The allies and subject tribes of the Huns

[CarlL]

Having recently completed painting a 25mm Hun army, I thought I would paint up some allies and subjects for them. I realise its a big question in sense that the Huns made an impact (in Europe) well before meeting and invading Roman territory, and it is the period from their clashes with the Goths till Atilla's death that I am 'focusing' on.

Having painted 15mm Goths before (when armed with Roy Boss's book on Justinian's Wars) I felt I had a 'handle' on what I wanted from my 25mm Goth allies / subjects.
 
The mysterious Gepids and Heruls / Herulii are another matter.

I recently bought the 2 volume "The Goths" by Michael Fredholm von Essen (SoA publications) and the first volume threw some light on the Herul warriors (see for example illustration on page 15 in plate C, of a bare torso, red dyed hair Herul with small round shield and spear) while the same chapter describes the Gepids as "a nation culturally close to the Goths" (page 14). 

It appears these two 'nations' could be Germanic and 'Baltic' in their cultural and material ties.

So this left me wondering if I should use early Goth (as opposed to later Visigoth Spanish kingdom) style figures for cavalry and infantry in my Gepids, with a mix of early to later Germanic figures?
As for the Herul cavalry should I use a similar mix of figures as for Gepid cavalry, (eg Goth and Germanic)?

Then of course there are questions of colours, but given the Celtic culture used lots of natural dyes then I assume these 'technologies' and knowledge would still be in use in later eastern and northern Europe.

Anyone like to throw in their knowledge or pointers to other sources? All advice much welcomed.
CarlL
 

[Duncan Head]

Donnington do a 15mm Herul in the Romano-Byzantine section of their "Originals" range. He's wearing a crossover-fronted padded coat in the style seen in some Vendel art - based on the interpretations in Roy Boss's Montvert book on the Armies of Justinian, based on turn on the somewhat vague description in Procopius.

Archaeology suggests that the Gepids were quite similar to their Lombard neighbours, except that they wore their knives on the opposite side of their belts. And they mocked the Lombards' white leg-wrappings - the Gepids wore proper trousers instead!

[CarlL]

Having spent some time opening boxes of painted and unpainted 25mm, I could probably field 'look alike' Gepids and Heruls, mounted and foot, from my Germanic boxes, mind I also have some unpainted Citadel 25mm that would make good Gepid and Herul cavalry once painted and possibly given bigger horse models. Tempting...

I did fancy painting up some Herul foot warriors, a la Michael Fredholm von Essen illustration, but DBMM (list II/80) only allows four Ps elements, (half bow half javelin armed) so not as exciting as I had hoped!

CarlL

[aligern]

What has to be dealt with referring to Heruls is Jordanes statement that theey are light armed. Top of my head I think they are in a contrasting couplet with heavy armed Sarmatians. There is another mention of this in another source.  In Paul the Deacon the Heruls fight the Lombards whilst the Herul king Rodolf awaits the result. Rodolf when his men get beaten.  Now I would see this as a linear battle, so the Heruls are not just skirmishers. They may be more like the good old LHI , but quite fierce ones as there slaves can gain freedom by fighting bravely which again sirt of fits with them fighting hand to hand.

I now see the Heruls as being very retro, fighting like ancient Germans. Thus they a bare chested and wear short cloaks. So, Karl, I suggest the Heruls are High factor LHI , or even good line infantry.
And Gepids are breakaway Goths!
Roy

[Duncan Head]

What has to be dealt with referring to Heruls is Jordanes statement that theey are light armed. Top of my head I think they are in a contrasting couplet with heavy armed Sarmatians.

Jordanes XXIII:

Now the aforesaid race, as the historian Ablabius tells us, dwelt near Lake Maeotis in swampy places which the Greeks call helé; hence they were named Heluri. They were a people swift of foot, and on that account were the more swollen with pride, for there was at that time no race that did not choose from them its light-armed troops for battle. But though their quickness often saved them from others who made war upon them, yet they were overthrown by the slowness and steadiness of the Goths;

Jordanes L:

And so the bravest nations tore themselves to pieces. For then, I think, must have occurred a most remarkable spectacle, where one might see ... the Alani drawing up a battle-line of heavy-armed and the Heruli of light-armed warriors.

[CarlL]

Duncan and Roy,

This issue (ie are the Herul infantry closely drawn up warriors willing to go toe to toe with any enemy, or skirmishers, fleet of foot but quick to get away, so avoiding close combat) reminds me of the previous debate about the Berber infantry used by the Arabs to conquer Visigoth Spain.

Sometimes the rule writing gets in the way of the 'historic' (so far as we know) actions of the likes of the foot Heruls. Perhaps they should be able to do both skirmish and close order combat, some rules make these different warrior qualities and so different troop types, eg the Psiloi and Warband of DBA (and of DBx in general). Others go for the old 'must be a peltast' quality, so Armati would have LHI or LI, just like old WRG had LMI; while I suppose DBA / DBx added yet another troop type, the Auxilia (Roman and otherwise!).

This kind of division seems to live on in rules like To The Strongest, where Light Infantry are skirmishers and Javelinmen close order warriors; although he also has Auxilia.

Perhaps one day (it may already exist in ancient rule sets) there will be the capacity (in a set of rules) for a chieftain to form up his body of warriors in close order like shieldwall for melee, and / or send off some or many to skirmish (possibly retrieving survivors back in the battleline or the battleline moving up to re-absorb them); and for one body to become two bodies of men skirmishers to fore battleline to rear; without the distinctions leading to two different types forever separate.

I suppose many rules go close to this, eg DBx allowing some psiloi to support front ranks of 'fighters' or Armati allowing ancient German infantry to support German cavalry.

So I see possibility in Jordanes of the Herul being lightly armed, (ie shield and spear / javelin, no body armour, no helmet, as described by Michael Fredholm von Essen), but being both capable of forming a battleline to oppose heavier armed troops and of skirmishing in good or poor terrain.

And thank you both for your comments.
CarlL

PS I am trying to resist the wargamer in me from fielding some tabletop close order lightly armed Herul foot alongside equally lightly armed Herul cavalry (although I have not yet found any description of their cavalry) with skirmishers a foot to harass the enemy - just for the sheer hell of it!!

[aligern]

Us wargamers are very concerned about armour and it is mentioned as a meaningful distinction in several description.  However, armour is much less important than the shield and being experienced and fierce.If the warrior has a decent shield and is aggressive tgen he is most of the way there. Its instructive that Greek hoplites evolve into using hoplon, spear, helmet and greaves, saving weight on the cuirass( unless maybe an officer). At Casilinumin 554 the Dismounted Heruls in Narses Byzantine army are meant to be inserted into the battle line to meet the pointy bit of a gigantic Frankish wedge. That hardly fits with them being some sort of loose order dodgers and divers.
The Heruls are great fighters, I think its in Agathias that Herul troops on detachment choose to fight to the death rather than accept disgrace. Thus I suggest that they would be effective lights, but also capable of firming up close and fighting in line quite effectively.
If you go to the Warflute site and look at Tourney approved armies I think you will find that we gave Heruls in Odovakar's army the opportunity of being in more than one deployment option .
Roy

[CarlL]

Coming back to the HERULs (as I am painting some figures to represent them!)

If I summarise the above and add bits, and of course add much hypothesis in terms of generating a DBA list afresh!

From the discussion above, I wondered which DBA army list best represented the Heruls who fought with and against Huns and Goths.

To summarise the above discussion, with thanks to Duncan Head for the quotes from Jordanes: [Jordanes XXIII]
" the historian Ablabius tells us, dwelt near Lake Maeotis in swampy places which the Greeks call helé; hence they were named Heluri. They were a people swift of foot, and on that account were the more swollen with pride, for there was at that time no race that did not choose from them its light-armed troops for battle. But though their quickness often saved them from others who made war upon them, yet they were overthrown by the slowness and steadiness of the Goths" And [Jordanes  L]
"And so the bravest nations tore themselves to pieces. For then, I think, must have occurred a most remarkable spectacle, where one might see ... the Alani drawing up a battle-line of heavy-armed and the Heruli of light-armed warriors."

And from Roy Boss (Aligern on SoA Forum): 'At Casilinumin 554 the Dismounted Heruls in Narses Byzantine army are meant to be inserted into the battle line to meet the pointy bit of a gigantic Frankish wedge. That hardly fits with them being some sort of loose order dodgers and divers. The Heruls are great fighters, I think its in Agathias that Herul troops on detachment choose to fight to the death rather than accept disgrace. Thus I suggest that they would be effective lights, but also capable of firming up close and fighting in line quite effectively.'

As noted earlier, this led me to think: 'So I see possibility in Jordanes of the Herul being lightly armed, (ie shield and spear / javelin, no body armour, no helmet, as described by Michael Fredholm von Essen), but being both capable of forming a battleline to oppose heavier armed troops and of skirmishing in good or poor terrain.'

Elsewhere, (but I have not noted where! Was it Phil Barkers notes under army list? Or anothers reference to Procopius?) I read of the suggestion that the Herul cavalry wore thick jackets for self defence, but this seems contradicted by Michael Fredholm von Essen's description of them going into battle with bare torso, as part of a common warrior cult among Heruls, linked to Wodan / Odin. 
So I have gone with idea of cavalry being spear and shield armed, possibly with long sword and or dagger, perhaps carrying a cloak, but otherwise bare-chested and forsaking helmets and body armour.

Overall the Herul willingness to 'mix it' with their enemies suggests DBA categories like Kn for cavalry and 3Wb for infantry. I am not sure how their slaves fitted into this structure. Or if they 'deployed' skirmishers beyond their main battleline to open the battle, or cover the battleline forming up and advancing.
 
So to return to which list best matches the above. Would it be II/67b Other under Greuthungi, early Ostrogothis, Herul [and others] or did this have too much charging cavalry [Kn] for an army arising from wetland / marshland ? Should it be the earlier, II/47g ie Other Early Germanic, or is the solid foot slogging 4Wb not representative of these fleet of foot warriors? What then of their 'cousins' the Gepids, in list II/71? Again the 4Wb and heavy presence of psiloi archers suggests, 'No'. So what did I come up with!?

How about a 12 element DBA Herul army with following components?

A general either 3Kn or 3Wb.
0, or 1 to 2, 3Kn cavalry.
8 to 11, 3Wb.
0, or 1 to 3, Ps with javelins and shield.

Should there be an option for one (or more) archer Ps, given how archery was used by other Germanic tribes, and their opponents and allies, like Goths and Huns used archers?

Is there any archaeology of Herul graves to suggest impact made by others archery? Although Troels Brandt, in 'The Heruls', notes that Procopius states the Heruls cremated their dead so no grave goods! [page 28 of 'unfinished' essay at https://www.svavarsson.is/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/heruls.pdf ] Yet, Brandt suggests [page 29] that grave(s) in Moravia-Marchfeld, are of Herul nobility, contained 'reflex-bow' and 'arrowheads' (and 'horse equipment').. So contradictory or just a confused timeline with practices changing as the Heruls collided with other cultures, and styles of warfare?

CarlL

[aligern]

Carl, you rabise a very interesting and long unresolved point . On a broad point, 'What is the impact of interaction between  steppe horse archers and Germanic tribes that have moved onto the steppe?' and 'What are the Herulian Huns' .

To the first point there is no doubt that German elites adopted the contus from Sarmatians and Alans, though not as an exclusive weapon set. Secondly that Germanic tribes greatly increased the use of the bow for military purposes and that the elites used the bow when on foot. ( Sligern is said to be performing feats of archery at the seige of Capua. They most likely hunted with bows from horseback.  iIRC the Herulian Huns appear in Procopius quite early on. They may be Heruls, they may be Huns from the black Sea coast that was previously the home of the Heruls in the third and fourth century.
For the Germanic  warrior elite owning a bow and using it fir hunting is not the same as being a horse archer and operating as such . To be effective horse archers need to be in units and operate as such. We know at least some of the manoeuvres that horse archer units used and they require drill, not only of the men, but of the horses. Rather like the Germanic cavalry described in the 1st century AD as making a half turn to the left and riding along the enemy front throwing javelins whilst protected by their shields. That too would require training , at the very least, in following a leader, turning together and throwing the javelin in a formation that allows the throwers to be in single file as they ride and throw.
Similarly with horse archers. Being buried with a bow does not tell us that the man belonged to a unit that could perform a range of complex synchronised manoeuvres.
We also know that in the fifth century people of other ethnicities became Huns.  Priscus met one . The Hun method of control of barbarian subject tribes appears to stretch from keeping to a treaty, doing as you were told , to having your ruling class intermarry with Hun nobles or royals and on to the substitution of your leadership with Huns or close Hun allies.  It is entirely possible that numbers of Huns were thus imposed upon tge subject tribes and that these men and their descendants would carry with them Hun weapons and gear. That would not lead to them operating as Huns on the battlefield because they would be too few and would be leading the forces of the tribe they ruled.  There is a good case for this being so with the Sciri and maybe the Gepids and certainly with a Turkic/ Hunnic tribe ( The Kutrigurs)who would, of course be horse archers.
Might I suggest that two Psiloi would be a better bet for a tribe famed for its light troops.?
Roy

[Duncan Head]

Elsewhere, (but I have not noted where! Was it Phil Barkers notes under army list? Or anothers reference to Procopius?) I read of the suggestion that the Herul cavalry wore thick jackets for self defence...

This is from Procopius "Wars" II.25.27:

For the Eruli have neither helmet nor corselet nor any other protective armour, except a shield and a thick jacket, which they gird about them before they enter a struggle. And indeed the Erulian slaves go into battle without even a shield, and when they prove themselves brave men in war, then their masters permit them to protect themselves in battle with shields. Such is the custom of the Eruli.

"Jacket" is τριβώνιον/tribonion, which is a diminutive of "tribon", a word classically used for the thin cloaks of Spartans and philosophers. Precisely what it means in this context - a cloak or, as in Dewing's translation some sort of jacket, is a bit uncertain.

[CarlL]

Thank you Duncan.

CarlL

[stevenneate]

Carl - Turn this into a Slingshot article. It's an interesting subject with a practical gamer's outcome.

[Martin Smith]

Carl - Turn this into a Slingshot article. It's an interesting subject with a practical gamer's outcome.

Great idea ✔️✔️✔️

[stevenneate]

And in light of the Editor's very recent plea for more material, doubly see the need for it to be turned into an article. Maybe titled "The Herul of Woe" or "Get Your Gepid On"?

The readers are Hun-gry for more, you might say.