Edeko

Edekon (also Edika; † 469 in Pannonia on the middle Danube ) was a prince of the Skiren in the 5th century.

Life

Edekon was a confidant of Attila the Hun. He also took diplomatic tasks for this and traveled around the years 448/449 together with Attila's secretary Flavius ​​Orestes after Constantine Opel. In this context, he had bribed to assassinate Attila, the Hun, however, betrayed the plan. The Eastern Roman diplomat Priscus reports that Edekon was a respected warrior among the Huns and was in the inner circle of Attila.

After the death of Attila in 453 Edekon was the leadership of the Skiren to the Carpathian region. He allied himself with the Gepids Ardaric against the sons of Attila. The Gepid troops and their allies were victorious in the Battle of Nedao ( in the year 454 or 455 ). In the Great Plain, the Great Hungarian Plain, Edekon erected a short time only existing Skirenreich. In the year 468, there were battles with the Goths who settled in Pannonia and a skirisches squad beat devastating. Edekon joined an alliance of Gepids, Suevi and other tribes, which was probably also favored by the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I, but was subject to the anti- Gothic coalition 469 in the Battle of the Bolia, fell in Edekon.

The Skirenreich collapsed, many Skiren occurred in the Roman army. A son Edekons, Onoulf, rose to the Eastern Empire to the Master of the Soldiers, while another son, Odoacer, went to the Western Empire and rose rapidly in the local military. Odoacer met on the General Flavius ​​Orestes, whose son Romulus Augustulus briefly functioned in the year 475 as a shadow emperor, Orestes killed before Odoacer in 476 and deposed Romulus Augustulus.

The ethnic origin Edekons ( and Odoacer ) is controversial in the research, because the sources do not provide detailed statements or contradict each part; later Byzantine sources call him a Thuringian ( Malchus of Philadelphia ) or as Goths ( Theophanes ). Wolfram Brandes 2009 East Roman owing to the inclusion / Byzantine sources ( such as the Suda Lexicon ) advocates to consider Edekon and Odoacer as members of the Thuringian royal family. It could also be a misunderstanding because Edekons alleged affiliation with the skirischen " royal family " of the Turkistan Lingen ( who may not even exist) act. However, ethnicity was not a big priority in Late Antiquity, anyway, and a person could quite times as germane, are referred to sometimes as a Hun. Is hampered a more accurate classification by the fact that can not be determined beyond all doubt whether the different responses of the name refer to the same person.