Rua

Rua was king of the Huns in the late 420s and early 430s. He was the uncle of Attila and Bleda.^[1] He ruled first with his brother Octar. After Octar’s death about 430 he ruled alone.^[2] In 432 he was king of the Huns. That is the one certain date of his reign.^[3] Rua laid the foundations on which his nephew built.^[4]

The names

RuaLatinPriscus
RoasLatinJordanes
RugilaLatin
ῬούγαςGreek

The sources write the name in many ways: Rua in Priscus, Roas in Jordanes, Ruga in a Gallic chronicle, Rugila in another, Rougas in Socrates and Rhoilas in Theodoret.^[5] Some scholars take the forms for a Germanic name, Ruga, with a diminutive Rugila.^[5] Others take Rugila for the Germanized version of a Turkic name.^[6]

Rome and Constantinople

The eastern empire paid Rua a yearly tribute of 350 pounds of gold.^[7] Some scholars place the first payment about 430.^[8] Others have Theodosius II agree to a yearly tribute in the 410s, to keep the Huns beyond the frontier. They see in this the first diplomatic agreement of weight between the Huns and Rome.^[6] The sum shows his eminent position. He was more than first among the kings, as Charaton had been.^[9] The tribute went to him and not to the tribal leaders.^[9]

In the West he was the ally of Aetius. In 432 Aetius was defeated in a civil war and fled to the Huns. With their friendship and help he regained his place.^[10] Some scholars hold that in 433 Aetius ceded part of Pannonia to the Huns in return.^[11] Others find no text that warrants such a cession under Rua.^[12] Between 433 and 439 Hun auxiliaries were the mainstay of Aetius in Gaul.^[13] After Octar’s death, Rua allied with Rome and received payments for fighting Germanic peoples, according to a modern account.^[14] The same account has Rua rule the eastern part of the Huns and dealt with Constantinople. Octar ruled the west.^[6]

The last demand

Priscus opens his history with Rua’s last quarrel with Constantinople. Rua had decided to make war on the Amilzuri, Itimari, Tounsoures, Boisci and other peoples on the Danube, because they had fled to the Romans and joined them as allies.^[15] He sent Eslas, a man used to settling disputes between Romans and Huns. Eslas was to say that Rua would break the treaty unless every Scythian who had gone over to the Romans was handed back.^[15] The Romans prepared an embassy. Before it set out, Rua died. The kingdom passed to Attila.^[7]

The peoples he wanted back were probably Hunnic tribes that refused his rule. This shows that the Huns were not yet one political body.^[16]

Death

When Rua died is argued. A Gallic chronicle records under 434 that “Rugila, king of the Huns, with whom peace had been made, died, and Bleda succeeded him”.^[17] One reckoning places his death in the spring of 434.^[18] A second reckoning holds that the date in the chronicle is uncertain and that the church historian Theodoret implies a date after the end of 435. By this reckoning Rua’s death and the accession of Attila and Bleda belong to the second half of the 430s.^[19] According to a modern account, he died four years after Octar.^[14] The church historians turned his death into a miracle. A thunderbolt struck Rua, and plague and fire from heaven destroyed his men, in answer to the prayers of Constantinople.^[20]^[21] He died, according to Priscus, in his own land and not on campaign in Thrace.^[17]

References

^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 180, p. 101
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 81, 85
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 81
^ Thompson 1948, p. 209
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 389
^ a b c Yavuz 2025, p. 93
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 72
^ Thompson 1948, p. 75, 161
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 91
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 86
^ Thompson 1948, p. 63–64
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 87, 89
^ Thompson 1948, p. 70
^ a b Yavuz 2025, p. 94
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 71
^ Thompson 1948, p. 70–72
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 93
^ Thompson 1948, p. 72
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 93–94
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 91–93
^ Thompson 1948, p. 72–73

Sources

Priscus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

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)
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)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)