Edeko

Edeko, with various spellings including Edekon, Aediko, Idikon and Edica, was a prominent military leader in the fifth-century multiethnic empire of Attila the Hun, before he died in 453 AD. "Edekon" was sent by Attila on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople in 448/9, which was reported in detail by the Roman diplomat and historian Priscus of Panium, who returned with Edeko to the headquarters of Attila.

Scholars generally also believe that this "Edekon" was the same as "Edica", who was one of the two chiefs of the Sciri in 468/9 after the death of Attila, mentioned by the 6th-century historian Jordanes. Many of these Sciri were killed in two battles against the increasingly powerful group of Goths who came to be known as the Ostrogoths, which was another of the groups who had previously been part of Attila's empire. It is not clear if Edeko survived the second battle, but the Sciri were not mentioned anymore as an independent people after this.

Two more records exist saying that Aediko or Idikon was the name of the father of the well-known military leader Odoacer, who became ruler of Roman Italy. One of these records specifically mentions that Odoacer himself was Scirian, and that his brother "Onulf" was the one who killed Armatus. Odoacer's brother Onoulphus is therefore normally equated to the second Scirian chief who fought together with "Edica", and whose name Jordanes spelled as "Hunuulf".

The ethnicity and language of Edeko and his family before they became part of Attila's empire has been a subject of disagreement among scholars, as contemporary sources describe the affiliations of Edeko and his two sons in several different ways. A Greek fragment from the Suda which describes Onoulphus as Thuringian on the paternal side, and Scirian on the maternal side, implies that Edeko's connection to the Sciri was through his wife. The term "Thuringian", which by implication applies to Edeko, was not much mentioned in this period, and scholars believe that the Suda was rightly or wrongly using it to refer to the group which Jordanes called the "Turcilingi" when describing Edeko's son Odoacer. Little is known about either the Thuringi or Turcilingi in the 5th century, and there is no consensus about whether the Thuringians and Turcilingi really were the same people.

まず、古典時代の著述家の中で「エデコン」について言及しているのはプリスクスただ一人であり、彼は著名なフン族の人物で、448/9年にアッティラの副官とビザンツ帝国への大使の両方を務めた。^{[ 1 ] [ 2 ]}プリスクスはこのエデコンを個人的に知っていた。彼らはコンスタンティノープルからアッティラのもとへ一緒に旅をし、プリスクスはアッティラの本部で彼が関わったその後の議論や出来事を報告した。^{[ 3 ]}プリスクスはエデコンをスキタイ人であると同時にフン族の生まれ（ ὡς τοῦ Οὕννου γένος ）であると描写した。^{[ 4 ] [ 5 ]}

プリスクスは、ローマ出身の役人オレステスと対比させる一節（断片7）で、エデコをフン族の人間と呼んだ。通訳は、オレステスがアッティラの召使い兼秘書であったのに対し、エデコはフン族の最高の兵士であり、フン族出身であるため、フン族の中ではオレステスをはるかに凌駕する地位にあったとプリスクスに伝えた。プリスクスは、コンスタンティノープルでの議論中にエデコが通訳を必要としたと述べているが、同時に、当時のフン族はゴート語とフン語の両方を使用していたとも述べている。使節団の滞在中、ローマ人はエデコとオレステスを引き離し、エデコに賄賂を渡してアッティラを暗殺させようとした。この話し合いの中で、エデコは、アッティラの家臣の一人として駐屯部隊を任されており、アッティラに面会できる立場にあることを認めた。エデコはこの陰謀に加わることに同意したが、アッティラのもとに戻った際に、この陰謀をアッティラに暴露した。

第二に、オドアケルの父親の名前を記した記録は2つしかない。匿名のヴァレシアヌスは、父親の名前が「アエディコ」であったと報告しており、アンティオキアのヨハネは、父親の名前が「イディコン」であったと報告している。これらの資料はいずれも、オドアケルをスキリ族と関連付けている。^{[ 6 ]}

オドアケルの父の名前がアエディコであったことに加えて、匿名のヴァレシアヌスは、オドアケルがオレステスを殺害した際にスキリア人が同行していたことを記している。また、アッティラの時代にまで遡るつながりを裏付けるように、「オレステスはパンノニア人で、アッティラがローマに来た時に彼に加わり、秘書になった」と記している。^{[ 7 ]}

アンティオキアのヨハネは、オドアケルをアンテミウス皇帝（在位467～472年）時代のリキメルの同盟者として描写している。彼はオドアケルを「スキリ族と呼ばれる部族の男で、父はエデコ、兄弟はオヌルフであり、ハルマティウスの護衛であり、後に殺害者となった」と明確に描写している。^{[ 8 ]}

A third distinct mention is found in only one source, Jordanes, who described "Edica" as a chief of the Sciri. In the period after Attila's death, smaller ethnic kingdoms who had been part of his alliance appeared in the Middle Danubian region. Jordanes described how two of these, the Suebi and Sciri, were badly defeated by another—the Goths led by Valamir (the later "Ostrogoths"). Valamir himself, and almost all of the Sciri, were killed.^[9] Afterwards, the two leaders of the defeated Suevi, Hunimund and Alaric, called upon other groups to fight these Goths, now led by Valamir's brother Thiudimer. This included the "remnants of the Sciri", led by two chiefs named "Edica" and "Hunuulf", corresponding to the names of the father and brother of Odoacer according to John of Antioch. The Goths were victorious at the subsequent Battle of Bolia in 468/9.

Otto Maenchen-Helfen considered the name Ἐδέκων (Edekon) to be of Germanic or Germanized origin, but did not mention any derivation.^[1]

Omeljan Pritsak derived it from Old Turkic verbal root *edär- (to pursue, to follow), and deverbal noun suffix κων (kun < r-k < r-g < *gun).^[2] The reconstructed form is *edäkün (< *edär-kün; "follower, retainer").^[10]

• Krautschick, Stefan (1986). "Zwei Aspekte des Jahres 476". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte (in German). 35 (3): 344–371. JSTOR 4435971.
• Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1973). The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520015968.
• Macbain, Bruce (1983), "Odovacer the Hun?", Classical Philology, 78 (4): 323–327, JSTOR 269961
• Martindale, John R., ed. (1980). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume II, AD 395–527. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 385. ISBN 0-521-20159-4. (convenience link)
• Pohl, Walter (1986), "Edika", in Beck, Heinrich; Geuenich, Dieter; Steuer, Heiko (eds.), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 6 (2 ed.), De Gruyter, pp. 446–447, ISBN 978-3-11-010468-4
• Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan(PDF). Vol. IV. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISSN 0363-5570. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-12-13. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
• Reynolds, Robert L.; Lopez, Robert S. (1946). "Odoacer: German or Hun?". The American Historical Review. 52 (1): 36–53. doi:10.1086/ahr/52.1.36. JSTOR 1845067.