Orestes

Orestes was a Roman in the service of Attila, his secretary and one of his envoys.^[1]^[2] Priscus calls him a Roman by birth who lived in the land of the Paeonians on the river Save.^[3] That land obeyed the barbarian under a treaty made with Aetius, the general of the western Romans.^[3]^[2] The barbarian to whom Aetius ceded the land may have been Attila, not his uncle Rua. The reason given is that Priscus uses the word of Attila elsewhere in the same fragment.^[4] According to some scholars, Orestes belonged to the circle of leading men whom Priscus calls logades, as a minor member and a Roman among Huns.^[5]^[6]

Entry into Attila’s service

A later source, the Anonymus Valesianus, says that Orestes the Pannonian joined Attila when Attila came to Italy. He became his secretary.^[7]^[6] It has been argued that this cannot refer to the invasion of 452. They suggest that Attila came to Italy with Aetius in 433.^[6] Others tie Attila’s stay in Italy to the negotiations with Aetius’s envoys in the second half of the 440s and to the cession of the land on the Save.^[8] Orestes would then already have held a responsible position.^[7]

The embassy of 449

In 449 Orestes came to Constantinople with Attila’s envoy Edeco. Edeco brought Attila’s demands about the fugitives, the land south of the Danube and the market at Naissus.^[3]^[9] The eunuch Chrysaphius invited Edeco to a second dinner without Orestes and the other members of the embassy. There Edeco promised to kill Attila.^[10]

Orestes travelled north with the Roman embassy of Maximinus. At Serdica Maximinus gave Edeco and Orestes silk garments and Indian gems.^[1]^[11] Orestes waited until Edeco had gone. Then he told Maximinus that he thought him good and sensible, unlike the other ministers of the emperor. Those ministers had invited Edeco to dinner and honoured him with gifts while slighting Orestes.^[1] The Romans did not understand him. When they asked, he left without an answer.^[1]

The next day the interpreter Bigilas explained that Orestes had no cause for resentment. Orestes was Attila’s attendant and secretary. Edeco, by contrast, was most famous in war, a Hun by race and far above him in rank.^[1]^[12]^[13]

Beyond the Danube Orestes was among the leading men who questioned the Roman envoys at Attila’s tents, together with Edeco and Scottas.^[14] Edeco had revealed the plot to Attila. Priscus could not tell whether Edeco had agreed with the eunuch only in pretence, or feared that Orestes would report his secret talks with the emperor and the eunuch.^[15]

Tatulus and Romulus

On the road to Attila’s residence the Romans met the envoys of the western Romans. They were the count Romulus, Promotus, governor of Noricum, and the officer Romanus.^[16] With them came Tatulus, the father of Orestes. He came not for the embassy but from kinship. Orestes had married the daughter of Romulus, from Poetovio in Noricum.^[16]^[17] At the residence Tatulus brought the envoys Attila’s invitation to a banquet at the ninth hour of the day.^[18] Orestes later named his son after his father-in-law.^[9]

The purse

After Bigilas had been caught with the gold, Attila sent Orestes and Eslas to Constantinople.^[19] Orestes was to appear before the emperor Theodosius II with the purse hung round his neck. Bigilas had carried the gold for Edeco in this purse. Orestes was to ask the eunuch whether he recognised it.^[20]^[2] Eslas was to declare that Attila would not stop accusing the emperor until the eunuch was handed over for punishment.^[21]

Later career

After Attila’s death Orestes returned to the western empire.^[22] Jordanes tells that the emperor Nepos made him master of the soldiers in place of Ecdicius.^[23] Orestes took over the army and went from Rome to Ravenna. There he made his son Augustulus emperor. Nepos fled to Dalmatia.^[23] Not long afterwards Odoacer, king of the Torcilingi, invaded Italy with the Sciri, the Heruli and allies of other peoples.^[24] He put Orestes to death and sent Augustulus into exile in the castle of Lucullus in Campania.^[24] The chronicle of Marcellinus places the elevation of Augustulus in 475 and the death of Orestes in 476.^[25]

Some argue that Odoacer was the son of Edeco, with whom Orestes had travelled to Constantinople in 449.^[22] Others find no more reason to identify the Hun Edeco with Odoacer’s father than with Edica, a chief of the Sciri.^[26]

References

^ a b c d e Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 78
^ a b c Bury 1923, p. 276
^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 76
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 89
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 192
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 163
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 106
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 106–107
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 98
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 77
^ Bury 1923, p. 279
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 195
^ Thompson 1948, p. 164
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 79
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 80
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 84
^ Bury 1923, p. 282
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 91
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 95
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 12, p. 96–97
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 12, p. 97
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 155
^ a b Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 241, p. 119
^ a b Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 242, p. 119
^ Mierow 1915, p. 177
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 388

Sources

Priscus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
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)