The Huns’ contribution to history was brief and very violent. In the course of just one hundred years, these fearsome horsemen from western Asia swept through large parts of Europe and caused great damage to the Roman Empire.
Origins
Historians cannot be sure exactly where the Huns came from. As a nomadic people, they did not necessarily stem from a single homeland. It is also difficult to be certain what race the Huns were or what language they spoke, because they absorbed many characteristics of the European tribes they conquered.
However, it is almost certain that they were Asian. They entered Europe from somewhere beyond the Caspian Sea. Some historians associate the Huns with the Xionghu, a tribe that attacked China during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). If the historians are correct, the Huns’ journey to the Danube is even more extraordinary.
Almost all of what is known about the Huns comes from two Roman historians. The first was Ammianus Marcellinus (330–395 CE). He describes the Huns as wild, both in their appearance and in their habits. Their diet was simple, consisting of meat, roots, and edible plants. According to Marcellinus, the Huns did not cook their meat with fire but rather by sitting on it as they rode their horses. The Hunnish tribes roamed in bands. They were ruled by military chieftains and had no overall king.
The second historical account was written in 448 CE by Priscus. By this time, according to Priscus, the Hunnish lifestyle had been influenced by contact with surrounding tribes and with the Roman Empire.
By the time of Priscus, most Huns were ruled by a single king. Attila (reigned 434–453), their greatest king, handpicked the men who would govern his vast empire for him. The Huns had become practiced in the art of negotiation. They would ride out to meet Roman generals and other barbarian kings to negotiate hostage swaps, protection payments, or the terms of war.
The Extension of Power
The people of Europe first became aware of the Huns around 370, when they crossed the Volga River. Within ten years the Huns were setting up camp on the banks of the Danube River in modern-day Hungary. They had marched across 1,250 miles (2,000 km) of rivers and mountains and stood at the edge of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Huns remained in what is now Hungary for around fifty years. During that time, expanding north and west, they established dominion over many of the Germanic tribes of central Europe. Their kingdom grew in size, until it stretched from the Alps to the Baltic in the north and to the Black Sea in the east.
The Huns were also involved in several border skirmishes with the Eastern Roman Empire. However, from 420, the Roman Empire paid Rugila, the Hunnish king, to protect their border from marauding barbarian tribes.
Attila’s Battles
In 441 the Romans stopped their payments to the Huns. Led by Rugila’s nephew Attila, the Huns swept over the border. Over the next eight years, they went on a murderous rampage through the Eastern Roman Empire. They destroyed city after city, slaughtering thousands of Roman soldiers and citizens. In desperation the emperor Theodosius II agreed to pay the money he owed and a lot more besides.
The following year Attila launched a daring invasion of Gaul (present-day France). At the Battle of Châlons, he suffered the only military defeat of his career. The Huns withdrew and set their sights on Italy.
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MASTERS OF THE ART OF WAR |
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Mounted on warhorses, the Huns charged back and forth across large areas of Europe. They destroyed city after city and killed anyone who stood in their way. They would scale enemy ramparts without warning and destroyed camps before the enemy knew they were being attacked. In battle the Huns did not use any standard formation. Instead they rode chaotically around the battlefield, scattering and regathering at great speed, a tactic that terrified their enemies. They were highly skilled archers. Their arrowheads were made from sharpened bone, and they rained them on the enemy from a distance. In close combat the Huns would throw nets over enemy swordsmen, who would become so entangled they could not move.
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The Huns marched south, destroying cities as they went. However, for no clear reason, they turned back before attacking Rome. There are several theories to explain this change of heart: Attila’s forces were severely weakened after Châlons; there was a famine in Italy; and the Huns’ base, by the Danube, was under attack. According to another story, Attila saw a vision of Saint Peter, who warned the Hunnish king that he would die if he attacked Rome. However, no one can say for certain why the Huns withdrew.
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AETIUS 396–454 CE |
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Aetius is often called "the last of the Romans." He was a noble and cultured man, as well as a brilliant general who fought many battles in defense of the Roman Empire. However, by 476, twenty years after his death, the Roman Empire in the west had collapsed. As a youth, Aetius had spent some time as a hostage of the Huns. This experience may have helped him in his later confrontation with them. At the Battle of Châlons in 451, Aetius commanded the first army to defeat the Huns.
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