Attila

Attila (Ger. Etzel; Hungarian, Ethele), the 'Scourge of God,' was born about 406, the son of Mundzuk, a chief of the Huns, and in 434 succeeded his uncle Rhuas as chief of countless hordes scattered from about the Caspian to the Danube. His brother Bleda shared with him the supremacy over the Huns, but was put to death about 444 by Attila, whom the Huns regarded with superstitious reverence, and Christendom with superstitious dread. Men believed that he was armed with the sword of the Scythian war-god, which must win dominion over the whole world. It is not certain when the name 'Scourge of God' was first applied to Attila; but he is said to have received it from a hermit in Gaul. The whole race of Huns was regarded in the same light. In an inscription at Aquileia, written a short time before the siege in 452, they are described as imminentia peccatorum flagella ('the threatening scourges of sinners'). The Vandals, Ostrogoths, Gepidæ, and many of the Franks, fought under Attila's banner, and in a short time his dominion extended over the people of Germany and Scythia—from the Rhine to the frontiers of China. In 447, after an unsuccessful campaign in Persia and Armenia, he advanced through Illyria, and devastated all the countries between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Those inhabitants who were not destroyed were compelled to follow in his train. The Emperor Theodosius collected an army to oppose the barbarians' irrush, but in three bloody engagements fortune declared against him. Constantinople owed its safety solely to its fortifications and the ignorance of the enemy in the art of besieging; but Thrace, Macedon, and Greece were overrun; seventy flourishing cities were desolated; and Theodosius was compelled to cede a portion of territory south of the Danube, and to pay tribute to the conqueror, after treacherously attempting to murder him. In 451 Attila turned his course westward, and invaded Gaul, but here was boldly confronted by Aëtius, leader of the Romans, and Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, who compelled him to raise the siege of Orleans. He then retired to Champagne, and in the wide plain of the Marne—called anciently the Catalaunian Plain—waited to meet the enemy. The army of the West, under Aëtius and Theodoric, encountered the forces of the Huns near the site now occupied by the city of Chalons-sur-Marne. Both armies strove to obtain the hill of moderate height which rises near Mury, and commands the field of battle, and after a terrible contest, the ranks of the Romans and their allies, the Visigoths, were broken. Attila now regarded victory as certain, when the Gothic prince, Thorismund, immediately after his father had fallen, assumed the command, and led on the brave Goths, who were burning to avenge the death of Theodoric. Their charge from the height into the plain was irresistible. On every side the Huns were routed, and Attila with difficulty escaped into his encampment. This, if old historians are to be trusted, must have been the bloodiest battle ever fought in Europe; for it is stated by contemporaries, that not less than 252,000 slain were left on the field—a field, says tradition, yet haunted by their spectres. Attila, retiring within his camp of wagons, collected all the wooden shields, saddles, and other baggage into a vast funeral pyre, resolved to perish in the flames rather than yield; but by the advice of Aëtius, the Roman general, the Huns were allowed to retreat without much further loss, though they were pursued by the Franks as far as the Rhine. In the following year Attila had recovered his strength, and made an incursion into Italy, devastating Aquileia, Milan, Padua, and other cities, and driving the terrified inhabitants into the Alps, the Apennines, and the lagoons of the Adriatic, where they founded the city of Venice. The Roman emperor was helpless, and Rome itself was saved from destruction only by the personal mediation of Pope Leo I., who visited the dread barbarian, and is said to have subdued his ferocity into awe by the apostolic majesty of his mien. This deliverance was regarded as a miracle by the affrighted Romans, and old chroniclers relate that the apostles Peter and Paul appeared in Attila's camp, and changed his purpose. By 453, however, he seems to have forgotten their visit, for he made preparations for another invasion of Italy; but he died on the night of his marriage with the beautiful Ildiko, or Hilda, perhaps by her hand, more probably of hemorrhage. His death spread consternation through the host of the Huns. They cut themselves with knives, and shaved their heads, and then prepared to celebrate the funeral rites of their king. It is said that his body was placed in three coffins—the first of gold, the second of silver, and the third of iron; that the caparisons of his horses, with his arms and ornaments, were buried with him; and that the captives employed to make his grave were all put to death, that none might betray the resting-place of Attila. Jornandes describes him as having the Mongolian characteristics—low stature, a large head, with small, brilliant, deep-seated eyes, and broad shoulders. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall; Thierry's Histoire d'Attila (6th ed. 1876); and other works quoted at HUNS.