Bigilas was an interpreter in the service of the eastern Roman government.[1] In 449 he was the go-between in the plot to murder Attila. He was caught carrying the gold.[2][1] The interpreters of the court were under the master of the offices, who shared in all the emperor’s counsels.[3] Some scholars place Bigilas in this office. They have him serve as interpreter to the Roman commander Anatolius in the negotiations of 448.[1] Bigilas himself said that he had come to know Attila on the embassy of Anatolius.[4]

The plot

When Attila’s envoy Edeco came to Constantinople, Bigilas translated Attila’s message to the emperor. He then took Edeco to the eunuch Chrysaphius and translated Edeco’s admiration of the palace.[5] At a second dinner, without Edeco’s companion Orestes, Chrysaphius and Edeco gave each other their hands and swore oaths, with Bigilas as interpreter.[3] Edeco promised to kill Attila for fifty pounds of gold. He asked that Bigilas return with him. Through Bigilas he would send word how the gold was to be sent.[3]

The emperor and Martialius, the master of the offices, decided to send Bigilas to do what Edeco advised. In name he went as interpreter.[6] Maximinus went with him as envoy and was told nothing of the plan.[6]

At a dinner for the Huns at Serdica the barbarians praised Attila, and the Romans their emperor.[7] Bigilas said that it was not right to compare a god with a man. He called Attila a man and Theodosius a god, and the Huns grew angry.[7][8] Some scholars hold that they took offence not because they held Attila to be a god. To call the emperor a god, they argue, was to accept his claim to rule the world.[9]

Orestes complained to Maximinus that Edeco had been honoured above him.[7] Bigilas answered that Orestes was only Attila’s attendant and secretary, while Edeco, a man most famous in war and a Hun by race, stood far above him in rank.[7][10] He then spoke to Edeco in his native tongue. Afterwards he claimed, truly or not, that he had calmed Edeco’s anger at Orestes’s words with difficulty.[7]

At Attila’s camp

Bigilas did not know that Edeco had betrayed the plot.[4] When the Huns ordered the envoys to leave, he rebuked his companions. It was better, he said, to be caught in a lie than to go home without success. If he had spoken with Attila, he would easily have persuaded him.[4]

At the audience Attila called him a shameless beast. He asked why Bigilas had come, since he knew what Attila and Anatolius had agreed: no envoys until every fugitive had been returned.[11] Bigilas answered that no fugitive of Scythian race was left among the Romans. Attila shouted that he would have crucified him and given him to the vultures, if he did not fear to violate the rights of envoys.[11][12] He ordered Bigilas to leave at once with Eslas and demand the fugitives from the Romans.[11]

Bigilas could not understand why Attila, who had been friendly when he came as envoy before, now abused him. He believed that Edeco would keep silent for fear of death.[13] Edeco came and took him aside as if to plan the deed in earnest. He told him to bring the gold for those who would carry it out.[13] Attila then forbade the Romans to buy anything but food, so that Bigilas would have no excuse for bringing gold.[13] He sent Bigilas off with Eslas. In name the purpose was to recover the fugitives, in truth to bring the gold promised to Edeco.[14]

Capture and ransom

On his way north Bigilas met the returning envoys, who told him Attila’s answer.[15] When he reached Attila, men posted for the purpose seized him with the money he was bringing for Edeco.[16] Bigilas said that the gold was for the needs of his companions, for horses and pack animals, and for ransoming captives at the request of their relatives. Attila called him a foul beast. The sum, Attila said, was far greater than such needs, and he had forbidden the ransoming of captives when Maximinus came.[16][17]

Bigilas had brought his son, who came to the barbarians’ country for the first time. Attila ordered the boy to be killed by the sword unless his father told why he carried so much gold. Bigilas wept. He asked that the sword be turned on him and not on his innocent son. Then he revealed everything that he, Edeco, the eunuch and the emperor had planned against Attila.[16]

Attila knew from Edeco that Bigilas was telling the truth. He had him put in chains until his son, sent back for the purpose, brought another fifty pounds of gold for his release.[16] Fifty pounds of gold were 3,600 solidi.[18] In the following fragment Priscus says that Attila took from Bigilas a hundred pounds of gold that he had received from Chrysaphius.[19] Attila then sent Orestes to Constantinople with the purse hung round his neck in which Bigilas had carried the gold for Edeco.[20]

In the spring of 450 Bigilas’s son came back with the envoys Anatolius and Nomus, bringing the fifty pounds. Attila set Bigilas free.[21][22] The quarrel over the plot was settled by the same embassy of Anatolius and Nomus.[23]

Bigilas and Priscus

Some scholars hold that Bigilas had been present at the secret talks between Chrysaphius and Edeco. He later told Priscus of them and was his source for that part of the account.[24] They judge that his conduct was aggressive and tactless, and attribute this to the contempt in which interpreters were held and to his dealings with men of high rank such as Anatolius and Maximinus.[25]

Name

Some historians call him Vigilas, Vigilius or Vigilans.[1] Some scholars regard the name as Gothic and compare the Gothic chief Bigelis in Jordanes.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Thompson 1948, p. 98
  2. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7–8, p. 76–95
  3. ^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 77
  4. ^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 80
  5. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 76
  6. ^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 77
  7. ^ a b c d e Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 78
  8. ^ Bury 1923, p. 279
  9. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 270–271
  10. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 195
  11. ^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 81
  12. ^ Bury 1923, p. 281
  13. ^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 82
  14. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 83
  15. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 94
  16. ^ a b c d Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 95
  17. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 120
  18. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 184
  19. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 12, p. 96
  20. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 12, p. 96–97
  21. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 14, p. 98
  22. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 123
  23. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 13–14, p. 97–98
  24. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 11–12
  25. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 99

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)

Related

What links here8

Persons
Attila · Chrysaphius · Edeco · Maximinus · Orestes · Theodosius II
Battles & Events
Embassy of Maximinus to Attila
Institutions and Titles
Envoys and Embassies

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Bigilas.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/bigilas/

Last revised: 8 November 2026