Europe 454: Battle of Nedao

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Notes

Akatziri and the “Scythian Kingdom” (Kuban Huns)

Little is known about the region north and east of the Black Sea in the first half of the fifth century, except that in c. 400 a “Scythian King” (almost always assumed to be a Hun) lived in the Kuban region and by the 440s a Hunnic people known as the Akatziri lived east of the Dniester. Although fragmented, the Akatziri were powerful enough that, when the Eastern Romans aligned with all but one of their kingdoms in 447, it took over a year for Attila’s armies to crush them and install his son as their king. After this, Attila contemplated invading Persia, implying that suppressing the Akatziri had bought the periphery of his empire close to the Caucasus. All this suggests that the Akatziri may have extended into the North Caucasus and that the “Scythian King” may have been part of the Akatziri, although this is of course conjecture.

Main Events

453 Ferreolus–Thorismund peace ▲

In 453 Ferreolus, the praetorian prefect of Gaul, negotiated a peace with the Visigothic king Thorismund, ending the latter’s revolt against Rome just months after it had started. This only worsened Thorismund’s relations with his brothers Theodoric and Frederic, who, although opposed to his war, seem to have viewed the sudden peace as a sign of the king’s weakness and indecisiveness. Either way, they overthrew and killed him that same year, after which Theodoric became the new king of the Visigoths. in wikipedia

453–454 Ardaric’s rebellion ▲

Taking advantage of the civil war that broke out among the sons of Attila in 453, the Gepid king Ardaric led his people in an uprising against the Huns. This encouraged other tribes—perhaps including the Thuringians, Suebi, and Heruli—to also revolt and within in a year or so Ellac, Attila’s eldest son, was forced to put aside his differences with his brothers to deal with this new threat to his hegemony. in wikipedia

453 Peace of Mansuetus and Fronto ▲

In around 453 the Western Roman government sent the counts Mansuetus, comes Hispaniarum, and Fronto as envoys to Rechiar, king of the Suebi. After some negotiations, the Suebi accepted peace with Rome and probably also agreed to restore parts of Carthaginiensis to Roman rule. in wikipedia

454 Theodoric II’s Bagaudae campaign ▲

Having declared his allegiance to Rome, King Theodoric II of the Visigoths dispatched his brother Frederic into the north of the Diocese of Hispaniae in 454 to help restore order there. Frederic defeated and massacred the Bagaudae who were at large in Tarraconensis, successfully recovering much of the province for the Romans. in wikipedia

454 Battle of Nedao ▲

In around 454 Ardaric’s Gepids and their allies met their erstwhile Hunnic overlords and their loyal vassals near the Nedao, a river in Pannonia. The fierce battle that followed seemed to involve all the other Upper Danube tribes—Goths, Rugi, Suebi, Alans, Sarmatians, and Heruli—but eventually Ardaric’s “sword and conspiracy” saw the Gepids unexpectedly triumph. As many as thirty thousand of the Huns and their allies, including Attila’s eldest son Ellac, fell in the struggle, bringing an end to Hunnic hegemony north of the Danube. in wikipedia