his wedding night.

Balamber is believed to have been a figure invented by the Goths and recounted in Jordanes' account of the Hunnic conquest of the Ostrogoths.