Edeko

Edeko (with various spellings: Edeco, Edeko, Edekon, Edicon, Ediko, Edica, Ethico) was one or more prominent people living in the late fifth century during and after the life of Attile the Hun. Several different groups of records are relevant, which could in theory have been three people involved in the affairs of the Romans, Huns, and the peoples once rules by the Huns.

Firstly there was a prominent Hun, who served as both Attila's deputy and his ambassador to the Byzantine Empire (in 449).^[1][2] According to sources of the time, he distinguished himself for courage and skill in the battles of Naissus and the Uthus river, during the invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, thus becoming part of Attila's circle of favorite advisors, so much so that he put him in charge of a diplomatic mission in Constantinople, where the court treasurer, Chrysaphius, tried to bribe him to assassinate his king. Edeco seemed to agree, but as soon as he reached Attila's court he informed him of the plan and the Hun monarch unmasked the Roman ambassador.^[3][4][5]

A second group of records refer to Idikon or Edico,^[1] the father of Odoacer, who became a magister militum in the Roman Army and the first King of Italy (476–493).^[1] This same Ediko is also claimed a few hundred years later as an ancestor of the ducal House of Welf (a branch of the House of Este), which is one of the ancestral houses of the House of Hanover; the Hanoverian family produced several royal dynasties, and survives to the present-day.^{[citation needed]}

A third group of records are about a chieftain of the Sciri, who was defeated and slain at the Battle of Bolia by the Ostrogoths at the river Bolia in Pannonia sometime in the late 460s.^[6][7]

Etymology

Otto Maenchen-Helfen considered the Hunnic 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").^[8]