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Attila the Hun

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures;
Military People

    Attila the Hun
     King of Huns
   Reign       434 – 453
   Born        ~406
   Died        453
   Predecessor Bleda
   Successor   Ellac

   Attila the Hun (405–453), also sometimes known with the nickname as
   Attila the Scourge of God (Flagellum Dei) or simply Attila was the most
   powerful king of the Huns.

   He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire, from 434 until
   his death. His empire stretched from Germany and the Netherlands to the
   Ural river and from the Danube River to Poland and Estonia. During his
   rule, he was among the most dire of the Western and Eastern Roman
   Empire's enemies: he invaded the Balkans twice and besieged
   Constantinople in the second invasion; he marched through Gaul (modern
   day France) as far as Orleans before being defeated at the Battle of
   Chalons; and he drove the western emperor Valentinian III from his
   capital at Ravenna in 452. He was regarded as sacker of cities.

   Though his empire died with him and he left no amazing legend, he has
   become a legendary figure in the history of Europe. In much of Western
   Europe, he is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. In
   contrast, some histories lionize him as a great and noble king, and he
   plays major roles in three Norse sagas.

Background

   The Huns, led by Attila (right, foreground), ride into Italy.
   Enlarge
   The Huns, led by Attila (right, foreground), ride into Italy.

   The origin of the European Huns has been the subject of debate for
   centuries; however, it can be said with general agreement that they
   were a confederation of Eurasian tribes, most likely of diverse origin
   with a Turkic-speaking aristocracy, who appeared in Europe in the 4th
   century. They achieved military superiority over their rivals (most of
   them highly cultured and civilized) by their readiness for combat,
   unusual mobility, and weapons like the Hun bow.

   Nothing is known about Attila's youth except for the day he was born.
   He first appears in the historical record when he becomes joint king of
   the Huns with his brother Bleda.

Shared kingship

   The Hunnish empire stretched from the steppes of Central Asia into
   modern Germany, and from the Danube river to the Baltic Sea
   Enlarge
   The Hunnish empire stretched from the steppes of Central Asia into
   modern Germany, and from the Danube river to the Baltic Sea

   By 432, the Huns were united under Rugila. In 434, Rugila died, leaving
   his nephews Attila and Bleda, the sons of his brother Mundzuk, in
   control over all the united Hun tribes. At the time of their accession,
   the Huns were bargaining with Theodosius II's envoys over the return of
   several renegade tribes who had taken refuge within the Byzantine
   Empire. The following year, Attila and Bleda met with the imperial
   legation at Margus (present-day Požarevac) and, all seated on horseback
   in the Hunnic manner, negotiated a successful treaty: the Romans agreed
   not only to return the fugitive tribes (who had been a welcome aid
   against the Vandals), but also to double their previous tribute of 350
   Roman pounds (ca. 114.5 kg) of gold, open their markets to Hunnish
   traders, and pay a ransom of eight solidi for each Roman taken prisoner
   by the Huns. The Huns, satisfied with the treaty, decamped from the
   empire and departed into the interior of the continent, perhaps to
   consolidate and strengthen their empire. Theodosius used this
   opportunity to strengthen the walls of Constantinople, building the
   city's first sea wall, and to build up his border defenses along the
   Danube.

   The Huns remained out of Roman sight for the next five years. During
   this time, they were conducting an invasion of the Persian Empire.
   However, in Armenia, a Persian counterattack resulted in a defeat for
   Attila and Bleda, and they ceased their efforts to conquer Persia. In
   440, they reappeared on the borders of the Roman Empire, attacking the
   merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been
   arranged for by the treaty. Attila and Bleda threatened further war,
   claiming that the Romans had failed to fulfill their treaty obligations
   and that the bishop of Margus (not far from modern Belgrade) had
   crossed the Danube to ransack and desecrate the royal Hun graves on the
   Danube's north bank. They crossed the Danube and laid waste to Illyrian
   cities and forts on the river, among them, according to Priscus,
   Viminacium, which was a city of the Moesians in Illyria. Their advance
   began at Margus, for when the Romans discussed handing over the
   offending bishop, he slipped away secretly to the Huns and betrayed the
   city to them...

   Theodosius had stripped the river's defenses in response to the Vandal
   Geiseric's capture of Carthage in 440 and the Sassanid Yazdegerd II's
   invasion of Armenia in 441. This left Attila and Bleda a clear path
   through Illyria into the Balkans, which they invaded in 441. The
   Hunnish army, having sacked Margus and Viminacium, took Singidunum
   (modern Belgrade) and Sirmium before halting its operations. A lull
   followed during 442, when Theodosius recalled his troops from North
   Africa and ordered a large new issue of coins to finance operations
   against the Huns. Having made these preparations, he thought it safe to
   refuse the Hunnish kings' demands.

   Attila and Bleda responded by renewing their campaign in 443. Striking
   along the Danube, they overran the military centers of Ratiara and
   successfully besieged Naissus (modern Niš) with battering rams and
   rolling towers—military sophistication that was new in the Hun
   repertory—then pushing along the Nisava they took Serdica ( Sofia),
   Philippopolis ( Plovdiv), and Arcadiopolis. They encountered and
   destroyed the Roman force outside Constantinople and were only halted
   by their lack of siege equipment capable of breaching the city's
   massive walls. Theodosius admitted defeat and sent the court official
   Anatolius to negotiate peace terms, which were harsher than the
   previous treaty: the Emperor agreed to hand over 6,000 Roman pounds
   (ca. 1,963 kg) of gold as punishment for having disobeyed the terms of
   the treaty during the invasion; the yearly tribute was tripled, rising
   to 2,100 Roman pounds (ca. 687 kg) in gold; and the ransom for each
   Roman prisoner rose to 12 solidi.

   Their desires contented for a time, the Hun kings withdrew into the
   interior of their empire. According to Jordanes (following Priscus),
   sometime during the peace following the Huns' withdrawal from Byzantium
   (probably around 445), Bleda died (killed by his brother, according to
   the classical sources), and Attila took the throne for himself. Now
   undisputed lord of the Huns, he again turned towards the eastern Roman
   Empire.

Sole ruler

   Constantinople suffered major natural (and man-made) disasters in the
   years following the Huns' departure: bloody riots between the racing
   factions of the Hippodrome; plagues in 445 and 446, the second
   following a famine; and a four-month series of earthquakes which
   levelled much of the city wall and killed thousands, causing another
   epidemic. This last struck in 447, just as Attila, having consolidated
   his power, again rode south into the empire through Moesia. The Roman
   army, under the Gothic magister militum Arnegisclus, met him on the
   river Vid and was defeated—though not without inflicting heavy losses.
   The Huns were left unopposed and rampaged through the Balkans as far as
   Thermopylae; Constantinople itself was saved by the intervention of the
   prefect Flavius Constantinus, who organized the citizenry to
   reconstruct the earthquake-damaged walls, and, in some places, to
   construct a new line of fortification in front of the old. An account
   of this invasion survives:

          The barbarian nation of the Huns, which was in Thrace, became so
          great that more than a hundred cities were captured and
          Constantinople almost came into danger and most men fled from
          it. … And there were so many murders and blood-lettings that the
          dead could not be numbered. Ay, for they took captive the
          churches and monasteries and slew the monks and maidens in great
          numbers.

                — Callinicus, in his Life of Saint Hypatius

   Mór Than's painting The Feast of Attila, based on a fragment of Priscus
   (depicted at right, dressed in white and holding his history): "When
   evening began to draw in, torches were lighted, and two barbarians came
   forward in front of Attila and sang songs which they had composed,
   hymning his victories and his great deeds in war. And the banqueters
   gazed at them, and some were rejoiced at the songs, others became
   excited at heart when they remembered the wars, but others broke into
   tears—those whose bodies were weakened by time and whose spirit was
   compelled to be at rest."
   Enlarge
   Mór Than's painting The Feast of Attila, based on a fragment of Priscus
   (depicted at right, dressed in white and holding his history):
   "When evening began to draw in, torches were lighted, and two
   barbarians came forward in front of Attila and sang songs which they
   had composed, hymning his victories and his great deeds in war. And the
   banqueters gazed at them, and some were rejoiced at the songs, others
   became excited at heart when they remembered the wars, but others broke
   into tears—those whose bodies were weakened by time and whose spirit
   was compelled to be at rest."

   Attila demanded, as a condition of peace, that the Romans should
   continue paying tribute in gold—and evacuate a strip of land stretching
   three hundred miles east from Singidunum ( Belgrade) and up to a
   hundred miles south of the Danube. Negotiations continued between Roman
   and Hun for approximately three years. The historian Priscus was sent
   as emissary to Attila's encampment in 448, and the fragments of his
   reports preserved by Jordanes offer the best glimpse of Attila among
   his numerous wives, his Scythian fool, and his Moorish dwarf, impassive
   and unadorned amid the splendor of the courtiers:

          A luxurious meal, served on silver plate, had been made ready
          for us and the barbarian guests, but Attila ate nothing but meat
          on a wooden trencher. In everything else, too, he showed himself
          temperate; his cup was of wood, while to the guests were given
          goblets of gold and silver. His dress, too, was quite simple,
          affecting only to be clean. The sword he carried at his side,
          the latchets of his Scythian shoes, the bridle of his horse were
          not adorned, like those of the other Scythians, with gold or
          gems or anything costly.

   "The floor of the room was covered with woollen mats for walking on,"
   Priscus noted.

   During these three years, according to a legend recounted by Jordanes,
   Attila discovered the "Sword of Mars":

          The historian Priscus says it was discovered under the following
          circumstances: "When a certain shepherd beheld one heifer of his
          flock limping and could find no cause for this wound, he
          anxiously followed the trail of blood and at length came to a
          sword it had unwittingly trampled while nibbling the grass. He
          dug it up and took it straight to Attila. He rejoiced at this
          gift and, being ambitious, thought he had been appointed ruler
          of the whole world, and that through the sword of Mars supremacy
          in all wars was assured to him.

                — Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths ch. XXXV

   Later scholarship would identify this legend as part of a pattern of
   sword worship common among the nomads of the Central Asian steppes.

Attila in the west

   An inaccurate sketch of Attila the Hun, probably from the 19th century,
   depicts him as European, though the only extant description of his
   appearance by a Roman court historian suggests physical features common
   among Asians.
   An inaccurate sketch of Attila the Hun, probably from the 19th century,
   depicts him as European, though the only extant description of his
   appearance by a Roman court historian suggests physical features common
   among Asians.

   As late as 450, Attila had proclaimed his intent to attack the powerful
   Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse in alliance with Emperor Valentinian III.
   He had previously been on good terms with the western Roman Empire and
   its de facto ruler Flavius Aëtius—Aetius had spent a brief exile among
   the Huns in 433, and the troops Attila provided against the Goths and
   Bagaudae had helped earn him the largely honorary title of magister
   militum in the west. The gifts and diplomatic efforts of Geiseric, who
   opposed and feared the Visigoths, may also have influenced Attila's
   plans.

   However Valentinian's sister Honoria, in order to escape her forced
   betrothal to a senator, had sent the Hunnish king a plea for help—and
   her ring—in the spring of 450. Though Honoria may not have intended a
   proposal of marriage, Attila chose to interpret her message as such; he
   accepted, asking for half of the western Empire as dowry. When
   Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of his mother Galla
   Placidia convinced him to exile, rather than kill, Honoria; he also
   wrote to Attila strenuously denying the legitimacy of the supposed
   marriage proposal. Attila, not convinced, sent an embassy to Ravenna to
   proclaim that Honoria was innocent, that the proposal had been
   legitimate, and that he would come to claim what was rightfully his.

   Meanwhile, Theodosius having died in a horse riding accident, his
   successor Marcian cut off the Huns' tribute in late 450; and multiple
   invasions, by the Huns and by others, had left the Balkans with little
   to plunder. The king of the Salian Franks had died, and the succession
   struggle between his two sons drove a rift between Attila and Aetius:
   Attila supported the elder son, while Aetius supported the younger.
   J.B. Bury believes that Attila's intent, by the time he marched west,
   was to extend his kingdom—already the strongest on the continent—across
   Gaul to the Atlantic shore. By the time Attila had gathered his
   vassals— Gepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians, Scirians, Heruls, Thuringians,
   Alans, Burgundians, et al.—and begun his march west, he had declared
   intent of alliance both with the Visigoths and with the Romans.
   The general path of the Hun forces in the invasion of Gaul, leading up
   to the Battle of Chalons.
   Enlarge
   The general path of the Hun forces in the invasion of Gaul, leading up
   to the Battle of Chalons.

   In 451, his arrival in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to
   half a million strong soon made his intent clear. On April 7, he
   captured Metz, and Aetius moved to oppose him, gathering troops from
   among the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Celts. A mission by Avitus,
   and Attila's continued westward advance, convinced the Visigoth king
   Theodoric I (Theodorid) to ally with the Romans. The combined armies
   reached Orleans ahead of Attila, thus checking and turning back the
   Hunnish advance. Aetius gave chase and caught the Huns at a place
   usually assumed to be near Châlons-en-Champagne. The two armies clashed
   in the Battle of Chalons, whose outcome commonly, though erroneously,
   is attributed to be a victory for the Gothic-Roman alliance. Theodoric
   was killed in the fighting. Aetius failed to press his advantage,
   according to Gibbon because he feared the consequences of an
   overwhelming Visogothic triumph as much as he did a defeat. From
   Aetius' point of view, the best outcome was what occurred: Theodoric
   dead, Attila in retreat and disarray, and the Romans having the benefit
   of appearing victorious. Thus the alliance quickly disbanded. Attila
   withdrew but returned to continue his campaign against Italy the
   following year.

   Perhaps Sir Edward Creasy best summarized Aetius's intentions at the
   Battle of Chalons:

                It is probable that the crafty Aëtius was unwilling to be
                too victorious. He dreaded the glory which his allies the
                Visigoths had acquired, and feared that Rome might find a
                second Alaric in Prince Thorismund, who had signalized
                himself in the battle, and had been chosen on the field to
                succeed his father, Theodoric. He persuaded the young king
                to return at once to his capital, and thus relieved
                himself at the same time of the presence of a dangerous
                friend, as well as of a formidable though beaten foe.

   Gibbon states the majority view also quite eloquently: "(Attila's)
   retreat across the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved
   in the name of the Western Roman Empire."

Invasion of Italy and death

   Attila returned in 452 to claim his marriage to Honoria anew, invading
   and ravaging Italy along the way; his army sacked numerous cities and
   razed Aquileia completely, leaving no trace of it behind. Legend has it
   he built a castle on top of a hill north of Aquileia to watch the city
   burn - thus founding the town of Udine, where the castle can still be
   found. Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome; Aetius remained in the
   field but lacked the strength to offer battle. Gibbon however says
   Aetius never showed his greatness more clearly in managing to harass
   and slow Attila's advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally
   halted at the Po, where he met an embassy including the prefect
   Trigetius, the consul Aviennus, and Pope Leo I. After the meeting, he
   turned his army back, having claimed neither Honoria's hand nor the
   territories he desired.
   Raphael's The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila shows Leo I,
   with Saint Peter and Saint Paul above him, going to meet Attila
   Enlarge
   Raphael's The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila shows Leo I,
   with Saint Peter and Saint Paul above him, going to meet Attila

   Several explanations for his actions have been proffered. The plague
   and famine which coincided with his invasion may have caused his army
   to weaken, or the troops that Marcian sent across the Danube may have
   given him reason to retreat, or perhaps both. Priscus reports that
   superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric—who died shortly after sacking
   Rome in 410—gave the Hun pause. Prosper of Aquitaine's pious "fable
   which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of
   Algardi" (as Gibbon called it) says that the Pope, aided by Saint Peter
   and Saint Paul, convinced him to turn away from the city.

   Whatever his reasons, Attila left Italy and returned to his palace
   across the Danube. From there, he planned to strike at Constantinople
   again and reclaim the tribute which Marcian had cut off. However, he
   died in the early months of 453; the conventional account, from
   Priscus, says that on the night after a feast celebrating his latest
   marriage to the beautiful and young Ildico (if uncorrupted, the name
   suggests a Germanic origin) he suffered a severe nosebleed and choked
   to death in a stupor. An alternative to the nosebleed theory is that he
   succumbed to internal bleeding after heavy drinking. His warriors, upon
   discovering his death, mourned him by cutting off their hair and
   gashing themselves with their swords so that, says Jordanes, "the
   greatest of all warriors should be mourned with no feminine
   lamentations and with no tears, but with the blood of men." His
   horsemen galloped in circles around the silken tent when Attila lay in
   state, singing in his dirge, according to Cassiodorus and Jordanes,
   "Who can rate this as death, when none believes it calls for
   vengeance?" then celebrating a strava over his burial place with great
   feasting. Legend says that he was laid to rest in a triple coffin—of
   gold, silver, and iron— along with some of the spoils of his conquests.
   His men diverted a section of the Duna, buried the coffin under the
   riverbed, and then were killed to keep the exact location a secret.
   After his death, he lived on as a legendary figure: the characters of
   Etzel in the Nibelungenlied and Atli in both the Volsunga saga and the
   Poetic Edda were both loosely based on his life.

   An alternate story of his death, first recorded 80 years after the fact
   by the Roman chronicler Count Marcellinus, reports: "Attila rex
   Hunnorum Europae orbator provinciae noctu mulieris manu cultroque
   confoditur." ("Attila, King of the Huns and ravager of the provinces of
   Europe, was pierced by the hand and blade of his wife.") The Volsunga
   saga and the Poetic Edda claim that King Atli (Attila) died at the
   hands of his wife Gudrun. Most scholars reject these accounts as no
   more than romantic fables, preferring instead the version given by
   Attila's contemporary Priscus. The "official" account by Priscus,
   however, has recently come under renewed scrutiny by Michael A.
   Babcock. Based on detailed philological analysis, Babcock concludes
   that the account of natural death, given by Priscus, was an
   ecclesiastical "cover story" and that Emperor Marcian (who ruled the
   Eastern Roman Empire from 450-457) was the political force behind
   Attila's death.

   His sons, Ellak (his appointed successor), Dengizich, and Ernakh,
   fought over the division of his legacy—"what warlike kings with their
   peoples should be apportioned to them by lot like a family estate" and,
   divided, were defeated and scattered the following year in the Battle
   of Nedao by the Gepids, under Ardaric, whose pride was stirred by being
   treated with his people like chattel, and the Ostrogoths. Attila's
   empire did not outlast him.

   Medieval culture was full of rulers who boasted having a highest and
   mightiest ancestry. Attila the Hun, despite being from Asia and a
   conqueror ("barbarian") received his share of medieval dynasties whose
   clan legends maintain them to descend from Attila. One of the most
   credible claims have been the tsars of Bulgaria. Attila's many children
   and relatives are known by name and some even by deeds, but soon valid
   genealogical sources all but dry up, and there seems to be no
   verifiable way to trace Attila's descent. However, attempts have been
   made: Descent from Attila the Hun. Many genealogists attempted to
   reconstruct a valid line of descent from Attila to Charlemagne, but no
   one succeeded in working out a generally accepted route. See more at
   Attila the Hun to Charlemagne.

   It should be noted that the founding of the famous city of Venice can
   be directly attributed to Attila and the Huns. The residents would flee
   to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon when Attila would invade Italy.
   The people eventually built a city there.

Appearance, character, and name

   Attila. From an illustration to the Poetic Edda.
   Enlarge
   Attila.
   From an illustration to the Poetic Edda.

   The main source for information on Attila is Priscus, a historian who
   traveled with Maximin on an embassy from Theodosius II in 448. He
   describes the village the nomadic Huns had built and settled down in as
   the size of the great city with solid wooden walls. He described Attila
   himself as:

     "short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes
     were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray; and he had a
     flat nose and a swarthy complexion, showing the evidences of his
     origin."

   Attila's physical appearance was most likely that of an Eastern Asian
   or more specifically a Mongol-related ethnicity, or perhaps a mixture
   of this type and the Turkic (peoples of Central Asia). Indeed, he
   probably exhibited the characteristic Eastern Asian facial features,
   which Europeans were not used to seeing, and so they often described
   him in harsh terms.

   Attila is known in Western history and tradition as the grim "Scourge
   of God", and his name has become a byword for cruelty and barbarism.
   Some of this may arise from a conflation of his traits, in the popular
   imagination, with those perceived in later steppe warlords such as the
   Mongol Genghis Khan and Tamerlane: all run together as cruel, clever,
   and sanguinary lovers of battle and pillage. The reality of his
   character may be more complex. The Huns of Attila's era had been
   mingling with Roman civilization for some time, largely through the
   Germanic foederati of the border—so that by the time of Theodosius's
   embassy in 448, Priscus could identify Hunnic, Gothic, and Latin as the
   three common languages of the horde. Priscus also recounts his meeting
   with an eastern Roman captive who had so fully assimilated into the
   Huns' way of life that he had no desire to return to his former
   country, and the Byzantine historian's description of Attila's humility
   and simplicity is unambiguous in its admiration.

   The name Attila could be of pre- Turkic ( Altaic) origin (compare it
   with Atatürk and Alma-Ata, now called Almaty). It most probably
   originates from atta ("father") and il ("land"), meaning "Land-Father".
   Atil was also the Altaic name of the present-day Volga river which may
   have given its name to Attila. Attila is a frequently occuring name in
   the Hungarian and Turkish languages. Some experts say that Attila
   signifies "steel", "acél" (a-ts-ae-l) is the Hungarian word denoting
   "steel"; and this is phonetically similar to Attila.

Later literary representations

   The historical context of Attila's life played a large part in
   determining his later public image: in the waning years of the western
   Empire, his conflicts with Aetius (often called the "last of the
   Romans") and the strangeness of his culture both helped dress him in
   the mask of the ferocious barbarian and enemy of civilization, as he
   has been portrayed in any number of films and other works of art.

   In the Divine Comedy, he appears in the seventh circle of Hell,
   immersed in a river of boiling blood, and is called "the scourge of
   Earth". Dante also charges him with the destruction of Florence, but
   this is a blunder by the author, who has him confused with the
   Ostrogoth warlord Totila.

   The Germanic epics in which he appears offer more nuanced depictions:
   he is both a noble and generous ally, as Etzel in the Nibelungenlied,
   and a cruel miser, as Ætla in Widsith,as Atli in the Volsunga Saga and
   the Poetic Edda. Some national histories, though, always portray him
   favorably; in Hungary and Turkey the names of Attila (sometimes as
   Atilla in Turkish), his last wife Ildikó and his brother Bleda remain
   popular to this day. In a similar vein, the Hungarian author Géza
   Gárdonyi's novel A láthatatlan ember (published in English as Slave of
   the Huns, and largely based on Priscus) offered a sympathetic portrait
   of Attila as a wise and beloved leader. And he is a powerfully
   dominant, extraordinarily charismatic figure in William Napier's
   ongoing trilogy, Attila, volume one appearing in 2005.

   The British writer Anthony Burgess wrote a biographical novella about
   Attila entitled Hun which was published in the story collection The
   Devil's Mode.

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