Zercon

Zercon was a Moor at the court of the Hun king Bleda, kept for the laughter he caused.^[1] Priscus describes him as short and hunchbacked, with twisted feet, and so flat-nosed that only his nostrils showed where his nose was. His stammer and his looks made people laugh.^[2]

With Bleda

Zercon had been given to the general Aspar, the son of Ardaburius, while Aspar was in Libya.^[2] He was captured when the barbarians invaded Thrace and was brought to the royal Scythians.^[2] He may have come into Bleda’s possession after the great Hun invasion of 441.^[3] Attila could not bear the sight of him. Bleda, by contrast, was delighted beyond measure, whether Zercon spoke nonsense or only walked and moved his body strangely without a word.^[2]

Zercon attended Bleda at his feasts and on campaign. On campaign he wore armour made to raise a laugh.^[2] Once he escaped with some Roman prisoners. Bleda ignored the others and had Zercon searched for with great care.^[2] Zercon was brought back in chains. When Bleda saw him, he laughed and set his anger aside. He asked why Zercon had fled and why he thought the Romans’ life better than theirs.^[2]

Zercon answered that he had done wrong to flee. He had a reason, he said: he had been given no wife. Bleda laughed even more and gave him one. She was a woman of noble birth who had been an attendant of the queen, but no longer served her because of some fault. Zercon lived with Bleda for the rest of Bleda’s life.^[2]

The queen’s attendants may have been Hun women of good birth. The passage would then be evidence of a hereditary nobility among the Huns.^[4] Alternatively, Bleda gave him one of the ladies-in-waiting of the empress’s palace at Constantinople.^[3] The passage survives in the Suda.^[3]^[4] Its attribution to Priscus goes back to the editor Valesius.^[5]

The return of 449

After Bleda’s death Attila sent Zercon as a gift to Aetius, the general of the western Romans. Aetius sent him on to Aspar.^[2] The gift may be a sign that Aetius and Attila were still on friendly terms after Bleda’s murder.^[6]

Zercon had left his wife behind in Scythia. Edeco persuaded him to come back to Attila with a promise to help him recover her.^[7] His hope failed, for Attila was angry that he had returned.^[7] Zercon may have hoped to change Attila’s mind by amusing him.^[8]

In 449 Attila gave a banquet for the Roman envoys of Maximinus.^[9]^[10] After two singers and a madman, Zercon came in. With his looks, his dress, his voice and his jumble of Latin, Hunnic and Gothic words he made the whole company burst into laughter.^[7]^[11] Attila alone kept the same face throughout.^[12]^[11]

Name and language

ZerkonEnglish
ZercoEnglish

Zercon’s jumble of three languages is one of the passages that show Priscus telling Hunnic apart from Gothic and Latin.^[13] The name may well be a Moorish one. It would then have nothing to do with the proto-Bulgarian title ičirgü, written zerco or zergo in Latin.^[14]

References

^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 92; fr. 11, p. 96
^ a b c d e f g h i Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 11, p. 96
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 73
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 198
^ Müller 1851, p. 96
^ Thompson 1948, p. 128
^ a b c Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 92
^ Thompson 1948, p. 118
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 91
^ Thompson 1948, p. 220
^ a b Bury 1923, p. 288
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 92–93
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 377
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 424

Sources

Priscus

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)