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RouranFirst GöktürkTang ruleSecond GöktürkUyghurKirghizHunsWestern GöktürkTürgeshKarlukKhazar
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Priscus of Panium wrote a history of the eastern Roman empire and its neighbours in Greek, from the 430s to the 470s.[1][2] In 449 he travelled with an imperial embassy to the court of Attila beyond the Danube. His account of that journey is the only description of the Hunnic court by a man who had been there.[3] The history is lost. What remains is a set of excerpts made in the tenth century and passages copied by later writers, Jordanes above all.[4]

Author

Priscus came from Panium, a town in Thrace on the Sea of Marmara not far from Heraclea. Later writers call him a rhetor and sophist.[5] What is known of him comes from his own fragments.[5] He was a friend of Maximinus, a high official. He went with him to Attila at Maximinus’s request.[6] In Rome, probably in 450, he saw a young Frankish prince who had come on an embassy.[7] In 452 he went with Maximinus to Arabia and to the Thebaid in Egypt. Later he was assessor to Euphemius, master of the offices under the emperor Marcian.[5][8]

The work

The history appears to have begun with the 430s, with Rua’s last dealings with Constantinople and the accession of Attila and Bleda.[9][10] It ran into the reign of Leo and was published soon after 476.[2] The work also circulated as a history of the Goths. Its first part dealt with the Goths, the Scythians and the Huns.[11] One account gives it eight books.[12]

Most of the fragments were preserved in the collections of excerpts made for the emperor Constantine VII in the tenth century, above all the excerpts on embassies.[13][14] All the manuscripts of the excerpts on embassies descend from a single copy that burned in the Escorial in 1671.[15] Other passages survive in the Suda, in Evagrius and in John of Antioch. John copied him word for word.[4] Jordanes, through the lost Gothic history of Cassiodorus, preserves the sword of Mars, the description of Attila’s residence, his death and his funeral.[2][13]

The fragments on the Huns

The first fragment begins with Rua, king of the Huns. He demanded the return of the Amilzuri, Itimari, Tounsoures, Boisci and other peoples on the Danube who had gone over to the Romans. Rua died, and the kingdom passed to Attila. Attila and his brother Bleda met the Roman envoys on horseback outside the city of Margus and made the treaty of Margus.[16] The next fragments tell of the attack at a frontier market, the bishop of Margus who betrayed his city, the taking of Viminacium and the march on Ratiaria.[17] Another gives the terms of the peace of Anatolius after a Roman defeat in the Chersonese. It also tells how the little town of Asemus defied Attila.[18]

The longest fragment is the account of the embassy of Maximinus. It tells of the plot to murder Attila, the journey across the Danube, the audience in Attila’s tent and the war with the Akatziri. It describes the wooden residence and the stone bath of Onegesius, the Greek who had made a new life among the Huns. It shows the queen Kreka in her house and Attila sitting in judgement before his door. It also tells of the banquet at which two men sang his victories.[19]

Later fragments tell how Attila took the purse of the would-be assassin and sent it to Constantinople. They tell how Anatolius and Nomus made a last peace with him. They also tell how he claimed Honoria as his bride with the ring she had sent him.[20] After Attila’s death Priscus records the embassy of his sons to the emperor Leo and their quarrel. He records Dengizich’s demand for land. He also records the speech of the Hun officer Chelchal, which turned the Goths against the Huns among them.[21] He further records the Saragurs, Ogurs and Onogurs who came west about 463. He records too the wars of Persia with the Kidarite Huns.[22]

Attila’s death and funeral are known only through Jordanes, who names Priscus as his source. The excerpts preserve nothing of them.[23][24] The description of Attila’s appearance is Jordanes’s, taken from Priscus.[25]

Reliability

Priscus is a master of narrative. Without his fragments the history of the Huns in the fifth century would be lost. Other writers give isolated facts. He alone gives a history.[3] For the treaties he probably used official records. For most of the rest he relied on what people told him. His account of the talks between Chrysaphius and Edeco comes from the interpreter Bigilas.[26] He kept notes day by day on the embassy.[3] The church historian Evagrius praised his accuracy.[2]

His weaknesses are as plain. The surviving fragments give almost no dates. His terms for offices and places are imprecise. He was no military historian.[3] Where he had no information he quoted Herodotus or Thucydides, as in the siege of Naissus and the migration of the Saragurs.[27] His “Royal Scythians” are borrowed from Herodotus.[28][27] He uses “Scythian” for all the nomads under Attila and “Hun” for the Huns themselves.[29]

He wrote as a member of the governing class of Constantinople. The ill repute of the government of Theodosius II and of the eunuch Chrysaphius derives almost entirely from him. His reply to the Greek who praised life among the Huns defends the existing order.[30] His facts are to be trusted more than his judgements.[31]

Editions

Karl Müller edited the Greek fragments with a Latin translation in the fourth volume of the Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. The later edition of R. C. Blockley numbers the fragments differently.[32] J. B. Bury gave a free English translation of the account of the embassy.[33]

References

  1. ^ Müller 1851, p. 69–70
  2. ^ a b c d Thompson 1948, p. 13
  3. ^ a b c d Thompson 1948, p. 12
  4. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 13–14
  5. ^ a b c Müller 1851, p. 69
  6. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 78
  7. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 16, p. 99
  8. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 189
  9. ^ Müller 1851, p. 70
  10. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 63
  11. ^ Müller 1851, p. 69, 71
  12. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 31
  13. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 17
  14. ^ Bury 1923, p. 279
  15. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 382
  16. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 71–72
  17. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 2–3, p. 72–73
  18. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 74–75
  19. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 77–95
  20. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 12, 14–16, p. 96–99
  21. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 36, 38–39, p. 107–109
  22. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 30–33, 41, p. 104–106, 109
  23. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 254, p. 123
  24. ^ Bury 1923, p. 296
  25. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 182, p. 102
  26. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 11
  27. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 10
  28. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 6–7
  29. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 10–11
  30. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 184–191
  31. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 184
  32. ^ Müller 1851
  33. ^ Bury 1923, p. 279–288

Sources

  • Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

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)
  • E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)
  • Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
  • Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)

Drawn on by

Jordanes

Articles resting on this source 75

Aetius · Akatziri · Amilzuri · Anagastes · Attila · Attila's Balkan wars · Basich · Battle of the Catalaunian Plains · Bigilas · Bleda · Boisci · Captives and the Unfree · Chelchal · Chrysaphius · Death of Attila · Dengizich · Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Edeco · Ellac · Embassy of Maximinus to Attila · Envoys and Embassies · Ernak · Gaiseric · History of the Turkic peoples · Honoria · Hunnic Empire · Hunnic invasion of 395 · Hunnic invasion of Gaul, 451 · Hunnic invasion of Italy, 452 · Huns · Ildico · Itimari · Jordanes · Kamos · Kidarites · Kreka · Kumys · Kursich · Logades · Marcian · Margus · Maximinus · Millet · Millet Beer · Mundzuc · Naissus · Oghur Turkic · Ogurs · Onegesius · Onogurs · Orestes · Peace of Anatolius · Rua · Sabirs · Saragurs · Scottas · Seating at the Feast · Siege of Naissus · Sorosgi · Steppe Diet · Sword of Mars · The Hunnic language · The Huns and the Xiongnu · The origin of the Avars · Theodosius II · Tounsoures · Treaty of Margus · Turkic Tribes in Europe · Valamir · Valentinian III · Vandals · Viminacium · Wagons of the Steppe Peoples · Western Roman Empire · Zercon

Related

What links here65

Persons
Aetius · Anagastes · Attila · Basich · Bigilas · Bleda · Chelchal · Chrysaphius · Edeco · Ellac · Ernak · Gaiseric · Honoria · Ildico · Kreka · Kursich · Marcian · Maximinus · Mundzuc · Onegesius · Orestes · Rua · Scottas · Valamir · Valentinian III · Zercon
States
Hunnic Empire · Western Roman Empire
Conflicts
Hunnic invasion of 395 · Hunnic invasion of Gaul, 451 · Hunnic invasion of Italy, 452
Battles & Events
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains · Death of Attila · Embassy of Maximinus to Attila · Peace of Anatolius · Siege of Naissus · Treaty of Margus
Places
Aquileia · Margus · Naissus · Viminacium
Peoples
Akatziri · Amilzuri · Boisci · Huns · Itimari · Kidarites · Saragurs · Sorosgi · Tounsoures · Vandals
Institutions and Titles
Logades · Wagons of the Steppe Peoples
Religions
Riding Round the Dead · Strava · Sword of Mars · Turkic Mythology
Languages
The Hunnic language
Foods
Kamos · Millet · Steppe Diet
Customs & Pastimes
Seating at the Feast
Sources
Jordanes
Controversies
The Huns and the Xiongnu · The origin of the Avars

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Priscus.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/priscus/

Last revised: 8 November 2026