Battle of Nedao

Battle of Nedao
Part of Germanic-Hunnic Wars
Date454
LocationPannonia
Result Decisive Germanic victory[1]
End of the Hunnic Empire
Belligerents
Gepids,
Ostrogoths,
Heruli
Rugii
Scirii
Suebi
Huns
Alani
Commanders and leaders
Ardaric
Theodemir
Valamir
King Ellac of the Huns [2]
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown c. 30 000

The Battle of Nedao, was a battle fought in Pannonia in 454. After the death of Attila the Hun, allied forces of the subject peoples under the leadership of Ardaric, king of the Gepids, defeated the Hunnic forces of Ellac, the son of Attila, who had struggled with his half-brothers Irnik and Dengizich for supremacy after Attila's death. According to the 6th-century historian Jordanes:

And so the bravest nations tore themselves to pieces. For then, I think, must have occurred a most remarkable spectacle, where one might see the Goths fighting with pikes, the Gepidae raging with the sword, the Rugi breaking off the spears in their own wounds, the Suavi fighting on foot, the Huns with bows, the Alani drawing up a battle-line of heavy-armed and the Heruli of light-armed warriors.[3]

Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result. The handful of Hunnic forces left were expelled by Ardaric after a long siege, the survivors fleeing to the Black sea.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Nic Fields, The Hun: Scourge of God AD 375-565, (Osprey, 2006), 16.
  2. Attila, N.Th.J. Voorwinden, A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes, transl. Tanis Guest, ed. Willem Pieter Gerritsen, Anthony G. Van Melle, (Boydell & Brewer, 2000), 46.
  3. Jordanes, Origins and History of the Goths, l.261.