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hi everyone welcome back to the history in 20 podcast thanks for tuning in so today this is a suggestion from my very good friend and housemate callum richardson so thanks very much for this one callum i've thoroughly enjoyed researching this one and today obviously we're talking about attila the hun so as usual start with a bit of a personal profile get a bit of information about him so he was born in circa 406 a.d that is or ace after common era whatever you prefer and he reigned as king of the huns or king and chieftain of the hunnic empire from four three four to four five three and he died in circa march four five three and he was aged between 46 to 47 years old so he wasn't actually very old when he died at all even for the standards of the time so two main marriages he was married to a woman called cracker and ill deco amongst others and he had children called elac danzige and hernak amongst others as well so start off with a bit of his early life and background context on the huns so we're talking about circa 406 to circa 440 so as is often the case with these historical characters who aren't often viewed as european or very eurocentric in the context of their lifetimes we actually often know very little about their early childhood and i say this about attila the hun because his name literally denotes the hun a foreigner barbarian someone who's deemed an outsider in contemporary roman society so for many romans the ideology was very much us versus them so attila was one of these huns of the foreigners so what we do know though is that attila was born roughly around the year 406 a.d now the fifth century was a tumultuous period for the western roman empire as a whole so only four years after attila's birth in 410 rome would be sacked by the goths yet attila was wasn't the first his name actually like genghis khan was almost a thousand years after but uh the huns had actually emerged as a major force in the 370s but surprisingly they'd actually offered more assisted the roman empire than i sailed it so they were typically seen as the defenders of the borders of the western roman empire because the huns lived in the balkans which is almost halfway between the western and eastern empires borders so if you're not familiar with the balkans the balkans are sort of an area now that's kind of what was yugoslavia like kosovo montenegro serbia that sort of area of uh southeastern europe uh so both attila and his brother blader became joint rules of rulers of the huns in 434 and attila was described by contemporaries as born into the world to shake nations the scourge of all lands now attila was the more powerful of the two brothers and if you want a contemporary description of his appearance he's been described as short swarthy and snub-nosed with a thin struggling beard and beady little eyes as well as the fact that his rolling eyes and alarming appearance terrified all who crossed his path but despite this as a leader the hun contemporary actually denoted that attila was also said to be restrained in action mighty in council gracious to supply suppliance and lenient to those who were received into his protection yet another roman writer referred to the huns as the seed bed of evil and exceedingly savage so i think it's fair to say that he was a pretty interesting guy to say the least so the next section we'll discuss is the leadership and early conflicts so circa 440 to circa 451 so in 440 with the leadership united under attila and blader the hunnic empire stretched from the black sea to the baltic and from germany to the central asian steps and the huns were only just getting started on moving west so it's already a big formidable force in this empire so the following year in 4-4-1 attila invaded the eastern roman empire and made an absolute mockery of their resistance so an interesting fact to look at is that the huns were actually the first quartz barbarian force to work out how to storm well-defended fortress towns like those in the eastern roman empire and the secret behind it was actually by using siege engines battering rams and scaling ladders which were techniques that directly copied from the romans but regardless of this it had worked and the huns succeeded and the effects of these attacks can still be seen in the massive destruction layers evident throughout sort of various archaeological sites in central europe to this day so two years later in 443 attila brought his forces over to the walls of constantinople but the emperor theodosius who was behind the walls of constantinople managed to bribe the huns which was a tactic that was used throughout the hunnic invasions under attila he managed to bribe them to withdraw from the walls with huge sums of cash so obviously that went to funding more raids and the like so by the 444 or 445 attila had his brother and co-ruler blade and murdered so very few sources exist regarding this and it's not surprising i mean who'd want to enrage attila by writing about murdering his brother or accuse him of murdering his brother and he'd want to get on the wrong side of him so that's generally as a real why so very few sources exist on this but anyway following the death of his brother attila took the leadership into his reign so he expanded his territory further east and he started with a second sweep through the balkans and on to constantinople and again he tried to conquer constantinople constantinople but he was bribed to withdraw once more now this bribery from theodosius soon came to an end with theodosius's militaristic successor martian who ran from 450 to 57 who refused to pay further bribes and drove the huns from his territory altogether now upon attila's banishment from the walls of constantinople in the winter of 450 to 51 the one that got away in attila's case he made his way west across europe to gaul which is generally seen as modern day fronts and this is where the fun really begins i suppose so the final little section is uh well called the final battles and death which is circa 451-53 so as you've probably guessed already the major events in attila's life came in the years and made it proceed in his death so as i just mentioned he crossed europe into gaul and it was here that he met the largest european force and mounted up to that date so working together the western roman emperor atheists a roman general called flavius or flavius and a visigothic king theodric the first amassed an army of romans franks goths burgundians and celts to confront the huns and it was what they all saw as a collective threat to the roman empire now the historian simon jenkins actually states that it was the first time a coalition of roman and barbarian armies had combined to take the field against an external four or what we'd come to call the first european army which shows again how much of a threat attila was if like all these groups who've fought for centuries decide to actually amalgamate together to defeat their one conor common enemy it shows how much of a threat he actually was so the ensuing battle took place on the 20th of june 4-5-1 on the catalonian plains or catalonian plains which is hence the name of the battle the battle of the catalonian plains which is near modern day shalom or lanes now at the battlefield the coalition of forces was decisively victor victorious against attila's forces now interestingly this was also the last great set-piece battle in which the western roman army would fight and it was the visigoths who played the decisive role in the fighting although this was according to an admittedly pro-gothic contemporary and they ultimately secured a roman victory but it wasn't all good news because the visigothic king theoderic the first who organized this uh were killed in the battle and it was either by a sphere or by being trampled to death so excuse me not an ideal way for him to go out now attila had never before suffered such serious defeat in his lifetime up until this point and he actually realized that if he was to make maintain control of his empire staying put at home and licking his wounds just wasn't an option so the next year in 4-5-2 he began his next campaign so atheist the roman emperor was still in goal so attila returned from his base in the balkans and made his way straight for italy because what he wanted was the holy city at the time he wanted rome now the city of aquila was destroyed after a terrible siege and then milan was taken up in northern italy and the inhabitants of the northeastern veneto region of italy feared what attila's army would do to them so they sought refuge from the huns in the sporadic the occupied islands of the coastal lagoon and as a result venice was born so simon jenkins says europe has a tiller to thank for its most glorious possession which is a really interesting thing i thought but yeah so uh the reason why attila never managed to actually take rome though is often credited to pope leo the first who's often known as leo the great and he ran from 440 to 461 now the most popular version of this story is that leo joined her deputation and met attila on the banks of the minico river near lake garda to persuade him to retreat to the danube river and the huns then consolidated their settlement in what is now hungary so if you've ever wondered where the name for that comes from they are now this version is likely to be true but i personally prefer another version because you question a few of the elements of it as to why like for example attila this fierce and determined pagan leader would simply obey the pope so a man who's got no meaning to him the title and office of the poor doesn't mean anything to a guy who's clearly a pagan and not a christian of any sort now there are various theories surrounding this when we pose the question of why attila would obey the pope um one option is a substantial amount of money like theodosius offered him in the 440s in constantinople that's a likely theory but also that attila like the majority of the huns was incredibly superstitious so if you've ever seen night at the museum you know that i can't think his name ben stiller his character actually like surprises until they've done he with a magic trick and that so that's playing on the fact that these huns and a lot of their forebearers were very superstitious so this theory stems from the fact that leo may well have reminded him about how the gothic leader alaric you know i remembered uh mentioned sorry the sack of roman 4 10 that was done under the gothic leader alaric so leo might have mentioned the saccharomine 410 how a similar fate was known to occur to every invader who almost who dared to raise their hand against the city of rome because alaric died almost immediately after the sack of rome so that was one theory that might have shaken attila a bit and another which is probably the likeliest theory is that his subjects themselves persuade them to retire so for instance after all the devastation they caused the countryside in their campaigns they were beginning to suffer from a serious shortage of food and the disease had also broken out in their ranks as well so by the time this was all deliberated news arrived to attila that troops from the eastern roman empire and constantinople were beginning to arrive to supplement the imperial forces in the west so march on rome it appeared might not have been quite as straightforward as attila initially thought so either way attila's forces retreated and the following year from 4-5-3 attila was celebrating his marriage to a gothic princess called ill deco and the roman contemporary priscas described the events of attila's wedding feast and he said that celebrating excessively attila lay down on his back sudden with wine and sleep and in the process he's believed to have suffered a brain hemorrhage and died in his sleep thus continues priscus drunkenness brought a shameful end to a kinghood one glory in war so the last little section is on attila's legacy in the future of the huns which i've sort of cut down to circa 453 circa 475 so as attila's lifeblood flowed away from europe once again breathed a sigh of relief so for his funeral a specially selected group of captives placed his body in three coffins one made of gold one made of silver and one made of iron and the roman historian jordan states why because he says gold and silver because he received the honours of both the eastern western roman empires and iron because he subdued the nations so once until his body had been lowered into the ground and covered over first with the rich spoils of war and then with earth until the ground above the grave was level all of those who were involved in the burial ceremonies were put to death and this was so that attila's last resting place would remain secret and in violent forever so again it shows what a legacy he had that to this day we don't actually know where he's buried um but yeah the i mean speaking about the hunnic empire that almost as quickly as it had sprung up it disintegrated almost straight away in the aftermath of attila's death because the huns were dependent on attila's authority and according to historian david potter upon his death the hunnic empire collapsed in civil war in 4-5-4 so a year after he died now this was because the many germanic peoples who are tillered once held in thrall rose up against their masters and defeated them in another huge battle in the central balkans the site of which is now unfortunately lost but the huns withdrew to the north to hungary and then resumed their role as occasional mercenaries in roman service yet despite attila's defeats the hunting version reinforced what alaric's invasion 40 years prior to attila's had shown that the new europe was vulnerable to forces sweeping west across its central plains another legacy of this ideology is that many roman citizens instead sought refuge in fortified towns rather than in the distant hope of these huge imperial armies where they gave allegiance to any leader who would offer them security so as a result empire gave way to kingdoms and uh still nothing could bring peace to battered italy so in 475 a roman official named orestes who had served in attila's retinue years earlier he seized power in ravenna and appointed his 15 year old son romulus as emperor the following year in 476 romulus was ousted by a roman soldier of germanic origin called flavius odo assa who did not bother with emperor's ship but instead took the title of king of italy with his capital situated in ravenna and accordingly actually the year 476 is generally what's usually seen as the year of the formal demise of the roman empire although obviously the eastern roman empire survived for almost another millennium in the form of byzantium so uh to sum up attila the hun i'll turn to the words of one of my particular favorite historians the late great john julius norwich and he said he was not a great ruler or even a particularly able general but so over mustering were his ambition his pride and his lust for power that within the space of a few years he made himself feared throughout the length and breadth of europe more feared perhaps than any other single man with the possible exception of napoleon before or since so it's a bit of a short one today but hope you enjoyed it anyway and feel free to subscribe and share this with any friends and family and i'll catch you on the next one see you next time you