Attila the Hun - Sole ruler

Attila the Hun (Old Norse: Atle, Atli; German: Etzel; ca. 406–453 AD) was the last and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire, from 434 until his death. His empire stretched from Central Europe to the Black Sea and from the Danube River to the Baltic. During his rule he was among the direst enemies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires: he invaded the Balkans twice and encircled Constantinople in the second invasion. He marched through France as far as Orleans before being turned back at Chalons; and he drove the western empero ...

Including:

• Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings
• Attila the Hun - Shared kingship
• Attila the Hun - Sole ruler
• Attila the Hun - Attila in the west
• Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death
• Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name
• Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia - Attila the Hun

The main source for information on Attila is Priscus, a historian who traveled with Maximin on an embassy from Theodosius II in 448. He describes the village the nomadic Huns had built and settled down in as the size of the great city with solid wooden walls. He described Attila himself as: "short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray; and he had a flat nose and a sw ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance, character, and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Appearance, character, and name

Constantinople suffered major natural (and man-made) disasters in the years following the Huns' departure: bloody riots between the racing factions of the Hippodrome; plagues in 445 and 446, the second following a famine; and a four-month series of earthquakes which levelled much of the city wall and killed thousands, causing another epidemic. This last struck in 447, just as Attila, having consolidated his power, again rode south into the empire through Moesia. The Roman army, under the Gothic magister militum Arnegisclus, met him on ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Sole ruler

By 432, the Huns were united under Ruga. In 434 Ruga died, leaving his nephews Attila and Bleda, the sons of his brother Mundjuk, in control over all the united Hun tribes. At the time of their accession, the Huns were bargaining with Theodosius II's envoys over the return of several renegade tribes who had taken refuge within the Byzantine Empire. The following year, Attila and Bleda met with the imperial legation at Margus (present-day Požarevac) and, all seated on horseback in the Hunnic manner, negotiated a successful treaty: the Romans ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Shared kingship

The main source for information on Attila is Priscus, a historian who traveled with Maximin on an embassy from Theodosius II in 448. He describes the village the nomadic Huns had built and settled down in as the size of the great city with solid wooden walls. He described Attila himself as: "short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray; and he had a flat nose and a swar ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name

The European Huns are often thought to have been a western extension of the Xiongnu (Xiōngnú), (匈奴) n., a group of nomad tribes from north-eastern China and Central Asia. These people achieved military superiority over their rivals (most of them highly cultured and civilized) by their state of readiness for combat, amazing mobility, and weapons like the Hun bow. Attila was born around 406. Nothing certain is known about his childhood; the suppositi ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings

As late as 450, Attila had proclaimed his intent to attack the powerful Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse in alliance with Emperor Valentinian III. He had previously been on good terms with the western Empire and its de facto ruler Flavius Aëtius—Aetius had spent a brief exile among the Huns in 433, and the troops Attila provided against the Goths and Bagaudae had helped earn him the largely honorary title of magister militum in the west. The gifts and diplomatic efforts of Geiseric, who opposed and feared th ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Attila in the west

Attila returned in 452 to claim his marriage to Honoria anew, invading and ravaging Italy along the way; his army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia completely, leaving no trace of it behind. Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome; Aetius remained in the field but lacked the strength to offer battle. Attila finally halted at the Po, where he met an embassy including the prefect Trigetius, the consul Aviennus, and Pope Leo I. After the meeting he turned his army back, having ...

See also:

Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun - Background and beginnings, Attila the Hun - Shared kingship, Attila the Hun - Sole ruler, Attila the Hun - Attila in the west, Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death, Attila the Hun - Appearance character and name, Attila the Hun - Notes

Read more here: » Attila the Hun: Encyclopedia II - Attila the Hun - Invasion of Italy and death