By the name Edeko (with various spellings: Edeco, Edeko, Edekon, Edicon, Ediko, Edica, Ethico) are considered three contemporaneous historical figures,[1] whom many scholars identify as one:
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]
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.
Otto Maenchen-Helfen considered the Hunnic name Έδέκων (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]
^Priscus, fragments 7 and 8, translated by C.D. Gordon, The Age of Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. 1966. pp. 70–93.