[Elfsea] Information about Attila the Hun

[Lisa Duke]

Atilla the Hun (circa 406-53), king of the Huns (circa 433-53) One of the
most feared and notorious barbarians
of all time, Attila is believed to be ofdistant Mongol stock, he ravaged
much of the European continent during
the 5th century AD. Apparently Attila was as great a menace to the Teutonic
tribespeople as he was to the
Romans.

There is a story that he claimed to own the actual sword of Mars, and that
other Barbarian chiefs could not look
the King of the Huns directly in the eyes without flinching. Attila was a
striking figure, and Edward Gibbon in
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire offered a
famousdescription of the personality
and appearance of the Hun, based on an ancient account:

His features, according to the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the
stamp of his national origin . . .
a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a
few hairs in the place of a beard,
broad shoulders, and a short square body, of a nervous strength, though of a
disproportioned form. The
haughty step and demeanour of the king of the Huns expressed the
consciousness of his superiority
above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes,
as if he wished to enjoy the
terror which he inspired....He delighted in war; but, after he had ascended
the throne in a mature age,
his head, rather than his hand, achieved the conquest of the North; and the
fame of an adventurous soldier was
usefully exchanged for that of a prudent and successful general.

In his own day he and his Huns were known as the "Scourge of God," and the
devastation they caused in Gaul
before the great Battle of Châlons in 451 AD became a part of medieval
folklore and tradition.

The rumors of his cannibalistic practices are not unfounded; he is supposed
to have eaten two of his sons.
The circumstances of this act, however, may be more accurately depicted in
the Edda poems where his
revengeful wife serves him the meat of his sons under the guise that it was
the meat of a young animal.

>From the year 433 Attila shared the throne with his brother Bleda, but
killed him in 445. At the outset of his
reign, Attila demanded more money, and the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II,
obligingly doubled the annual
subsidy. For various reasons, however, the new king began in the late 440's
to look to the West as the main
area of opportunity for the Huns. For the next decade and a half after his
accession Attila was the most powerful
foreign potentate in the affairs of the Western Roman Empire. His Huns had
become a sedentary nation and
were no longer the horse nomads of the earlier days. The Great Hungarian
Plain did not offer as much room as
the steppes of Asia for grazing horses, and the Huns were forced to develop
an infantry to supplement their now
much smaller cavalry. As one leading authority has recently said, "When the
Huns first appeared on the steppe
north of the Black Sea, they were nomads and most of them may have been
mounted warriors. In Europe, however,
they could graze only a fraction of their former horse power, and their
chiefs soon fielded armies which resembled
the sedentary forces of Rome." By the time of Attila the army of the Huns
had become like that of most Barbarian
nations in Europe. It was, however, very large, as we shall see, and capable
of conducting siege
operations, which most other Barbarian armies could not do effectively.

In any event the Hunnic invasion of Gaul was a huge undertaking. The Huns
had a reputation for cruelty that
was not undeserved. In the 440's one of Attila's attacks against the East in
the Balkans aimed at a city in the
Danubian provinces, Naissus (441-42). It was located about a hundred miles
south of the Danube on the
Nischava River. The Huns so devastated the place that when Roman ambassadors
passed through to meet with
Attila several years later, they had to camp outside the city on the river.
The river banks were covered with human
bones, and the stench of death was so great that no one could enter the
city.
Many cities of Gaul would soon suffer the same fate.

After securing a strong position on the Roman side of the Danube the Huns
were checked by the famous
Eastern Roman general, Aspar, as they raided Thrace (442).

By 447 he advanced through Illyria and devastated the whole region between
the Black and the Mediterranean
seas. Those of the conquered who were not destroyed were compelled to serve
in his armies. He defeated the
Byzantine emperor Theodosius II; Constantinople was saved only because the
Hunnish army, primarily a cavalry
force, lacked the technique of besieging a great city. The Huns marched as
far as Thermopylae and
stopped only when the Eastern Emperor, Thodosius II, begged for terms.

Attila accepted payment of all tribute in arrears and a new annual tribute
of 2,100 pounds of gold. The Huns
were also given considerable territory south of the Danube. One source says
of this campaign, "There was so
much killing and bloodletting that no one could number the dead. The Huns
pillaged the churches and monasteries,
and slew the monks and virgins . . . They so devastated Thrace that it will
never rise again and be as it was
before." This strong victory in the East left Attila free to plan the attack
on the West that culminated in
the invasion of Gaul.

Theodosius, however, was compelled to cede a portion of territory south of
the Danube River and to pay a tribute
and annual subsidy. Two other considerations proved especially important.One
was the death of the Eastern
Emperor Theodosius II, who fell from his horse and died in 450. His
successor, Marcian (450-7), took a hard line
on Barbarian encroachment in the Balkans and refused to pay Attila the usual
subsidy. The fury of the
Hun was monstrous, but he decided to take out his wrath on the West, because
it was weaker than the East,and
because one of history's most peculiar scandals gave Attila a justification
for war with the Western Emperor.
Honoria, Emperor Valentinian's sister, had been discovered in 449 in an
affair with her steward. The unfortunate
lover was executed, and Honoria, who was probably pregnant, was kept in
seclusion. In a rage she smuggled
a ring and a message to the King of the Huns and asked Attila to become her
champion. He treated this as a
marriage proposal and asked for half of the Western Empire as her dowry. So
when he crossed the Rhine,
he could claim that he merely sought by force what was his by right of
betrothal to Honoria.

After massive preparations Attila invaded the Rhine with a large army of
Huns and allied Barbarian tribes.
In his force was a sizable body of Ostrogoths and other Germanic warriors,
including Burgundians and Alans
who lived on the Barbarian side of the frontier. The Franks were split
between pro- and anti-Roman factions.
As early as April Attila took Metz, and fear swept through Gaul. Ancient
accounts give figures that range
between 300,000 and 700,000 for the army of the Huns.

Whatever the size, it was clearly enormous for the fifth century AD. Some of
the greatest cities of Europe
were sacked and put to the torch: Rheims,Mainz, Strasbourg, Cologne, Worms
and Trier. Paris fortunately
had the advantage of having a saint in the city and was spared because of
the ministrations of St. Genvieve.

Attila died an appropriately barbarian death. He took a new, young, beau-
tiful bride, a damsel named Ildico,
though he already had a coterie of wives. The wedding day was spent in heavy
drinking and partying, and the
King of the Huns took his new bride to bed that night in drunken lust. The
next morning it was dis- covered that
he had died--drowned in his drunkenness in his own nosebleed. The new bride
was found quivering in fear in the
great man's bedquarters. The empire of the Huns dissi- pated nearly as
quickly as its most famous leader. In
454 the Ostrogoths and other Germanic tribes revolted against the Huns, and
the sons of Attila, who had quarreled
among them- selves, could not deal with the crisis.



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Selected Thoughts of Atilla the Hun

Written reports have purpose only if read by the king.

A wise chieftan never kills the Hun bearing bad news. Rather, the wise
chieftan kills the Hun
who fails to deliver bad news.

Great chieftains never take themselves too seriously.

A Hun can achieve anything for which he is willing to pay the price.

Every decision involves some risk.

A wise chieftan gives tough assignments to Huns who can rise to the
challenge.

When in a political war, a Hun must always keep an eye to the rear.

Huns only make enemies on purpose.

Critical to a Hun's success is a clear understanding of what the King wants.

Never appoint acting chieftans.

Appoint the most capable Hun, give her both responsibility and authority,
then hold her accountable.

A Hun's perception is reality for him.

Huns who appear to be busy are not always working.

Every Hun has value -- even if only to serve as a bad example.

It is best for your friends and foes to speak well of you; however, it is
better for them to speak poorly
of you than not at all.

When nothing can be said of a Hun, she has probably accomplished nothing
very well.

Contrary to what most chieftans think, you are not remembered by what you
did in the past, but by what most
Huns think you did.

Every Hun is responsible for shaping his life circumstances and experiences
into success --
no other Hun, and certainly no Roman, can do for a Hun what he neglects to
do for himself.

Some Huns have solutions for which there are no problems.

Suffer long for mediocre but loyal Huns. Suffer not for competent but
disloyal Huns.

All this information taken from the following web site:

http://www.realm-of-shade.com/zarathustra/attila.html