The treaty of Margus was the first agreement between the brothers Bleda and Attila and the eastern empire of Theodosius II. It was concluded outside the city of Margus on the Danube, with both sides on horseback. It doubled the tribute that the Romans paid the Huns.[1] The terms are known from Priscus.[2]

The quarrel over the fugitives

The Hun king Rua had decided to make war on the Amilzuri, Itimari, Tounsoures, Boisci and the other peoples living by the Danube. They had fled to the Romans and joined their alliance. Rua sent his envoy Eslas, a man used in settling disputes between Romans and Huns. Eslas was to declare that Rua would break the existing treaty unless the Romans handed back all the Scythians who had gone over to them.[3] The Romans chose two former consuls, Plintha and Dionysius, as envoys. Before they could set out, Rua died. The kingdom of the Huns passed to Attila. The senate sent Plintha, and he took with him the quaestor Epigenes, famous for his wisdom.[2]

Rugila died four years after his brother Octar. His nephews Bleda and Attila, the sons of Mundcuk, ruled together after him. Their first act was a quick peace with the eastern empire. It raised the yearly tribute and with it the income of the Huns.[4]

The meeting

The envoys came to Margus, a city of the Moesians on the Danube. It lay opposite the fort of Constantia on the other bank, where the royal Scythians had gathered. The two sides met outside the city on horseback. The barbarians would not talk dismounted. The Romans, mindful of their dignity, came mounted as well, so as not to speak on foot to men on horseback.[1][5] Some scholars hold that those who negotiated mounted were Hun envoys. Bleda and Attila were not there in person, as some have supposed. The envoys drove a hard bargain, aiming at a higher tribute and the extradition of Hun deserters. The treaty brought with it a trade agreement and a respite of about five years from Hun inroads into the eastern provinces.[6] Margus lay near the mouth of the Morava, near the modern village of Dubravica east of Belgrade.[5][7]

The terms

The Romans undertook to receive no more fugitives from Scythia and to hand back those who had fled long before. Roman captives who had come home without paying ransom were to be handed back. The Romans could keep them only by paying eight solidi for each to their captors. The Romans were to make no alliance with any barbarian people at war with the Huns. Markets were to be held on equal terms and in safety for Romans and Huns. The treaty was to stand as long as the Romans paid the royal Scythians 700 pounds of gold a year. Until then the tribute had been 350 pounds.[1] Each side swore to the peace in its ancestral manner.[1][8][9] The earlier 350 pounds came to 25,200 solidi.[10]

The fugitives were handed back. Among them were two boys of the royal family, Mamas and Atakam. The Scythians received them at Carsum, a fort in Thrace, and crucified them.[1][11] After the peace Attila and Bleda set out to subdue the Scythian peoples. They made war on the Sorosgi, who are named nowhere else.[1][12]

Some scholars hold that Theodosius probably paid none of the yearly tribute after Margus. He kept the fugitive tribes as soldiers. The arrears of 6,000 pounds that Attila later demanded are a round sum for seven hundred pounds a year left unpaid since the treaty.[13]

Date

Priscus gives no year. One reckoning dates the treaty to 435. The fragment would otherwise pass over several years without a word, and the arrears demanded in the next peace fit a treaty of that year.[14] A second dates it after 15 November 438, because Epigenes still held a lower office on that day and Priscus calls him quaestor.[15] The edition of Priscus dates it to 433.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 72
  2. ^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 71–72
  3. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 71
  4. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 94–95
  5. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 74
  6. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 188
  7. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 90
  8. ^ Bury 1923, p. 273
  9. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 90–91
  10. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 91
  11. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 77
  12. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 75
  13. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 77, 216–217
  14. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 75, 216–217
  15. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 93–94
  16. ^ Müller 1851, p. 70

Sources

Literature

  • Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
  • J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, vol. I (1923)
  • 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)
  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
  • Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)

Related

What links here12

Persons
Attila · Bleda · Theodosius II
States
Hunnic Empire
Conflicts
Attila's Balkan wars
Places
Margus
Peoples
History of the Turkic peoples · Huns · Sorosgi
Institutions and Titles
Captives and the Unfree · Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires
Sources
Priscus

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Treaty of Margus.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/treaty-of-margus/

Last revised: 8 November 2026