Part of War of the Hunnic Succession

Date: 454

Location: Pannonia

Result: Victory of Gepids and Ostrogoths

Belligerents

(1)Gepids, Ostrogoths

(2)Huns

Commanders

(1)King Theodemir of the Ostrogoths, King Ardaric of the Gepids

(2)King Ellac of the Huns†

Following the death of ATTILA in 453, the Hunnic Empire was torn apart from within by his feuding sons, each demanding an equal share in the dead king’s inheritance of tyranny. When rumor of this internal division was circulated among the numerous barbarian kingdoms long enslaved by the Huns, an alliance was formed. At its head was Ardaric, the king of the Gepidae, a small Germanic tribe, but he was joined by the armies of the Goths, Rugi, Alans, Heruli, Hermunduri and a host of unhappy chiefdoms. They combined their forces and gave battle. Not surprisingly, even in disarray the Huns presented a fearsome challenge, and the ensuing struggle at Nedao was bloody. To the astonishment of the Huns, however, Attila’s most beloved son, Ellac, was slain. His brothers suffered a terrible defeat, scattering in numerous directions, their domains lost forever.

The Battle of Nedao, named after the Nedava, a tributary of the Sava, was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454. After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the Germanic subject peoples under the leadership of Ardaric, king of the Gepids, defeated the Hunnic forces of Ellac, the son of Attila, who had struggled with his half-brothers Irnik and Dengizich for supremacy after Attila’s death, and eventually killed him in single combat. According to the 6th century historian Jordanes:

And so the bravest nations tore themselves to pieces. For then, I think, must have occurred a most remarkable spectacle, where one might see the Goths fighting with pikes, the Gepidae raging with the sword, the Rugi breaking off the spears in their own wounds, the Suavi fighting on foot, the Huns with bows, the Alani drawing up a battle-line of heavy-armed and the Heruli of light-armed warriors.

Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result. The handful of Hunnic forces left were expelled by Ardaric after a long siege.

The Hun holdings were lost, and their clans were driven in every direction. For nearly a century the Huns had been the strongest barbarian nation and the greatest rival of the Roman Empire in the north. Their realm stretched at one point from the Ukraine to the Rhine. By holding the Goths and many others in check, they provided the cities of the Eastern and Western Empires time to prepare for the inevitable onslaughts, and compelled many tribes to join with the Romans against a common foe. Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of them in some detail.

The Gepids

The Gepids (according to the humorous Goths from Gepanta, meaning slow, sluggish or thick) from their first appearance on the Roman frontiers until their annihilation by the combined armies of the Lombards and Avars. They were subjugated by the Huns in 375 AD, provided the largest allied contingent to Attila’s army, and led the rebel Germans that crushed his successors at the Nedao in 454 AD. Archaeological comparisons of grave finds suggest that the Gepids had three classes – a rich upper class fighting as cavalry, a less wealthy class of infantry spearmen whose weapons included heavy throwing spears, and a poor class fighting as archers.

The Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoths or Greuthungi (“men of the steppes”) from arrival in the Ukraine until the organisation of their Italian kingdom. Like the Visigoths, their traditional garment was an animal skin coat. The most famous achievement of the Gothic cavalry was the victory of Adrianople in 378 AD, when they charged into the rear of a Roman army already engaged to its front. This victory is ascribed by many modern authors to the Gothic use of both heavy lance and stirrups, neither of which they in fact had! Spears and javelins were their main weapons, while the stirrup was not introduced to the west by the Avars until 200 years later. The Ostrogoths were vassals of the Huns between 441 and 454, and were forced to supply them with allied contingents. The Heruls came from the marshy lands around Lake Maeotis and were renowned for their swift-footed light infantry. Their cavalry were said by the eyewitness Procopius not to have worn metal armour or helmets, but to be protected only by shields and thick jackets. They charged furiously hurling javelins, on one occasion at a different enemy unit to that they were ordered to attack. The slaves that accompanied them were not allowed shields until they had proved themselves brave. He also comments that “for a Herul not to give himself over to treachery and drunkenness is so unusual as to merit abundant praise”. The Sciri are identified by leading authorities from Gibbon onwards as respectively Huns, Goths and Alans! They were neighbours of the Ostrogoths and Heruls and are assumed by us to be similar. The Taifali were associates of the Visigoths, but apparently mainly cavalry. They are most noted for Ammianus’s remark, “The habits of the Taifali are gross and indecent”. A Roman cavalry unit recruited from them, together with one probably of Sciri, served under the Comes Britanniae. Radagaesus’s army of 40l – 406 was mostly of Ostrogoths, but also included Rugi, Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians and Alans. Bittuguric Hun remnants joined the Ostrogoths in 488 and migrated to Italy with them. Heruls and Sciri provided a high proportion of the foederati in the Patrician Roman army, and Heruls are found in the Early Byzantine army. Allied contingents of any of the nations covered by this list need not include infantry, but can include wagon laager. Herul raiding boats in 455 had crews of 55 men.

The Huns

Western Hunnic armies considered from first contact with the Alans in 374 AD until the remnant states of the Hunnic empire were absorbed by the Avars, and also the eastern, possibly unrelated, Chionite and Hephthalite or “White” Huns, the Chionites from their first intervention in Kushan Bactria in 356 until their destruction by the Sassanids in 468, the Hephthalites until their western element’s amalgamation with the remnants of the Juan-juan to form the Avars after 558 and the loss of their Indian empire circa 570. The western Huns are described by Sidonius as “A roaming multitude from Skythian clime, teeming with savagery, frightful, ravening, violent, barbarous even in the eyes of the barbarian peoples around them. Any other folk are carried upon horseback, this folk live there. Shapely bows and arrows are their delight; sure and terrible are their hands. Firm is their confidence that their missiles will bring death and their frenzy is trained to do wrongful deeds with blows that never go wrong.” Priscus, a visitor to Attila’s court with an eye for detail, does not mention any stratification of class, but some Huns are known to have used long lances and worn metal armour, making them a de facto nobility. Attila’s allies included Ardaric, King of the Gepids, Valamir, King of the Ostrogoths, and a host of lesser chieftains of conquered peoples. An “immense horde” of Sciri earlier accompanied Uldin’s failed attack on the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 408. The Chionites included a proportion of apparently unarmoured men with long lance as well as bow, and a prince is attested as wearing a corselet. Otherwise, they looked very similar to Parthian horse archers. They minted coins marked OIONO. The Sabir drove the Oghurs and Onoghurs west from Central Asia to the Black Sea region about 463 and moved to the steppes north of the Caucasus and to the Volga by 515, raiding across the Caucasus. They were later part of the Volga Bulgar confederacy. They surprisingly provided both Byzantines and Sassanids with mercenary infantry described as “exceedingly ferocious and rapacious”. How these were equipped is obscure. Agathias calls them “hoplitai”, but Procopius describes Sabir shooting rapidly at a fortress and surprised with only bows in their hands by a sortie – possibly dismounted cavalry. Sozomenus earlier describes a Hun leaning on a long shield. They were good at sieges, teaching an early Byzantine army how to make a ram out of unsuitable material.