Eskam (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

448-449 AD) was a

Hun 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 ...

living in 5th-century

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

, then under the

Hunnic Empire 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 ...

. He was possibly a shaman. His daughter was one of the numerous wives of

Attila the Hun Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

Etymology

Otto Maenchen-Helfen derived his name from

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

''as'', meaning "friend, companion", and ''qam'', meaning " shaman." Omeljan Pritsak instead derived the first element from Hunnic ''es/äs'' "great, old", while also deriving the second element from Altaic ''qām'' "sorcerer, pagan priest".

Biography

Given Maenchen-Helfen's etymology, it is possible that Eskam was a Hunnic shaman. He and his daughter are mentioned by Priscus in his account of his visit to the court of Attila], around 448 AD. During their voyage with the Hun king towards his favorite town, the paths of Priscus' envoy and the Hunnic king's temporarily separated as the king was to pay a visit to Eskam and marry his daughter. During their trip to Attila's favorite town, his envoy joined the king himself and a company of Huns, who were heading in the same direction after hunting in Roman territory. They spent one day at Attila's encampment and then departed with him. However, at a certain point they were forced to continue along a different route, as Attila was proceeding to a village where he would marry the daughter of a certain Eskam. The account of Priscus has survived only in fragments, and it is possible that this Eskam had already been mentioned in the now lost text. Priscus specifies that Attila would marry Eskam's daughter even though he had many other wives, since "the Scythians (i.e. Huns) practice polygamy".

References

{{Huns Year of birth unknown Huns