Definition: Priscus of Panium (Panion) is one of the main sources on Attila the Hun. Priscus was a 5th-century Roman bureaucrat, rhetorician, and historian from Thrace who wrote his, now lost, 8-book history covering at least 433/4 to 472, in Greek. He accompanied Maximinus on an expedition to Attila in 449 B.C.
Fragments of Priscus' history survive in Byzantine works, mostly compiled under the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-59). Jordanes used Priscus for his Gothic history (Getica). In the 6th century Procopius also used Priscus.
The style of Priscus is described as "classicizing" and borrows from/imitates Thucydides.
Priscus uses the terms Huns and Scythians interchangeably.
Sources:
- Peter John Heather " Priscus " The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. © Oxford University Press 1949, 1970, 1996, 2005.
- The Historians of Late Antiquity, by David Rohrbacher; Routledge, 2002.
