Ascan (died 19 April 531) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux' ...

'' of

Hunnish The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

descent. He fought at the

Battle of Dara The Battle of Dara was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians in 530 AD. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War. Procopius's account of this engagement is among the most detailed descriptions of a late Roman battle. Bac ...

in 530, and at the

Battle of Callinicum The Battle of Callinicum took place on Easter Saturday, 19 April 531 AD, between an army of the Byzantine Empire under Belisarius and a Sasanian cavalry force commanded by Azarethes. After being defeated at the Battle of Dara, the Sasanians move ...

one year later, where he put up a brave fight when his flank was exposed, dying on the field.

Biography

He was one of several warriors of Hunnic descent fighting for the Byzantine Empire; the Huns were known to "fight like tigers when driven to bay" and to "die sword in hand". Ascan fought at the

in 530 AD, where he commanded 600 horsemen (constituting the right-hand Hunnic cavalry force) together with fellow Hunnic commander

Simmas Simmas () was a Hunnic general in the service of the Byzantine Empire, serving as ''dux'' (regional military commander). Active in the early 6th century, he fought at the Battle of Dara, commanding six hundred horseman along with fellow Hun comma ...

. He, Simmas and the other two Hunnic commanders,

Sunicas Sunicas ( el, Σουνίκας) was a Hun who served in the Byzantine military during the Iberian War, in the early reign of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565). Biography According to Zacharias of Mytilene, Sunicas was a Hun who fled to the Byzan ...

and Aïgan, played a fundamental role in the Roman victory of this battle. He led the greater part of the Byzantine cavalry, made up of

cataphracts A cataphract was a form of armored heavy cavalryman that originated in Persia and was fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa. The English word derives from the Greek ' (plural: '), literally meaning "armored" or "co ...

, at the

. Here, the Persians tried to defeat the Romans as they had in vain attempted at Dara, by deploying their cavalry to try and attack a weak spot in the Roman army.

Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terri ...

did not observe this action, which proved to be a turning point. The

Ghassanids The Ghassanids ( ar, الغساسنة, translit=al-Ġasāsina, also Banu Ghassān (, romanized as: ), also called the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe which founded a kingdom. They emigrated from southern Arabia in the early 3rd century to the Levan ...

, allies of the Romans in this battle, were easily routed (so much as to later arise suspicions of treachery). The Byzantine Lycaonian infantry were no match for the Persian cavalry, and were also routed, and their commanders killed. Finally, the right flank of Ascan's cavalry was exposed. He and his men fought as best as they could, but were ultimately defeated, and Ascan was killed.

George Philip Baker George Philip Baker (Plumstead, 21 May 1879 – 19 April 1951) was a British author, who published several popular history books in the 1920s and 1930s. Life As Baker was deaf from eight years old, he couldn't serve in the English army, but he wo ...

remarked that "as soon as Belisarius saw that Ascan, the Hun leader, was down, he knew what to expect." They dismounted and let loose their horses. The Byzantines, pressed against the river, formed a U-shaped ''

phoulkon The ''phoulkon'' ( gr, φοῦλκον), in Latin fulcum, was an infantry formation utilized by the military of the late Roman and Byzantine Empire. It is a formation in which an infantry formation closes ranks and the first two or three lines ...

'' formation to defend themselves. They withstood the Persian attacks until nightfall, when they safely escaped across the Euphrates to Callinicum (modern-day

Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish languages, Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. T ...

in Syria). The result of the battle was an inconclusive Sassanian

Pyrrhic victory A Pyrrhic victory ( ) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress. The phrase originates from a quote from P ...

References

{{Huns Huns Generals of Justinian I People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars Byzantine people of Hunnic descent 531 deaths