Octar

Octar was a king of the Huns and a brother of Mundzuc, the father of Attila. Jordanes names him with his brother Rua as the kings who “are said to have ruled before Attila, though not over quite so many tribes as he”.^[1] Nothing is known of their forebears.^[2]^[3]

The brothers ruled side by side, each over his own part of the Huns.^[3] Some historians think Rua ruled the eastern part of the realm and dealt with the eastern Romans. Octar ruled the western lands, among them modern Hungary, and dealt with the western Romans.^[4] Octar had nothing to do with the eastern Romans, whose only Hun enemy was Rua.^[5] A third suggestion is that Rua, the senior partner, held the land south of the Carpathians and north of the Danube, from which he attacked Thrace in 422. Octar held the Great Hungarian Plain north and west of the Carpathians. When Octar died, his share fell to Rua.^[6]

The church historian Socrates tells of Octar’s death. He calls him Uptaros, a form that follows from Octar through the Latin of the Balkans.^[7] Socrates writes that the Huns had been raiding the Burgundians beyond the Rhine. The Burgundians turned to the Christian god. Then the king of the Huns, Uptaros, burst asunder in the night from gluttony. 3,000 Burgundians fell on 10,000 leaderless Huns and destroyed them.^[8]^[9] The story contains absurdities and a historical kernel. The Huns raided the region of the Main, and Octar died on campaign about 430.^[10] The figure of 10,000 suits the purpose of the story and may be far too high.^[11] A major Hun defeat against the Burgundians may have followed Octar’s death.^[12] The victory over Octar may instead have been a revolt. In that case the Burgundians had stood for some years between 413 and 430 in a dependence on the Huns like that of the Thuringians. The destruction of their kingdom on the Rhine a few years later was a Hunnic punitive expedition.^[13]

After Octar’s death no one took his place. Rua ruled alone.^[2]^[14] The name may be the Latin form of a Turkic or Mongolian name, originally Öktem, strong or proud.^[15] Others leave its origin open.^[16]

References

^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 180, p. 101
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 85
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 63
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 93
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 86
^ Sinor 1990, p. 187
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 82–83, 381
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 82–83
^ Thompson 1948, p. 66–67
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 83–85
^ Thompson 1948, p. 47
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 94
^ Werner 1956, p. 17, 94
^ Thompson 1948, p. 208
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 93–94
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 441

Sources

Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
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)
Joachim Werner, Beiträge zur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches (1956)