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Biographies: Attila the Hun
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Posted by Webmaster on September 20 2004, 03:50 PM
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In 434 AD Attila and his brother Bleda took command of the Huns, It was the start of a bloody period of history. When King Rua died in 434 his nephews Attila and Bleda assumed control of the Huns. When Emperor Theodosius II heard of this he canceled the annual tribute (protection money) to the Huns. When Attila and Bleda saw that no more tribute was arriving they rode south and negotiated a new peace treaty called the Treaty of Margus. At Margus the tribute was increased to 700 pounds of gold, the Eastern Roman Empire had to withdraw from alliances and not renew them with the Huns enemies. The treaty also established a place for Huns and Romans to trade. The last part of the treaty demanded the return of all Hun prisoners. In 435 with the things now straighten out with Eastern Roman Empire Attila and Bleda rode out and subjected many peoples through out Central and Eastern Europe. Earning the nickname “Flagellum Dei” (the Scourge of God) because the Early Christians believed that Attila was being used by God to deliver punishment to the world.
In 440 AD the Huns would break the Treaty of Margus for more pillaging and conquest. Both the Eastern and Western halves of the Roman Empire were struggling for survival on all fronts. Both Bleda and Attila deemed the time necessary to attack. The Hunnic attack came as a surprise to the Romans and many fortresses fell to the Huns, such as Castra Constantia for example. In one of the cities that were attacked, Margus the bishop there opened the gates to the Huns. Theodosius then forged a truce in 441, but the respite from war was short. In 443 the Romans again refused to pay tribute. Bleda and Attila then invaded, ravaging every thing in their path. Attila set upon the Roman provinces along the Danube River. He sacked many important cities such as Sardica, Philippoplis, Arcadiopolis, and Singidunum. Attila even managed to penetrate as far as the walls of Constantinople, defeating the Imperial Army there. However the Huns did not have siege engines and left the city alone. Attila then left to attack other cities, eventually Theodosius caved and a treaty was signed. This time the tribute was 2,100 pounds of gold a year and 6,000 pounds gold right there and then to “convince” Attila to leave the Eastern Empire alone.
In 445 AD Bleda died, making Attila sole ruler of the Huns. Without Bleda to restrain him Attila could now conduct wars his way. Attila wanted the Huns to be more then mere raiders and he went to great lengths to do this. He invited numerous foreign ambassadors to his new court and had numerous advisors hired (one of these was Orestes the future father of Romulus Augustus the last Western Emperor). In 447 AD Attila launched an attack on the Eastern Roman Empire yet again. The targets for attack were Lower Scthyia, Thrace, Thessaly, and Moesia. Attila was not going to use only cavalry this time however. The plan called for slow steady advance into the Empire completely destroying anything from a village to a city on the way to Constantinople. In 449 the Huns thought to be unstoppable (they had by this time defeated everything sent against them) were defeated by the brilliant Eastern general Aspar (no one knows where Aspar defeated Attila but it is guessed to be near Thermopyle or at the Utus River). In the new peace treaty the Romans were forced to surrender huge amounts of lands along the Danube River. In Constantinople the nobles wished to be rid of Attila and they planned to murder him. When a Hunnic embassy arrived in the city a noble name Chrysphius convinced the congregation to help in the plot. However one of conspirators betrayed the plot to Attila, who did nothing at first. Then Bilgas (another conspirator) arrived in Attila’s camp with fifty pounds of gold. Bilgas could not explain the gold and he was chained and sent back to Constantinople with a hundred-pound bag of gold on his shoulders. Theodosius was thoroughly embarrassed by this debacle and Attila was now free to concentrate on his next target: the Western Roman Empire.
In 450 AD Honoria (sister to the Western Emperor Valentinian III) had fallen in love with her chamberlain Eugenius. When she started to show signs of pregnancy Honoria tried to put her lover on the throne. Valentinian found out however and had Eugenius killed. Honoria tried to escape from Ravenna (the capital of the Western Roman Empire) but was caught. Valentinian tried forcing his strong-headed sister to marry a senator, but she refused. With his patience running thin Valentinian had Honoria exiled to Constantinople to live as a virgin with the wife of Theodosius. Honoria could not stand living as a virgin and she sent a secret letter with her ring to Attila. The letter was a offer of marriage, which Attila quickly agreed to. When Valentinian and Theodosius found out they had two different reactions. Theodosius was scared to death of Attila and he had Honoria sent back to Valentinian. Valentinian had a meltdown at the news and he had to restrain himself from killing Honoria. Attila then sent a message to Valentinian asking for Honoria’s release and half the Western Empire as a dowry. The Emperor turned the offer down flat. About this time the Frankish Confederacy in Gaul had broke down and one Frankish prince asked for Attila’s assistance. Attila was just preparing to march west when Theodosius II died, causing Attila to stop. The new Emperor was a man named Marcian, who was furiously anti-appeasement, which meant no new tribute. Attila decided that attacking the west was more important and continued his march to the new enemy: The Western Roman Empire.
In 451 AD Attila marched on the West, in his wake he would leave a scar so deep that it is not yet fully healed. With his mind now set on a target Attila and his army marched with all of his subjects, such as the Gepids, Ostrogoths, Skirians, Scythians, Swabians, and Alemans. This Invasion was going to be different than the others and the Huns advanced on a front one hundred miles wide and long. Attila first hit Germania spreading terror everywhere he went, however Attila did spare some places because the oratory of the leaders impressed him. Having broken Germania without breaking a sweat Attila invaded Gaul. He attacked Gaul with frightening speed nearly wiping many cities off the face of the Earth. At what is nowAt Orleans Attila encountered resistance, he responded by laying siege to the city. While at Orleans Attila was shocked by what he saw, the Gallo-Roman Army of Flavius Aetius and Theodoric the Goth. Attila moved out of the siege camp and marched all the way to Loire River Valley before Aetius caught up with him. At the plains of Catalaunia in between Chalons and Troyes Attila prepared for battle. Aetius however moved so quickly that it surprised Attila. Both sides prepared for battle and formed battle lines. The Huns and their alliance formed with the Ostrogoths on the left Huns in the center and assorted Germanic allies on the right. Aetius formed with Romans on the left Alans in center and on the right the Visigoths. On the night of the battle Attila consulted the soothsayers who said that the Huns would lose narrowly, but a leader would be killed. Attila took this as it meant though he would lose Aetius his greatest friend now his greatest enemy would die. Aetius spent the night praying for a quick victory, but he knew from having spent a large part of his life living in Hunnic camps that it would be impossible. The battle opened with massive cavalry charges at the Alans in center (which is what Aetius hoped Attila would do) eventually focusing everything on breaking the Allied center. Aetius then swung his army’s flanks into the weak flanks of the Huns breaking them quickly when the Ostrogoths buckled then fled from the Visigoths (who would find out till the next day that their king was dead). After this Attila ordered a retreat in which the hand-to-hand fighting became so terrible that the rivers and streams turned red with blood. Attila had suffered a massive but largely indecisive defeat and he withdrew to safety of his fortress camp. The next day the Visigoths angry about death of their king asked Aetius to attack and destroy Attila now, but Aetius was weary of death and destruction, and he also knew that if the Huns were destroyed the Ostrogoths and Visigoths would destroy the Empire. Meanwhile Attila was beating back many Visigothic cavalry charges. In the night Attila set alight a funeral pyre for himself but when a Roman siege never materialized Attila decided to escape in cover of darkness. The next day found 350,000 Huns on a huge hill, The Romans however decided to return home instead of attacking Attila. Free now to leave Attila returned Pannonia (modern Hungary) to lick his wounds as the saying goes, but this would not be last that the Western Roman Empire would see of Attila the Hun who would return in 452 with a vengeance, but this time in Italy itself.
In 452 AD Attila the Hun invaded the Western Roman Empire but this time he invaded Italy. When Attila invaded Italy it came as a surprise to the Romans who thought that Attila would spend few years in Pannonia rather then just a year there. The Huns crossed the Alps to get into Italy and then they appeared (to everyone’s surprise) on the fertile land of North Italy. The first city Attila attacked was the city of Aquileia, which he wiped off the face of the Earth (in fact Attila destroyed Aquileia so thoroughly that its inhabitants fled to the swamps and founded the city of Venice). Attila next attacked Patavium, which was spared because it submitted and paid tribute. Verona and Brixa were destroyed, but not like Aquileia. Bergomum and Mediolanum were spared because, like Patavium they submitted and paid tribute. Attila now had a clear way to Rome (and Honoria) open to him. What happened in front of Rome is under debate, What we do know is that Pope Leo I met Attila on horseback in front of the city. The Catholic Church holds that as Leo was talking to Attila, St. Peter and St. Paul appeared in the form of angels and threatened to cut Attila’s head off. Other sources state that attrition and plague had taken its toll on the Huns and Attila decided to turn back and go home. Still another source states the Eastern Emperor Marcian had landed troops on Italy and he was marching to Rome to relive the siege which would have prompted Attila to go back home and raid the Eastern Empire (which would had been undefended if this theory is true). Whatever the reason Attila turned back and went home to Pannonia, having failed to “rescue” Honoria from her prison in Rome.
In453 AD Attila the Hun died and much controversy surrounds his death. Attila upon reaching Pannonia found out that Marcian had refused to pay tribute and Attila prepared to go to war when his army suffered a major defeat at the hands of a Goth leader named Thorismund. Attila now decided to marry someone to cheer himself up, he chose a young Germanic girl named Ildico. On their wedding night Attila drunk heavily (contrary to popular belief Attila the Hun did not drink much) and the next morning Hun soldiers found Attila dead with Ildico weeping beside him, Attila had died choking on his own blood (during the night he had nose bleed). When the soldiers found out they screamed and tore their hair out of their heads all the while hitting themselves in the face with their weapons. Attila’s empire passed to his sons, but they were incompetent and the Hunnic Empire soon collapsed and the Hunnic people disappeared with it. |
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