Uldin, also spelled Huldin (died before 412) is the first ruler of the Huns whose historicity is undisputed.
Uldin, also spelled Huldin (died before 412) is the first ruler of the Huns whose historicity is undisputed.
The name is recorded as Ουλδης (Ouldes) by Sozomen, Uldin by Orosius, and Huldin by Marcellinus Comes. [1] On the basis of the Latin variants, Omeljan Pritsak and Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen argue that the name ended on -n, not the Greek suffix -s. [1] [2] Hyun Jin Kim, however, argues that -in is a Greek suffix added to the name. [3]
Maenchen-Helfen considers the name to be of Turkic origin. [4] He compares it with the names Ultinzur and Uldach and argues that it is the element *uld or *ult plus a dimuninative suffix *-ïn. [5] He does not give an etymology of the element *uld/*ult.
Pritsak derives the root of the etymon from the verb öl-, which survived in Mongolian olje, ol-jei (auspice, happiness, good luck). [1] He argues that the middle suffix jei was originally *di + ge, thus *öl-jige > öl-dige. [1] In place of Mongolian ge, Hunnic would then have the suffix n. [6] He thus reconstructs the form is *öl-di-n (auspicious, happy, lucky, fortunate). [6]
Hyun Jin Kim derives the name from the common Turkic word for six, *alti, comparing it to the Chuvash form ultta. [3] He argues that the name was actually a title and may indicate that Uldin was one of the six principle nobles of the Huns rather than a king. [3]
In 400, Uldin ruled in Muntenia, present-day Romania east of the Olt River. [7] The extension of his realm to the north and east is unknown, but to the west probably reached the banks of Danube where Huns had been camped since 378-380. [8] When Gainas, former magister militum praesentalis, with his Gothic followers fled across the borders to "his native land", Uldin "did not think it safe to allow a barbarian with an army of his own to take up dwellings across the Danube", and attacked him. [7] Uldin was victorious, killed Gainas and sent his head to the Emperor Arcadius in Constantinople. [7]
Late in the fall of 404 and in 405, according to Sozomen:
"About this time the dissensions by which the church was agitated were accompanied, as is frequently the case, by disturbances and commotions in the state. The Huns crossed Ister and devastated Thrace. The robbers in Isauria, gathered in great strength, ravaged the towns and villages between Caria and Phoenicia." [9]
In 406, Uldin and Sarus the Goth were called by Roman magister militum Stilicho to help defeat the invasion of Italy by the Goths led by king Radagaisus. [10] Orosius numbered 200,000 Goths. [11] At the Battle of Faesulae (406), Hunnic auxiliaries encircled a significant part of Goths, and Radagaisus tried to escape, but was captured and executed in April 406 AD. [10] It is considered that Goths of Radagaisus fled from the Hunnic lands, who themselves were pushed Westward by other nomadic tribes from the East. [12]
In the summer of 408, the Huns learned that Stilicho would not push Alaric I Visigoths into Illyricum, and that Roman troops in the East would be moved to the Persian frontier; accordingly, they entered Balkan and Thrace. [13] The Huns captured Castra Martis in Dacia Ripensis. [14]
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen thought that Jerome's description of unnamed, multiple tribes who invaded the Roman Empire as feras gentes "whose face and language are terrifying, who display womanly and deeply cut faces, and who pierce the backs of bearded man as they flee" as referring to the Huns. [15]
Sozomen recounts that Uldin replied to a Roman commander who proposed a peace by "pointing to the rising sun and declaring that it would be easy for him, if he so desired, to subjugate every region of the earth enlightened by that luminary". [16] While Uldin sought a large tribute in exchange to not wage war, his oikeioi and lochagos reflected a Roman form of government, philanthropic impulses, and readiness in rewarding the best men. [16]
A sufficiently large number of Huns joined the Roman camps, and Uldin, suffering significant casualties and the loss of the whole tribe called Sciri (mostly foot soldiers), was forced to re-cross the Danube by March 23, 409. [17] In the summer or fall of 409, military forces of Dalmatia, Pannonia Prima, Noricum and Raetia were entrusted by Honorius to pagan Generidus to repulse Hunnic raids. [18]
Uldin's royal power gradually weakened in his last years. [19] Between 408-410, the Huns were largely inactive. [20] As allies of the Western Roman Empire, they did not attack the Visigoths of Alaric I in Pannonia Secunda and Pannonia Savia because they fought under Uldin in Illyricum and Thrace. [20] Some Hun garrisons were in the Roman army led by Stilicho, and in Ravenna. [21] In the summer of 409, a Hunnic army numbering 10,000 men was called into assistance by Honorius, but did not stop Alaric I from sacking Rome. [21] Zosimus records that in late 409 some groups of Huns joined the Visigoths from Pannonia Prima who rode to Italy. [21]
Around 410, the future Roman General Aetius, who was then a young man, was sent to the court of Uldin, where he remained with the Huns throughout much of the reign of Charaton, Uldin's successor. [22] His presence as a hostage was probably used as a guaranty for the Hunnic forces which has been sent against Alaric in 410. [23] According to some early historians, Aetius's upbringing amongst militaristic peoples gave him a martial vigour not common in Roman generals of the time. [24]
In the same time period the alliance between the Huns and the Alans broke down. [25] In 394, only the Transdanubian Alans led by Saul (not Hebrew, but Iranian Σαυλιος [25] ) joined emperor Theodosius I, in 398 served Stilicho, and still under Saul in 402. [25] The Alans are not mentioned as allies of the Huns after 406, and most of them together with the Vandals crossed the Rhine in late 406 and went to Gaul, Spain and Africa. [25] This could be explained by Orosius who recounts in 402 "I say nothing of the many internecine conflicts between the barbarians themselves, when two cunei of the Goths, and then the Alans and Huns, destroyed one another in mutual slaughter". [25] The Hunnic noblemen have either Turkic or Germanized names, and very few Alanic names. Some Alans likely remained, but played a minor role among Huns. [26]
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time; the Huns' arrival to Europe is associated with the migration westward of an Iranian people, the Alans. By 370 AD, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, and by 430, they had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe, conquering the Goths and many other Germanic peoples living outside of Roman borders and causing many others to flee into Roman territory.
The 400s decade ran from January 1, 400, to December 31, 409.
The Sciri, or Scirians, were a Germanic people. They are believed to have spoken an East Germanic language. Their name probably means "the pure ones".
Mundzuk was a Hunnic chieftain, brother of the Hunnic rulers Octar and Rugila, and father of Bleda and Attila by an unknown consort. Jordanes in Getica recounts "For this Attila was the son of Mundzucus, whose brothers were Octar and Ruas, who were supposed to have been kings before Attila, although not altogether of the same [territories] as he".
Ernak was the last known ruler of the Huns, and the third son of Attila. After Attila's death in 453 AD, his Empire crumbled and its remains were ruled by his three sons, Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak. He succeeded his older brother Ellac in 454 AD, and probably ruled simultaneously over Huns in dual kingship with his brother Dengizich, but in separate divisions in separate lands.
Rugila or Ruga, was a ruler who was a major factor in the Huns' early victories over the Roman Empire. He served as an important forerunner with his brother Octar, with whom he initially ruled in dual kingship, possibly a geographical division where Rugila ruled over Eastern Huns while Octar over Western Huns, during the 5th century AD.
Radagaisus was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406. A committed Pagan, Radagaisus evidently planned to sacrifice the Senators of the Christian Roman Empire to the gods, and to burn Rome to the ground. Radagaisus was executed after being defeated by the general Stilicho. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army and some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed. These Goths later joined Alaric I in his conquest of Rome in 410.
The sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.
Dengizich, was a Hunnic ruler and son of Attila. After Attila's death in 453 AD, his Empire crumbled and its remains were ruled by his three sons, Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak. He succeeded his older brother Ellac in 454 AD, and probably ruled simultaneously over the Huns in dual kingship with his brother Ernak, but separate divisions in separate lands.
Charaton was one of the first kings of the Huns.
Ellac was the oldest son of Attila (434–453) and Kreka. After Attila's death in 453 AD, his Empire crumbled and its remains were ruled by his three sons, Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak. He ruled shortly, and died at the Battle of Nedao in 454 AD. Ellac was succeeded by two of the three brothers, Dengizich and Ernak.
Octar or Ouptaros was a Hunnic ruler. He ruled in dual kingship with his brother Rugila, possibly with a geographical division, ruling the Western Huns while his brother ruled the Eastern Huns.
By the name Edeko are considered three contemporaneous historical figures, whom many scholars identify as one:
Balamber was ostensibly a chieftain of the Huns, mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" and writes the story of Balamber crushing the tribes of the Ostrogoths in the 370s; somewhere between 370 and more probably 376 AD.
The Battle of Faesulae was fought in 406 AD as part of the Gothic invasion of the Western Roman Empire. After General Flavius Stilicho repelled the Visigoths at Pollentia and Verona, he encountered a new incursion of Vandals and Goths led by Radagaisus whose forces attacked Florence. Stilicho ultimately defeated the invaders at Faesulae with support from Uldin the Hun and Sarus the Goth. Radagaisus was executed after the battle and survivors of his armies fled to Alaric.
Laudaricus was a prominent Hunnic chieftain and general active in the first half of the 5th century.
The history of the Huns spans the time from before their first secure recorded appearance in Europe around 370 AD to after the disintegration of their empire around 469. The Huns likely entered Western Asia shortly before 370 from Central Asia: they first conquered the Goths and the Alans, pushing a number of tribes to seek refuge within the Roman Empire. In the following years, the Huns conquered most of the Germanic and Scythian tribes outside of the borders of the Roman Empire. They also launched invasions of both the Asian provinces of Rome and the Sasanian Empire in 375. Under Uldin, the first Hunnic ruler named in contemporary sources, the Huns launched a first unsuccessful large-scale raid into the Eastern Roman Empire in Europe in 408. From the 420s, the Huns were led by the brothers Octar and Ruga, who both cooperated with and threatened the Romans. Upon Ruga's death in 435, his nephews Bleda and Attila became the new rulers of the Huns, and launched a successful raid into the Eastern Roman Empire before making peace and securing an annual tribute and trading raids under the Treaty of Margus. Attila appears to have killed his brother and became sole ruler of the Huns in 445. He would go on to rule for the next eight years, launching a devastating raid on the Eastern Roman Empire in 447, followed by an invasion of Gaul in 451. Attila is traditionally held to have been defeated in Gaul at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, however some scholars hold the battle to have been a draw or Hunnic victory. The following year, the Huns invaded Italy and encountered no serious resistance before turning back.
Basich or Basikh was a Hun military commander who co-led an invasion of Persia in 395 AD together with Kursich.
Kursich was a Hun general and royal family member. He led a Hunnish army in the Hunnic invasion of Persia in 395 AD.
The War of Radagaisus was a military conflict in northern Italy in the period 405–406. This conflict was caused by the invasion of Radagaisus in 405. He invaded the Western Roman Empire with a huge population shortly after the empire had ended a war with the Visigoths. Due to the size of Radagaisus' army, it required a tremendous effort by the Romans to avert this danger. Commander-in-chief Stilicho was closely involved in the preparations that were made and personally directed the army's operations.