| Attila, King of the
Huns (circa 406-453 A.D.)
In his own day he and his Huns were known as the "Scourge of God," and
the devastation they caused in Gaul (what is now France) before the great
Battle of Châlons in 451 A.D. became a part of medieval folklore
and tradition. One of the most feared and notorious barbarians of
all time, Attila is believed to be of distant Mongol stock, he ravaged
much of the European continent during the 5th century A.D. which threatened
to dramatically redirect the development of Western Europe. Attila
and his brother succeeded their uncle as leaders of the Huns in 434, with
Attila in the junior role until his brother's death (perhaps at Attila's
hand) 12 years later. The Hun kingdom was centered in modern-day Hungary.
Attila embarked immediately upon a series of wars extending Hun rule from
the Rhine across the north of the Black Sea as far as the Caspian Sea.
From that base he soon began a long series of saber-rattling negotiations
with the capitals of the Roman Empire at Constantinople in the East and
Rome in the West. In the Spring of 451, Attila forged an alliance with
the Franks and Vandals and unleashed his long-threatened attack into the
heart of Western Europe. After pillaging a broad swath of cities in his
path, he was near obtaining the surrender of Orleans when the combined
Roman and Visigoth armies under the command of the Roman General Flavius
Aetius forced Attila's retreat to the northeast.
If Flavius had not been successful in holding back the Hun invasion
the whole course of Western history might have been changed. Unlike most
other Barbarians of the age, the Huns were not Christians, and their respect
for the Graeco-Roman Christian civilization of the Late Empire was much
more limited even than that of Visigoth and Vandal. Perhaps Rome's
last great service to the West was to serve as a buffer between the Asiatic
Huns and the Germanic Barbarians whose destiny was to lay the medieval
foundations of the modern, western nations. Aetius had been blamed
by many Italians for not having destroyed Attila and the Huns in Gaul,
but "the last of the Romans" had contributed substantially to the ruin
of the once proud Barbarian nation. Its place in the pages of history
was over.
In 452, Attila attempted to invade Rome again but withdrew after a meeting
with Rome's Bishop, the Holy Roman Pontiff, Pope Leo I. Attila died
in 453. It is told that he took a new, young, beautiful bride, a
woman named Ildico, though he already had a coterie of wives. The
wedding day was spent in heavy drinking and partying, and Attila took his
new bride to bed that night in drunken lust. The next morning it was discovered
that he had died. In his drunkenness he had choked to death in his
own nosebleed. The new bride was found quivering in fear in the great
man's bedquarters. It is possible, although unsubstantiated, that
in a conspiracy that involved Flavius Aetius, Ildico assinated Attila.
The empire of the Huns dissipated nearly as quickly as its most famous
leader.
Flavius Aetius, Roman
General (circa 396-454 A.D.)
"Aetius, c.396-454, Roman general. At first unfriendly to Valentinian
III, he later made his peace with Valentinian's mother, Galla Placidia,
and was given a command in Gaul. An ambitious general, he was embroiled
in difficulties with his rival Boniface, who defeated him near Rimini in
432. Aetius went briefly into exile among the Huns but returned in 433
and rose to be the chief ruler of the Western Empire. He defeated the Germans
in Gaul, then crowned his career by commanding (451) Roman and Visigothic
troops in the repulse of Attila and the Huns in the battle near the modern
Châlons-en-Champagne-a battle generally said to have saved the West.
Valentinian, presumably jealous of Aetius' success, had him murdered."
from The
History Channel.com
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