Atakam

Atakam
Prince of the Huns
BornPannonia, Hunnic Empire
DiedCarsum, Thrace
Cause of deathImpalement

Atakam was a young Hun prince who was impaled by Attila.

He was a young member of the royal house and a fugitive who deflected to the Romans. After the Huns and the Romans concluded a treaty whereby "all the Scythian (i.e., Hunnic) fugitives must be returned", he and fellow Hun royal family member Mamas were handed over to the Huns and impaled. He was impaled near Carsum, in Thrace.[1][2]

Priscus uses a Greek word meaning "suspension" for the method of execution, which can also be read as "crucifixion". Peter Heather, who reads the word as "impaling", further noted that "Impaling seems to have been the main method of dealing with most problems in the Hunnic world."[3]

  1. ^ Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (2022). Knight, Max (ed.). The World of the Huns Studies in Their History and Culture. University of California Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780520357204. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  2. ^ Kim, Hyun Jin (2015). The Huns. Taylor & Francis. p. 93. ISBN 9781317340911. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  3. ^ Cook, John Granger (2018). Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World. Mohr Siebeck. p. 307. ISBN 9783161560019. Retrieved 26 October 2022.