Maldras (died February 460) was the Suevic King of Galicia from 456 until his death. After the execution of Rechiar

Rechiar

Rechiar or Rechiarius was the Suevic King of Galicia from 448 until his death. He was the first Catholic Germanic king in Europe and one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarchs...

 by the victorious Visigoths, the Suevi are said to have established Maldras on the throne. During his reign the Suevic nation became fragmented.

Maldras was the son of Massilia (or Massila) and was not said to be related to the dynasty of Hermeric

Hermeric

Hermeric was the Suevic King of Galicia from perhaps as early as 406 and certainly no later than 419 until his retirement in 438. He was a pagan and an enemy of the Roman Empire throughout his life...

, which had ruled the Suevi since 406. The wording of the contemporary chronicler Hydatius

Hydatius

Hydatius or Idacius , bishop of Aquae Flaviae in the Roman province of Gallaecia was the author of a chronicle of his own times that provides us with our best evidence for the history of the Iberian Peninsula in the 5th century.-Life:Hydatius was born around the year 400 in the...

 may be taken to signify that the Suevi population had some part in electing Maldras. They certainly had a part in dividing the kingdom in 457, when part of them refused to accept him as their leader and chose instead Framta

Framta

Framta, Framtan, or Framtane was one of the kings of the Suevi in Galicia in 457....

. The two Suevic kings acted independently and on Framta's death within a few month his followers are found led by Rechimund, though scholars dispute whether or not the two parties rejoined.

In 457, while Framta was still ruling, Maldras led his people in a large raid on Lusitania

Lusitania

Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...

. They sacked Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 by pretending to come in peace and, once admitted by the citizens, plundering the city. Maldras is also accused of having murdered his brother. In 458 he received envoys from the Visigoths and the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

.

His people continued to plunder western Lusitania until Maldras was strangled, perhaps by his own men, in February 460. Maldras' people turned to Frumar

Frumar

Frumar was a Suevic warlord who succeeded Maldras, assassinated in February 460, as leader of the Suevic group then raiding Lusitania...

 as their war-leader then. Afterwards Remismund

Remismund

Remismund was the Suevic King of Galicia from c. 464 until his death.According to Isidore of Seville, Remismund was a son of Maldras. Remismund's early career was spent as an ambassador between Galicia and Gaul, which trip he made several times...

 became king and reunited the Suevic people. He is claimed by Isidore of Seville

Isidore of Seville

Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...

to be a son Maldras, but there is some doubt on this.