Chieftain of the Huns (co-rulership)
Bleda
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Reign
| 434?445
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Predecessor
| Ruga
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Successor
| Attila
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Born
| c.
400
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Died
| c.
445
(aged 45)
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Father
| Mundzuk
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Bleda
(
) was a
Hunnic
ruler, the brother of
Attila
the Hun.
[1]
As nephews to
Rugila
, Attila and his elder brother Bleda succeeded him to the
throne
. Bleda's reign lasted for eleven years until his death. While it has been speculated by
Jordanes
that Attila murdered him on a hunting trip,
[2]
it is unknown exactly how he died. One of the few things known about Bleda is that, after the great Hun campaign of 441, he acquired a
Moorish
dwarf
named
Zerco
. Bleda was highly amused by Zerco and went so far as to make a suit of armor for the dwarf so that Zerco could accompany him on campaign.
Etymology
[
edit
]
Greek sources have
Βλ?δα?
and
Βλ?δα?
(Bledas),
Chronicon Paschale
Βλ?δα?
(Blidas),
and Latin
Bleda
.
Otto Maenchen-Helfen
considered the name to be of
Germanic
or Germanized origin, a short form of
Bladardus
,
Blatgildus
,
Blatgisus
.
Denis Sinor
considered that the name begins with consonant cluster, and as such it cannot be of
Altaic
origin.
In 455 is recorded the
Arian
bishop Bleda along
Genseric
and the
Vandals
,
[8]
and one of
Totila
generals also had the same name.
Omeljan Pritsak
considered its root
bli-
had typical vocalic metathesis of
Oghur-Bulgar
language from <
*bil-
, which is
Old Turkic
"to know".
Thus Hunnic
*bilda
>
blida
was actually Old Turkic
bilga
(wise, sovereign).
Bleda and Attila's rule
[
edit
]
By 432, the Huns were united under Rugila. His death in 434 left his nephews Attila and Bleda (the sons of his brother
Mundzuk
) in control over all the united Hun tribes. At the time of their accession, the Huns were bargaining with Byzantine emperor
Theodosius II
's envoys over the return of several renegade tribes who had taken refuge within the
Roman Empire
. The following year, Attila and Bleda met with the imperial legation at Margus (present-day
Po?arevac
) and, all seated on horseback in the Hunnic manner, negotiated a successful treaty: the Romans agreed not only to return the fugitive tribes (who had been a welcome aid against the
Vandals
), but also to double their previous tribute of 350 Roman pounds (ca. 114.5 kg) of gold, open their markets to Hunnish traders, and pay a ransom of eight
solidi
for each Roman taken prisoner by the Huns. The Huns, satisfied with the treaty, decamped from the empire and returned to their home, perhaps to consolidate and strengthen their empire. Theodosius used this opportunity to strengthen the walls of
Constantinople
, building the city's first sea wall, and to build up his border defenses along the
Danube
.
For the next five years, the Huns stayed out of Roman sight as they tried to invade the
Persian Empire
. A crushing defeat in
Armenia
caused them to abandon this attempt and return their attentions to
Europe
. In 440, they reappeared on the borders of the Roman Empire, attacking the merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been established by the treaty. Attila and Bleda threatened further war, claiming that the Romans had failed to fulfill their treaty obligations and that the Bishop of
Margus
had crossed the Danube to ransack and desecrate the royal Hun graves on the Danube's north bank. They crossed the Danube and laid waste to Illyrian cities and forts on the river, among them, according to Priscus,
Viminacium
(present-day
Kostolac
), which was a city of the
Moesians
in
Illyria
. Their advance began at Margus, for when the Romans discussed handing over the offending bishop, he slipped away secretly to the Huns and betrayed the city to them.
Theodosius had stripped the river's defenses in response to the Vandal
Gaiseric
's capture of
Carthage
in 440 and the
Sassanid
Yazdegerd II
's invasion of Armenia in 441. This left Attila and Bleda a clear path through Illyria into the
Balkans
, which they invaded in 441. The Hunnish army, having sacked Margus and Viminacium, took Singidunum (modern
Belgrade
) and
Sirmium
(modern
Sremska Mitrovica
) before halting. A lull followed in 442, and, during this time, Theodosius recalled his troops from
North Africa
and ordered a large new issue of coins to finance operations against the Huns. Having made these preparations, he thought it safe to refuse the Hunnish kings' demands.
Attila and Bleda responded by renewing their campaign in 443. Striking along the Danube, they overran the military centers of
Ratiaria
and successfully besieged
Naissus
(modern
Ni?
) with
battering rams
and other
siege engines
(military sophistication that was new to the Hun repertory), then, pushing along the
Ni?ava
, they took
Serdica
(Sofia),
Philippopolis
(Plovdiv) and
Arcadiopolis
(Luleburgaz). They encountered and destroyed the Roman force outside Constantinople and were only halted by their lack of siege equipment capable of breaching the city's massive walls. Theodosius admitted defeat and sent the court official
Anatolius
to negotiate peace terms, which were harsher than the previous treaty: the Emperor agreed to hand over 6,000 Roman pounds (ca. 1,963 kg) of gold as punishment for having disobeyed the terms of the treaty during the invasion; the yearly tribute was tripled, rising to 2,100 Roman pounds (ca. 687 kg) in gold; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner rose to twelve
solidi.
Their demands met for a time, the Hun kings withdrew into the interior of their empire. According to
Jordanes
(following Priscus), sometime during the peace following the Huns' withdrawal from Byzantium (probably around 445), Bleda died (killed by his brother, according to the classical sources), and Attila took the throne for himself. A few sources indicate that Bleda tried to kill Attila first, to which Attila retaliated.
In 448,
Priscus
encountered Bleda's widow, then governor of an unnamed village, while on an embassy to Attila's court.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Bleda is known by
Hungarian literature
as Buda. According to medieval sources,
Buda
the name of the historic capital of the
Kingdom of Hungary
derived from the name of its founder, Bleda, brother of Hunnic ruler
Attila
. The name of the
capital city
of
Hungary
,
Budapest
also comes from his name.
Attila
went in the city of Sicambria in Pannonia, where he killed Buda, his brother, and he threw his corpse into the
Danube
. For while
Attila
was in the west, his brother crossed the boundaries in his reign, because he named Sicambria after his own name Buda's Castle. And though King
Attila
forbade the Huns and the other peoples to call that city Buda's Castle, but he called it Attila's Capital, the Germans who were terrified by the prohibition named the city as Eccylburg, which means Attila Castle, however, the Hungarians did not care about the ban and call it Obuda [Old Buda] and call it to this day.
The
Scythians
are certainly an ancient people and the strength of
Scythia
lies in the east, as we said above. And the first king of
Scythia
was Magog, son of Japhet, and his people were called Magyars [Hungarians] after their King Magog, from whose royal line the most renowned and mighty King
Attila
descended, who, in the 451st year of Our Lord's birth, coming down from
Scythia
, entered Pannonia with a mighty force and, putting the Romans to flight, took the realm and made a royal residence for himself beside the
Danube
above the hot springs, and he ordered all the old buildings that he found there to be restored and he built them in a circular and very strong wall that in the Hungarian language is now called Budavar [Buda Castle] and by the Germans Etzelburg [Attila Castle]
Portrayals
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
- Media related to
Bleda
at Wikimedia Commons
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