Μέδος and Kάμον in Priscus

In his account of a visit to Attila’s court in 449 CE, Priscus refers to two beverages (μέδος and κάμον) provided to the embassy from Constantinople by villagers north of the Danube. Although these terms are sometimes seen as Hunnic, Priscus describes his hosts simply as βάρβαροι. As both words have good Indo-European cognates, they are probably not from the language of the Huns. The evidence that κάμον is a term from an unknown Pannonian tongue is equally weak. Both μέδος and κάμον may in fact be ordinary fifth-century Latin nouns in Greek form.