Attila - birth (approximately) 393 - date of death - 453. The leader of the warlike alliance of the Hun tribes since 434, nicknamed by Christians "the Scourge of God."
Throughout its long history, the Eastern and Western Roman Empires did not often face such formidable opponents as the Hun tribes and their warlike leader.
The conqueror Attila belonged to the ruling dynasty of a large nomadic people. After the death of his uncle Ruga (Rugila), he, together with his brother Bleda, inherited royal power over the tribes of the Huns, who came to Pannonia (modern Hungary) from the distant Volga steppes. This area was ceded to the Huns by the Western Roman Empire, along with its population. Joint tsarist rule was not uncommon for those times: one co-ruler led civil life, the other was the commander-in-chief.
Attila ruled over an army of Huns, born horse warriors. Undoubtedly, this was the calling of the young co-ruler, who was eager to make more than one campaign of conquest against his neighbors, primarily the Christian empires. Moreover, Attila was burdened by the fact that he had to share power with his half-brother Bleda, who could not even imagine what kind of rival Attila had.
The joint reign of the nephews of King Ruga lasted from 434 to 445. During this time, the conqueror Attila was thoroughly established in the eyes of the Hunnic warriors as their true military leader, who was the first to rush into bloody battles. Bleda has absolutely lost his credibility over the years. The case finally ended in a conflict between the co-rulers, and Attila ruthlessly killed his brother. So the tribes of the Huns received a king and a commander and one person.
Attila's intentions immediately made themselves felt. He was able to subdue the neighboring "barbarian" peoples by force of arms - the Ostrogoths, Gepids, Thuringians, Heruls, Turtsilings, Rugians, Slavs, Khazars and many others who roamed the Wild Steppe, who lived on its borders and in the Danube region. In order not to be exterminated, these peoples had to join the Hunnic military alliance. Moreover, they all had one common enemy in the person of the two Roman empires. Attila soon became a powerful ruler.
Constantinople and Rome watched with dismay as a strong state of "barbarians" was formed on the northern borders of two huge empires of the Christian world. The rulers of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires could not help but realize that sooner or later the hordes of the Huns would fall upon their powers. The only question is time and where will the conqueror Attila direct his mounted army.
In particular, the warlike Huns posed a great danger to the closest Roman Empire - the Eastern. To protect against them, in 413, new fortress walls were built around Constantinople - "Theodosian Walls", the Danube border was fortified.
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Attila placed his residence in Upper Hungary, near the modern city of Tokaj. From here he ruled over the vast power he created in Central Europe, where the tsarist power was supported only by force of arms.
Gothic historian of the 6th century Jordan, who served Rome and lived in this city, described the capital of the king of the Huns from the words of the contemporary historian Priisk, who was part of the embassy of the Roman emperor to the barbarians:
“… Having crossed the huge rivers … we reached the village where King Attila was standing; this village … was like a vast city; its wooden walls, as we noticed, were made of shiny planks, the connection between which looked so strong that it was barely possible to notice - and even with effort - the joint between them.
There were also triclia (dining rooms of an ancient Roman house), which stretched for a considerable distance, and porticoes, stretched out in all their beauty. The area of the courtyard was surrounded by a huge fence: its size itself testified to the palace. This was the dwelling place of King Attila, who held (in his power) the entire barbarian world; he preferred such a dwelling to the conquered cities."
In 443 and 447-448. Attila attacked the Eastern Roman Empire with two successful campaigns. He ravaged the imperial provinces of Lower Mysia, Thrace, Illyria - that is, the entire northern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Huns' troops even reached the capital of the empire of Constantinople, threatening to take it by storm.
The vast Eastern Roman Empire was not able to withstand the steppe hordes of conquerors, and the system of border fortresses and outposts on the mountain passes of the Balkan Mountains simply could not withstand their onslaught. Therefore, the East Roman emperor Theodosius II "bought" the world from the leader of the Huns at the cost of an annual tribute of 2,100 pounds of gold and the concession of the lower Danube lands - Dacia Coastal. For those times, this was a huge amount, and the imperial treasury, with great efforts, was able to pay the first annual tribute. But Constantinople had for the time being to reconcile itself, because otherwise the Eastern Roman Empire was awaiting an immediate new invasion of the Huns.
Legends were formed about the raids of the Huns, led by the fearless conqueror Attila. They could skillfully avoid obstacles and could appear behind enemy lines at any moment. The Hunnic cavalry began battles with the fact that they covered the enemy's ranks with clouds of striking arrows, which the riders fired at full gallop. Only after the enemy was very upset did hand-to-hand fights begin.
After the death of Emperor Theodosius II, Empress Pulcheria and her husband Marcian "in polite tones" refused to pay the Huns a huge and overwhelming tribute in gold. This was a rather bold step by the rulers of Constantinople. In anticipation of a big war with the barbarians, significant military forces began to be pulled from the provinces to protect the capital of the empire. But a new campaign of the Huns against Constantinople did not follow - their leader Attila turned his conqueror's gaze to the Western Roman Empire.
The reason for the outbreak of war with this empire was the refusal of King Attila in the hand of Honoria, the sister of the West Roman emperor Valentinian III. According to other sources, Honoria herself turned to Attila for help. He demanded from her crowned brother not only the girl's hand, but also half of the Western Roman Empire as a dowry for her. But by that time, Emperor Valentinian III had managed to conclude a long-term alliance with the Visigoth king Theodoric I, who had a large army.
Attila, of course, found out about this, but such a military alliance did not frighten him at all. Gathering all his strength, he set out at the beginning of 451 from Pannonia on a large march to the west. Ancient Europe had never experienced such a barbarian invasion. It seemed to Rome that all the nomadic peoples of the Danube and its distant outskirts had risen to war against him: in addition to the Huns, Attila's army had tribes subject to him - the Gepids, Rugii, Heruls, Ostrogoths, Skiri, part of the Franks and others.
According to some reports, this time Attila's troops consisted of 500,000 mounted warriors, which, apparently, was a strong exaggeration of his contemporaries.
Swiftly passing through all of Germany, the Huns and their allies attacked Gaul, successfully crossing the deep Rhine. Large rivers did not constitute a serious obstacle for them. Everything that came in their way was attached to devastation and fire. Where the horse hordes of the "Scourge of God" passed, there were fires and ruins.
It was possible to hide from the nomads only in the forests or behind the fortified stone walls of fortress cities or feudal castles. The Huns did not waste time to capture the latter. Attila, who had well mastered the tactics of horse raids with large forces, tried not to linger in one place for a long time. Otherwise, his cavalry army lost the opportunity to unexpectedly attack the enemy and quickly gain victory.
But the Huns already knew how to take the fortress by storm. In that campaign against the Western Roman Empire, Attila's army ravaged Trier, Metz on the Moselle, Arras and many other fortified cities. Local rulers did not dare to fight in an open field with the mounted Huns, preferring to sit outside the walls of fortresses.
When the Hunnic cavalry approached Orleans, Aetius, the commander of Emperor Valentinian III and the Visigoth king, came to the aid of his strong garrison with numerous troops. In Gaul, the allies united into a single army and advanced to the aid of the besieged Orleans. The king of the Huns had a chance to lift the siege of the rich city - he feared that in the event of a battle he would receive a stab in the back from his defenders.
Attila withdrew his army from Orleans and made camp on the Catalaun plain near Troyes, ready for battle. The terrain gave him a wonderful opportunity to maneuver his numerous cavalry.
The commander Aetius and King Theodoric I did not hesitate to appear on the banks of the Marne River. There, in 451, the famous battle in world history took place on the Catalaunian fields between Rome and their allies, on the one hand, and the Huns and their allies, on the other.
Under the banners of the commander Aetius, in addition to the Romans proper, the Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Saxons, Alans, inhabitants of Armorica - the northwestern region of Gaul - fought.
The battle took place on a vast open plain. The battle began, as expected, with fierce attacks from the Hunnic horse archers. The right flank and the center of the allies with difficulty withstood the onslaught of the Huns and were able to hold their ground, although the barbarians continuously bombarded the enemy with clouds of arrows.
On the right flank, the warlike Visigoths, in the midst of the battle, launched an attack and defeated the opposing enemy. In that battle, their beloved king Theodoric I died. Deciding not to tempt fate on this day, the king of the Huns was forced to return to his camp. On the Catalaunian fields, he suffered huge losses in people and horses. The Romans and Visigoths decided not to attack the retreating Huns from the battlefield. The continuation of the battle could turn into a loss for them.
The Visigoths, saddened by the death of their king, refused to continue the struggle. Attila did not go to this either - he freely led his cavalry army from Gaul to the steppe. The Huns went beyond the Rhine to their own borders, but when they left, they had a chance to leave part of their war booty.
In the next year, 452, the Huns again embarked on a campaign against the Western Roman Empire. Breaking through the fortified border line, they devastated northern Italy, destroyed the city of Aquileia, took the large and wealthy commercial city of Milan and approached Rome itself. The townspeople and the Roman garrison began in haste to prepare to repel the attack.
But there were few troops in the city itself, and therefore a real panic began among the Roman population due to fear of the barbarians, who stood in sight of the fortress walls and from time to time approached them at the range of an arrow. The position of the Romans was so dangerous that Aetius even advised Emperor Valentinian III to flee from Italy to some distant province.
Attila was besieging Rome, but did not immediately storm it, agreed to peace negotiations. One of the reasons for this was the numerous diseases in the ranks of his troops, from which it significantly decreased. But this was not known in besieged Rome. There was one more serious reason for the departure of the Huns from Italy - famine raged on the Apennine Peninsula.
In the name of Emperor Valentinian III, Pope Leo I bought the desired peace from Attila for a lot of money. After that, the king of the Hunnic people left Italy and went to his Pannonia on the free Hungarian plains, dismissing the allies to their homes. Apparently, he wanted to gather strength for new conquests at home.
The Italian campaign of the Huns was the reason for the birth of one of the most beautiful cities in the modern world - Venice. The inhabitants of Northern Italy who survived the pogroms of the barbarians fled to the islands and lagoons in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, settled them, and in the future the famous Venice appeared there. In a short time, she was able to turn into one of the richest merchant cities in the Mediterranean, with a large merchant and a strong military fleet. Over time, and the Venetian Republic will begin to conduct its own campaigns of conquest along the Mediterranean coast …
Attila died shortly after returning from Gaul to Pannonia, on the night after his wedding to Ildiko, a native of Burgundy. According to legend, death came either from a treacherous blow, or from the hand of Ildiko, who thus avenged her fiancé for the death of the Burgundian people, who were exterminated by the Huns. But there are no more reliable sources than this romantic legend.
With the death of the conqueror Attila, the state of the Huns quickly lost its power. His numerous sons-heirs were unable to maintain the power of the mounted army of the Huns and prevent the outbreak of inter-tribal strife. The uprisings of the conquered tribes began, which the Huns no longer had the strength to suppress.
The kingdom of Attila completely disintegrated 20 years after his mysterious death. Such was the historical fate of many powers based on the authority and strength of their creator - the great conqueror. Most of the Hunnic tribes left for the Black Sea region, and those who remained on the Lower Danube turned into Byzantine federates.
Attila was a great commander. A distinctive feature of his tactics was the skillful maneuvering of the cavalry and the saving of soldiers in battles thanks to the art of archers. His army never had burdensome carts, because the Huns carried everything they needed in the war on horses. In addition to everything else, the conqueror king Attila, in addition to his leadership talent, also possessed an indomitable fighting spirit, which in war was passed on not only to his soldiers, but also to his allies.
Most historians consider Attila a cruel barbarian who throughout his life sought to crush the Christian world. But none of them dares to belittle or keep silent about his military leadership. The Roman historian Jordan, the author of the work "On the Origin and Deeds of the Goths", wrote about the Hunnic king Attila:
"He was a husband, born to shock the peoples, the horror of all countries, which, no one knows by what lot, inspired everyone with awe, widely known everywhere for the terrible idea of him."
A. Shishov