Attila The Hun - The Scourge of God to the Romans

Atilla was the king of the Huns from 434 to 453 he was one of the greatest of the Barbarian rulers who assailed the Roman Empire invading the southern Balan provinces and Greece and then Gaul and Italy in Legend he appears under the name etel in the nealan lead and under the name Atley in Icelandic sagas the Empire that Atilla and his elder brother blader inherited seems to have stretched from the Alps and the Baltic in the West to somewhere near the Caspian Sea in the East their first known action on becoming joint rulers was the negotiation of a peace treaty with the Eastern Roman Empire which was concluded at the city of margus povac by the terms of the treaty the Romans undertook to double the subsidies they had been paying to the Huns and in the future to pay 300 kg of gold each year from 435 to 439 the activities of Atilla are unknown but he seems to have been engaged in subduing Barbarian peoples to the North or east of his dominions the Eastern Romans do not appear to have paid the sums stipulated in the Treaty of margus and so in 441 when their forces were occupied in the west and on the easn frontier Atilla launched a heavy assault on the danubian frontier of the Eastern Empire he captured and raised several important cities including singidunum Belgrade the Eastern Romans managed to arrange a troop Tru for the year 442 and recalled their forces from the west but in 443 Atilla resumed his attack he began by taking and destroying towns on the danu and then drove into the interior of the Empire toward nisus Niche and Seda Sophia both of which he destroyed he next turned toward Constantinople took philippopoulos defeated the main Eastern Roman forces in a succession of battles and so reached the sea both North and South of Constantinople it was hopeless for the Hun archers to attack the Great Walls of the capital so ailla turned on the remnants of the Empire's forces which had withdrawn into the peninsula of galipoli and destroyed them in the peace treaty that followed he obliged the Eastern Empire to pay the areas of tribute which he calculated at 2,700 kg of gold and he trebled the annual tribute thenceforth extorting 950 kg of gold each year atilla's movements after the conclusion of Peace in the Autumn of 443 are Unknown about 445 he murdered his brother bedder and thenceforth ruled the Huns as an autocrat he made his second great attack on the Eastern Roman Empire in 447 but little is known of the details of the campaign it was planned on an even bigger scale than that of 441 443 and its main weight was directed toward the provinces of lower cyia and and moesia in Southeastern Europe farther to the east than the earlier assault he engaged the Eastern Empire's forces on the utus vid River and defeated them but he himself suffered serious losses he then devastated the Balkan provinces and drove Southward into Greece where he was only stopped at theropo the three years following the invasion were filled with complicated negotiations between Atilla and the diplomats of the Eastern Roman Emperor the dossus II much information about these diplomatic encounters has been preserved in the fragments of the history of priscus of panum who visited atilla's headquarters in wakia in company with a Roman Embassy in 449 the treaty by which the war was terminated was harsher than that of 443 the Eastern Romans had to evacuate a wide belt of territory south of the Danube and the tribute payable by them was continued though the rate is not known aa's next great campaign was the invasion of Gaul in 451 hither to he appears to have been on friendly terms with the Roman general Aus the real ruler of the West at this time and his motives for marching into Gaul have not been recorded he announced that his objective in the West Was the kingdom of the Visigoths centered on toosa and that he had no quarrel with the Western Emperor valentinian III but in the spring of 450 anoria the emperor's sister sent her ring to Atilla asking him to rescue her from from a marriage that had been arranged for her Atilla thereupon claimed honoria as his wife and demanded half the Western Empire as her dowy when Atilla had already entered Gaul Aus reached an agreement with the visigothic king theodoric I to combine their forces in resisting the Huns many Legends surround the campaign that followed it is certain however that Atilla almost succeeded in occupying oranum or Leon before the Allies arrived indeed the Huns had already gained a footing inside the city when atheus and theodoric forced them to withdraw the decisive engagement was the Battle of the catalonian Plains or According to some authorities of moresa after Fierce fighting in which the visigothic King was killed Atilla withdrew and shortly afterward retired from Gaul this was his first and only defeat in 452 the Huns invaded Italy and sacked several cities including Aquila pavium Padua Verona brixia breia beram Bergamo and mediolanum Milan Aus could do nothing to Halt them but the famine and pestilence raging in Italy in that year compelled the Huns to leave without crossing the appenines in 453 Atilla was intending to attack the Eastern Empire where the new emperor marcian had refused to pay the subsidies agreed upon by his predecessor theodosius II but during the night following his marriage Atilla died in his sleep those who buried him and his treasures were subsequently put to death by the Huns so that his grave might never be discovered he was succeeded by his sons who divided his Empire among them priscus who saw a tiller when he visited his camp in 448 described him as a short squat man with a large head deep set eyes flat nose and a thin beard according to the historians Atilla was though of an irritable blust in and truculent disposition a very persistent negotiator and by no means pitiless when priscus attended a banquet given by him he noticed that Atilla was served off wooden plates and ate only meat whereas his chief left tenants dined off silver platters loaded with dainties no description of his qualities as a general survives but his successes before the invasion of Gaul show him to have been an outstanding Commander [Music]