Attila the Hun ruled the Huns from 434-453 AD, conquering lands from the Rhine to the Black and Caspian Seas. He invaded Western Europe in 451 but was defeated by the combined armies of Rome and the Visigoth. He also waged war against Italy in 452, but halted just short of Ravenna. Attila died in 453, and the Hun empire perished with him.
“Attila the Hun” reigned King and Commander of the Huns from 434-453 AD For the first twelve years he reigned with his brother Bleda, who died in 446, leaving only Attila in command. Historians speculate that Attila may have killed his brother.
Upon his brother’s death, Attila began an aggressive military campaign that conquered lands stretching from the Rhine to the Black and Caspian Seas. After extending the rule of the Huns, he began lobbying the Roman Empire, engaging in denials with Constantinople and Ravenna.
In 451 he made good on a long-standing threat to invade Western Europe. Ravaging city after city, he was nearly successful in taking Orleans, but the combined armies of Rome and the Visigoth defeated him. Attila was forced to retreat; however, the battle for Western Europe was not over.
The forces clashed once again at Chalons with Attila narrowly defeated. He was forced back across the Rhine, sparing Western Europe a change in history.
The following year, 452, Attila waged another war, this time against Italy. Known to the Romans as the Scourge of God, Attila made his way to Ravenna, the western capital of the Roman Empire. On the way he felled Aquileia at the Adriatic. He subsequently destroyed Concordia, Altinum and Patavium, sending parties to plunder nearby villages. The people of the region fled in fear before his armies.
Attila’s forces halted just short of Ravenna. Met by Pope Leo I on behalf of Rome, some say he was dissuaded from going any further. Others believe that the general wanted to cross the Alps back to his capital near Budapest before winter set in.
Attila died in 453 on his wedding night. Some historians believe that he drank too much that night, passed out on his back, and died of a nosebleed by drowning in his own blood. Others speculate that he was probably an alcoholic, common at the time, and probably died of ruptured esophageal varices. This is bleeding from the veins in the throat and stomach that results from chronic acid reflux, a result of alcoholism, which is common even today.
The Huns were nomadic tribes believed to be of Mongol ancestry, known for their ferocity and alertness. The state of the Huns was among the first well-documented cases of horse migration in history and its empire, at the time the largest in Europe. However, the Hun empire perished with the death of Attila.
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