Logades

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The logades were the leading men around Attila. The word is Greek and means picked or prominent men. Priscus is the only writer who uses it of the Huns. He names five of them: Onegesius, who held power second only to Attila; his brother Scottas; the warrior Edeco; Berichus, the lord of many villages; and Orestes, a Roman from Pannonia who was Attila’s secretary.^[1] The Latin of the edition calls them the leading men of the Scythians.^[2]

In Priscus these men served as Attila’s envoys to Constantinople, where they were enriched with gifts.^[3] Each of them stood armed guard round Attila in turn on fixed days.^[4] Next after Attila, they chose the richer captives for themselves, because they had the most power.^[5] Onegesius held a council of them on Attila’s decisions.^[6] They did not share the same rank. At Attila’s banquet Onegesius sat on the right, the side of honour, and Berichus on the left.^[7]

They may have been the hinge on which the whole administration of the Hun empire turned. They took the place of the tribal chiefs of the fourth century. Some owed their place to success in war, like Edeco, others to noble birth, like Berichus. They governed parts of the realm with their own followings. They commanded the contingents of the subject peoples and collected tribute and food from them. Attila did not create the order, but gave it its final form. He bound these men to himself by personal allegiance instead of relying on the tribal chiefs.^[8] Or logas meant no more, since the third century, than prominent or distinguished. Nothing then shows these men had anything in common but their prominence. It adds that Priscus, had he written Latin, would probably have called them optimates.^[9] A third comparison sets them beside the great men and nobles of the Sasanian realm, a class of some hundreds.^[10]

The graves of the age fit the picture Priscus gives. At Attila’s table the swords, shoe straps and bridles of the Scythians were adorned with gold and stones, as Attila’s own were not.^[11] Princely graves of the first half of the fifth century, from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the Vienna basin, hold gold and stone-set fittings of swords, shoes and harness. They may belong to the leading class that Priscus names, with no way of telling where the dead came from.^[12]

The Hun kings entrusted the army to their generals, often former tribal chiefs within the realm. These generals led raids on their own. The discipline that this command enforced was decisive for the success of the Huns.^[13]

References

^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 192
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 77; fr. 8, p. 79, 94
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 6, p. 76
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 77
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 86
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 93
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 195
^ Thompson 1948, p. 163–166, 209
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 192–194
^ Werner 1956, p. 2
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 92
^ Werner 1956, p. 2, 54, 85
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 94

Sources

Priscus

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
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)
Joachim Werner, Beiträge zur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches (1956)