TURUN YLIOPISTON JULKAISUJA ANNALES UNIVERSITATIS TURKUENSIS SARJA - SER. B OSA - TOM. 373 HUMANIORA THE NATURE OF NOMADIC POWER Contacts between the Huns and the Romans during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries by Päivi Kuosmanen TURUN YLIOPISTO UNIVERSITY OF TURKU Turku 2013 From the Faculty of Humanities Department of General History University of Turku Finland Supervised by: Professor Auvo Kostiainen Department of General History University of Turku Finland Reviewed by: Professor Auvo Kostiainen Department of General History University of Turku Finland Dr. Docent Katariina Mustakallio Department of History University of Tampere Finland Dr. Thomas Brüggemann Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg Germany Opponent: Dr. Thomas Brüggemann Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg Germany The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. ISBN 978-951-29-5586-2 (PRINT) ISBN 978-951-29-5587-9 (PDF) ISSN 0082-6987 Painosalama Oy – Turku, Finland 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Overview to the Research 1 1.2. Previous Research 3 1.3. The Aim of the Research 5 1.4. The Methodology 7 1.5. Central Concepts of the Research 11 1.6. Primary Sources 18 1.7. Structure of the Work 21 2. ROMAN AUTHORS’ WAYS OF WRITING ABOUT THE HUNS 23 2.1. Characteristics of the Huns Defined by Environment 24 2.2. Images of Nomads and Nomadic Way of Life 31 2.3. Educated Storytelling and the Accounts of the Huns 37 3. NEW NOMADIC ARRIVALS? THE FIRST DESCRIPTIONS OF THE HUNS 55 3.1. The Xiongnu, Ourougoundoi, Khounoi and Chuni: Ancestors of the Huns? 55 3.2. The Arrival of Many “Huns” and Actions with the Alans 59 3.3. The Frames of a Pastoral Nomadic Way of Life and the Actions of the Huns 62 3.4. The Huns and the Alans and Contacts with the Goths 70 4. GROUPS OF HUNS AND FIRST CONTACTS WITH THE ROMANS 74 4.1. Acts of Scattered Groups of Huns near the Danube and the Balkans 74 4.2. Primates and Phylarkhos – Military Leaders of the Huns? 78 4.3. Raiding Troops of Basich and Kursich in Contacts with Persia and the Roman Empire 86 5. AIMS TO INCREASE THE POWER OF HUN LEADERS? A HUN LEADER ULDIN 90 5.1. A Friend and an Enemy of the Eastern Roman Empire 90 5.2. Leader of All the Actions of the Huns? 94 5.3. Abandoned during a Raiding Operation: The End of Uldin 98 5.4. Scattered Groups of Huns in the Beginning of the 410s 104 6. VARIATIONS IN THE TITLES OF NOMAD LEADERS 106 6.1. The Hun Leader Charaton as “the first of the kings” 106 6.2. Images of Nomadic Kingship in Antiquity 111 6.3. The Liberty of Storytelling: The Countless Titles of Nomad Leaders 114 7. UNITING GROUPS OF HUNS AND LOCALS – RUA AND OCTAR 121 7.1. Contacts with the Romans in the 420s – The Strengthening Position of Hun Leaders? 121 7.2. Wars, Treaties and Mercenary Activity between the Groups of Huns and Romans 125 7.3. Rua Confidently Leading the Confederation during the 430s 135 8. STENGTHENING THE MIGHT OF THE CONFEDERATION – THE HUN BROTHERS BLEDA AND ATTILA IN THE 440s 142 8.1. From Uncle to Nephews - Bleda and Attila in the Footsteps of Rua 142 8.2. Creating Security and Bringing Profits 151 8.3. Friends and Foes – Hun Leaders and Contacts with the Romans 158 9. THE RISE OF A SUPERCOMPLEX CHIEFDOM AMONG THE HUNS? 170 9.1. Internal Conditions and External Influences – Towards a Supercomplex Chiefdom? 171 9.2. A Supercomplex Chiefdom Evolving among the Huns – Evidence in Support of the View 179 9.3. Elements of a Supercomplex Chiefdom that are Missing 191 10. THE FALL AND DISPERSAL OF THE HUNS 199 10.1. Attila’s Constant Need to Gain Riches 199 10.2. Desperate Acts to Please Followers: The Last Years of Attila 206 10.3. Fragmentation of Groups of Huns Again 210 10.4. A Cycle in the Nomadic Way of Life – The Existence of “The Hun Kings and Empire”? 217 11. THE HUNS AND THE NOMADIC WAY OF LIFE 220 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I started to write my thesis in December 2006 and since then I have lived in fifteen different addresses in eight different cities in five different countries. Accordingly, from time to time I have felt like a nomad: a homeless wanderer accompanied by my laptop and books looking for what one wants to gain most – in my case it was not booty, prey but knowledge and academic contacts. My travels have been of grants granted to me to carry out research for my PhD thesis, and I am in debt to each one of the grantors. I am also very grateful to all who have shared their knowledge and supervised me over the years. Because of my travelling the list of persons that I would like to thank is enormous, but in order to keep the acknowledgements at reasonable length I cannot name them all. Therefore, all of you whose names should be listed here, my warmest thanks go to you. I am extremely grateful to my professors from University of Turku, Department of General History, emeritus-Professor Kalervo Hovi and Professor Auvo Kostiainen who have always kindly supported me in carrying on and given valuable comments to the various drafts as they evolved. In addition, I am in great dept to my mentor, teacher Risto Hämäläinen at Open University of Turku for his long-lasting and inspiring guidance not only to my work, but also me personally. Without the multi-level discussions together with him and his strong belief in my topic, the first steps in my research would have been much harder. I must admit that due to my travels, supervision has not always been easy. Therefore, my special thanks go to Docent Maijastina Kahlos from University of Helsinki, department of Classics, who invited me to write the PhD thesis as part of her research group “Otherness in Late-Roman World”, and the Finnish Academy who funded Kahlos’ project and my thesis during the first years and periodically later on. I do not have enough words to express my gratitude for Kahlos of her continuous interest and unfailing, high-level supervision to my work until the very end. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Markus Mertaniemi and Dr. Marika Rauhala, the members of our research group, for their warm friendship and lively academic discussions that have been endless sources of inspiration and made science more joyful. My topic, Huns and the nature of nomadic power, is uncommon in Finland and hence I feel privileged to have been granted grants that have given me the opportunity to write my thesis abroad. I wish to extend my deep gratitude to the Emil Aaltonen Foundation for their grant and to the Finnish Cultural Foundation for their one year grant that made it possible to write my thesis in Finland. In addition, I am grateful for the grants that allowed me to go abroad, without them I would not have been able to spend days in many excellent libraries and meet many high-level specialists in my research field. Therefore, I am in great dept to the Finnish Cultural Foundation that granted a special grant to Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf to carry out my work. The time in Schloss Wiepersdorf made it possible to use many comprehensive libraries and the archaeological collections related to the Huns in different museums around Germany and the neighbouring countries giving profound input to my research. Furthermore, the grant supported me in meeting with outstanding German scholars in the field of nomadic studies: Professor Jan Bemman in Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, and Professor Charlotte Schubert in Universität Leipzig, Alte Geschichte Dr. Alexander Koch, leader of Deutschen Historischen Museums in Berlin. The discussions with all the mentioned scholars inspired me to develop my ideas further. I am also honoured by the interest of Professor Nikolay N. Kradin, Head and Professor of the Department of World History, in the Far-Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, my work and his highly stimulating and helpful guidance in the question of the nature of nomadic power. Moreover, I am grateful to Professor Walter Pohl, Austrian Academy of Science and Director of Institute for Middle Ages Research in Wien, who strongly encouraged me to concentrate on the concept of barbarian kingship. I also warmly thank Docent Dr. Antti Ruotsala, University of Helsinki, General History, for many academic discussions that supported me to focus on nomadic nature of the Huns. I am also in deep gratitude to the Rotary organization of Eastern Finland and the state of Israel whose funding made it possible for me to write my PhD thesis for a year at Tel Aviv University, Department of Classics under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Isaac. I am deeply honoured by the expertise that Professor Isaac gave to my work not only in styles of academic writing but also dealing with the concept of otherness. My warmest thanks also go to Dr. Avshalom Laniado, at Tel Aviv University, History Department whose fundamental knowledge of the history of Byzantium and Priscus I had the privilege of enjoying on many discussions. The last steps and the final work in my research would not have been possible without holding the position of Research Coordinator at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East. Therefore, I thank the Institute and the foundation of the Institute from the bottom of my heart.