Inter mensas et pocula: commensalism and food as alogenous paradigms and its treatment in Priscus’historiography during the 5th century

Abstract

In this article we propose to analyze, in the context of the historiographic work of Priscus of Panion, the fragments relating to an expedition carried out in 449 by the delegates of the emperor Theodosius II at Attila’s camp. In particular, we will deal with Fr. 8, a singular autoptical story that is tinged with the hybrid and polymorphic character of the odei poric genus and in which the experience of the encounter with “the Others” is embedded. In this regard, we will focus our attention on the theme of food and the banquet as historical-anthropological markers of otherness. Our aim is to show that the convivial customs adopted by the Huns, rather than variations of practices in use in other steppe peoples - as has been written until recently - seem to be an imitation of the uses of the table at the Eastern imperial court. Our interpretation of the sources partially confirms the interpretation of current historiography which, overcoming a vision anchored in a total otherness of the Huns vis-à-vis the Romans (i.e., the Byzantines), defends open and fluid relations in the context of inevitable processes of assimilation.