Chelchal

Chelchal was a Hun in the service of the eastern Roman empire. Priscus calls him “a Hun by race” and gives his rank. He stood next after Aspar, over the officers who led the units under Aspar’s command.^[1] Aspar was for many years the almost all-powerful master of the eastern court.^[2] Chelchal kept his Hunnic name and was evidently not yet baptized. His high rank shows that he had served long in the Roman army. He may have been one of the Huns who deserted to the Romans in Attila’s time or joined them after 455.^[3]

The blockade of the Goths

About 467 the Roman commanders Anagastes, Basiliscus and Ostryes besieged a body of Goths. They had shut them up in a steep and hollow place.^[1]^[3] The besieged, whom Priscus calls Scythians, were short of food. They offered to surrender and obey every order if they were given land to live on.^[1] The Romans answered that they would refer the request to the emperor. The barbarians replied that hunger would not let them wait.^[1] The Roman commanders then promised to feed them until the emperor decided, on one condition. They were to divide themselves into as many units as the Roman army had. Each Roman officer could then look after one unit. The barbarians did as they were asked.^[1]

The speech

Chelchal went to the barbarian unit assigned to his own men. More Goths stood in it than men of any other people. He called their leading men together and spoke.^[1] The emperor would give them land, he said, but it would profit the Huns alone. The Huns neglected the tilling of the soil. Like wolves they fell on the goods of the Goths. The Goths were held as slaves and forced to toil to feed the Huns.^[1] No treaty had ever been made between the two peoples. The ancestors of the Goths had bound them by oath to shun alliance with the Huns. The Goths were therefore losing their property and breaking their ancestral oaths as well.^[1] He himself was a Hun by race, and very proud of it. He told them this out of a sense of justice, so that they might see what had to be done.^[1]

The massacre

The Goths were stirred. They believed that Chelchal had spoken out of goodwill towards them. They killed the Huns who were mixed among them.^[4] Then, as if at a signal, a great battle broke out between the two peoples.^[5] When Aspar heard of it, he and the other commanders drew up their men. They killed every barbarian they met.^[5] The barbarians saw through the trick. They rallied and fought the Romans. The men who served under Aspar cut down the whole barbarian unit assigned to them. The other commanders had a bloody fight, for the barbarians fought bravely. The survivors broke through the Roman lines and escaped.^[5] The Aspar of this passage has been identified with Anagastes.^[6]

A different explanation places Chelchal under the command of Anagastes. The trick then did not succeed as the two men had hoped. The Goths soon saw that their quarrel profited only the enemy. They came to terms with their Hun comrades and turned together on the imperial forces.^[7] Priscus reports the deceit without a word of criticism.^[8]

Date

Priscus gives no year.^[1] The edition of his fragments dates the episode to about 467. The reason given is that Basiliscus commanded the war against the Vandals in 468.^[9] One date is 467, while Basiliscus was still master of the soldiers in Thrace.^[3] Another is the time of the death of Dengizich in 469, or a little earlier.^[10]

The speech as evidence

The blockade is Chelchal’s only appearance in the record.^[11] The ancient sources are unanimous in denying the Huns any knowledge of agriculture. Chelchal, himself a Hun, is one of these witnesses. He said that the Huns despised it.^[12] Some scholars refer his speech to the days of Attila and take it as the only direct evidence that the Huns extorted food from their subject peoples.^[13] They quote it again for its verdict that the Huns were plunderers who gave Europe nothing.^[14]

Name

The origin of the name is unknown. Comparisons with the name Chalazar, with Chelch, an Ogur tribe, and with words meaning a pack animal or a race horse have been proposed. Some scholars warn that they come close to a play with assonances.^[15] They count Chelchal among the names of unknown origin borne by Huns in the eastern Roman army.^[16]

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 39, p. 108
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 166
^ a b c Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 168
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 39, p. 108–109
^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 39, p. 109
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 167
^ Thompson 1948, p. 157–158
^ Thompson 1948, p. 189
^ Müller 1851, p. 108
^ Thompson 1948, p. 157
^ Thompson 1948, p. 165
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 174
^ Thompson 1948, p. 165, 204
^ Thompson 1948, p. 215
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 417
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 442

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)