Sword of Mars

The sword of Mars was an old sword that Attila received from a herdsman. Attila took it for a sign of his calling to rule the world.^[1] Jordanes tells the story in the words of Priscus. A herdsman saw that one heifer of his herd was lame and could find no cause for the wound. He followed the trail of blood and came to a sword that the animal had trodden on while grazing. He dug it up and brought it straight to Attila. Attila rejoiced at the gift. He believed that he had been made ruler of the whole world, and that through the sword of Mars the power of war had been granted to him.^[1] Jordanes adds that the kings of the Scythians had always held the sword sacred.^[2] The surviving excerpts of Priscus himself tell it differently. In them the sword of the war-god, honoured by the Scythian kings, had been lost for a long time and was found again through an ox.^[3]

In 449 the sword had been found only recently.^[4] Priscus had in mind the account of the war-god of the Scythians in Herodotus.^[4]^[5] Some scholars accept the story all the same as the record of a real cult. Peoples from Mongolia to Gaul, the Xiongnu among them, worshipped the god of war in the form of a sword. The Huns did the same. Where the cult came from cannot be determined.^[6] Others likewise hold the truth of the story beyond doubt.^[4]

Ammianus describes the same worship among the Alans. They fixed a naked sword in the ground and revered it as Mars, the presiding god of the lands they roamed.^[7] Of the Huns, by contrast, he said that they had no religion at all.^[8]

References

^ a b Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 183, p. 102–103
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 183, p. 102
^ Mierow 1915, p. 173
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 89
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 279
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 279–280
^ Ammianus Marcellinus; Rolfe 1939, xxxi.2.23, p. 393–395
^ Ammianus Marcellinus; Rolfe 1939, xxxi.2.11, p. 387

Sources

Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)
Priscus
Ammianus Marcellinus

Literature

Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
John C. Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English Translation, vol. III: Books XXVII–XXXI (1939)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)