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June 20

June 20

June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining.

Events

- 451- According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
- 1214 - University of Oxford receives its charter.
- 1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
- 1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: The Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
- 1756 - British garrison imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
- 1782 - The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
- 1789 - Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath
- 1791 - The Flight to Varennes began.
- 1819 - The US vessel Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, most of the journey was made under sail.
- 1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
- 1862 - Barbu Catargiu is assassinated.
- 1863 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
- 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- 1893 - Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her stepmother and father.
- 1919 - 150 die at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
- 1939 - Benny Goodman's Song School ends its radio series.
- 1948 - Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, debuts.
- 1956 - A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey killing 74 people
- 1960 - Independence of Mali and Senegal.
- 1963 - The so-called "red telephone" was established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1966 - Canada sells 336 million bushels (9.14 teragrams) of wheat to Soviet Union.
- 1969 - Jacques Chaban-Delmas becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1969 - Greg Gilbo was born
- 1977 - Oil begins to flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).
- 1980 - Roberto Duran starts his classic boxing trilogy with Sugar Ray Leonard by defeating him in Canada by a decision in 15 rounds, to gain the WBC world Welterweight championship.
- 1983 - LZW patent filed in USA.
- 1990 - Asteroid Eureka discovered.
- 1991 - German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
- 2001 - Pervez Musharraf becomes president of Pakistan
- 2001 - In Texas, USA, Andrea Yates drowns her children in a bathtub and admits to the crime. She would be sentenced to life in prison.
- 2003 - LZW patent expires in USA.
- 2003 - Formation of Wikimedia Foundation announced.
- 2004 - Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the 20th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 2005 - Terri Schiavo's remains are buried in Clearwater, Florida.

Births

- 1005 - Ali az-Zahir, caliph (d. 1036)
- 1389 - John, Duke of Bedford, regent of England (d. 1435)
- 1566 (O.S.) - King Sigismund III of Poland (d. 1632)
- 1583 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1652)
- 1634 - Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy (d. 1675)
- 1642 (O.S.) - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
- 1647 - John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
- 1717 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
- 1723 - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
- 1723 - Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian (d. 1808)
- 1756 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (d. 1792)
- 1763 - Wolfe Tone, Irish patriot (d. 1798)
- 1771 - Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and entrepreneur (d. 1820)
- 1786 - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet
- 1808 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (d. 1888)
- 1819 - Jacques Offenbach, German composer (d. 1880)
- 1860 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
- 1861 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947)
- 1887 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter and writer (d. 1948)
- 1891 - John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1976)
- 1899 - Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (d. 1943)
- 1905 - Lillian Hellman, American playwright (d. 1984)
- 1906 - Catherine Cookson, British novelist (d. 1998)
- 1909 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
- 1912 - Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
- 1924 - Chet Atkins, American guitar player
- 1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen, French politician
- 1930 - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish artist
- 1931 - Olympia Dukakis, American actress
- 1931 - Martin Landau, American actor
- 1936 - Danny Aiello, American actor
- 1940 - Eugen Drewermann, German theologian
- 1940 - John Mahoney, English actor
- 1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
- 1942 - Brian Wilson, American bass player and singer (The Beach Boys)
- 1944 - Cheryl Holdridge, American actress
- 1945 - Anne Murray, Canadian singer
- 1946 - Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor
- 1947 - Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, American singer the Crystals
- 1947 - Candy Clark, American actress
- 1948 - Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru
- 1949 - Lionel Richie, American musician and singer The Commodores
- 1951 - Tress MacNeille, American voice actress
- 1952 - John Goodman, American actor
- 1954 - Michael Anthony, American musician
- 1956 - Ace Andres, American musician
- 1958 - Chuck Wagner, American actor
- 1960 - John Taylor, English musician, Duran Duran
- 1960 - Jeremy Monteiro, Singaporean pianist
- 1963 - Viktor Kožený, Czech businessman
- 1967 - Nicole Kidman, Australian actress
- 1968 - Robert Rodríguez, American Film-maker
- 1970 - Russell Garcia, British field hockey player
- 1970 - Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco
- 1971 - Jeordie White, American bassist
- 1977 - Stefán H. Ófeigsson, Icelandic space engineer
- 1978 - Frank Lampard, English footballer
- 1981 - Ardian Gashi, Norwegian footballer

Deaths

- 451 - Theodorid, King of the Visigoths
- 840 - Louis the Pious, King of the Franks, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 778)
- 1597 - Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator
- 1668 - Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (b. 1620)
- 1776 - Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (b. 1704)
- 1787 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (b. 1723)
- 1800 - Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (b. 1719)
- 1820 - Manuel Belgrano, Argentine lawyer and politician (b. 1770)
- 1837 - William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
- 1866 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (b. 1826)
- 1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist (b. 1842)
- 1945 - Bruno Frank, German author (b. 1878)
- 1947 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (whacked) (b. 1906)
- 1958 - Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1993 - Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel (suicide) (b. 1945)
- 1995 - Emil Cioran, Romanian-born French philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
- 1998 - Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (b. 1942)
- 1999 - Clifton Fadiman, American author (b. 1902)
- 2002 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (b. 1905)
- 2002 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Bob Stump, U.S. Congressman from Arizona (b. 1927)
- 2005 - Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

- Day of The Royal Victorian Order
- Roman Empire – Festival in honor of Summanus
- Ancient Latvia – Zalu Diena
- UNHCR World Refugee Day
- Flag Day in Argentina (1938)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/20 BBC: On This Day] ---- June 19 - June 21 - May 20 - July 20 – listing of all days ko:6월 20일 ms:20 Jun ja:6月20日 simple:June 20 th:20 มิถุนายน

June 20

June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- Day of The Royal Victorian Order
- Roman Empire – Festival in honor of Summanus
- Ancient Latvia – Zalu Diena
- UNHCR World Refugee Day
- Flag Day in Argentina (1938)

External links

451

Events

- April 7 - The Huns sack Metz
- June 20 - Attila, king of the Huns is defeated at Troyes by Aëtius in the Battle of Chalons.
- Thorismund succeeds Theodorid his father as king of the Visigoths.
- October 8 - Council of Chalcedon, Ecumenical council of the Christian church. As a result of this council the Oriental Orthodox churches became a separate communion.
- Jerusalem becomes a Patriarchate.
- The Oriental Orthodox churches separate from the rest of the church.
- Dioscorus of Alexandria is deposed as Patriarch of Antioch.
- Sassanid ruler Yazdegerd II of Persia's decree abolishes the Sabbath and orders executions of Jewish leaders, including the Exilarch Mar Nuna.
- Battle of Vartanantz: Armenian army is defeated and Saint Vartan dies. For the Armenians, it has gone down in Armenian history as the greatest spiritual and moral victory.
- In Italy, refugees flee to swamp areas where is a modern-day Venice

Births

- Jacob of Serugh - Syriac author
- Brigid of Ireland - Irish saint

Deaths

- Nestorius, founder of Nestorianism (estimated date)
- Theodorid, king of the Visigoths (killed in the Battle of Chalons) Category:451 als:451 ko:451년

Battle of Chalons

The Battle of Chalons, also called the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or the Battle of the Catalun, took place in 451 between the allied forces and foederati led by the Roman general Flavius Aëtius and the Visigothic king Theodoric on one side, and the Huns led by their king Attila and their allies. This battle was the last major military operation of the Western Roman Empire.

Prelude

By 450 Roman control of Gaul, as with all of the provinces outside of Italy, had grown feeble. The Visigoths, who had been forcibly settled in Aquitaine a generation before, were growing increasingly restive. The Burgundians, forcibly settled near the Alps, were more submissive, but were likewise looking for openings for revolt. Northern Gaul had been all but abandoned to the Franks between the Rhine and Marne rivers in the east, and Armorica was only nominally part of the empire. The only parts still securely in Roman control were the Mediterranean coastline and a band of varying width that ran from Aureliani (present-day Orléans) upstream along the Loire, across and downstream along the Rhone. The historian Jordanes states that Attila was enticed by Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, to wage war on the Visigoths, while at the same time Gaiseric attempted to sow strife between the Visigoths and the Western Roman Empire (Getica 36.184-6). However, other contemporary writers offer other motivations: a few years before, Honoria, a troublesome sister of the emperor Valentinian III, had been married off to a loyal senator, Herculanus, to keep her in a respectable confinement. Now she sent a message to the Hunnic king asking for Attila's help in escaping this marriage, which Attila interpreted as a marriage proposal. He demanded that Honoria be delivered to him, along with half of Valentinian's domain for her dowry. Although Valentinian rejected these demands, Attila used them as his excuse to launch a destructive campaign through Gaul. Early in 451, Attila crossed the Rhine with his supporters and a large number of allies. His troops sacked Divodurum (Metz) on April 7; other cities attacked can be determined by the saintly lives (or Vitae) of their bishops: Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims; Servatus is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Genevieve is to have saved Paris. By June, Attila's army had reached Aureliani, which guarded an important crossing over the Loire. According to Jordanes, Sangiban, king of the Alans, whose realm included Aureliani, had promised to open the gates of this city to Attila (Getica 36.194f); this siege is confirmed by the account of the Vita S. Anianus and in the later account of Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum 2.7), although Sangiban's name does not appear in their accounts. The Aureliani shut their gates against the invaders, and Attila either waited for Sangiban to deliver on his promise or began a siege of the city. Aetius the patricius or military leader, upon learning of the invasion, moved quickly from Italy into Gaul, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, "leading forth a force consisting of auxiliaries, few and sparse, without one regular soldier" (Carmina 7.329f). He immediately attempted to convince Theodoric to join him, but on learning how few troops he had with him, the Visigothic king decided it was wiser to wait for the Huns in his own lands. Aetius turned to a powerful local magnate, Avitus, who was not only able to convince Theodoric to join with the Romans, but also a number of other wavering barbarians resident in Gaul (Carmina 7.332-356). The combined armies then marched for Aureliani, reaching that city about June 14. They had reached Aureliani literally at the last possible minute: according to the author of the Vita S. Anianus, Attila had made a breach in the city's walls and had gotten a party within the city when news of the allied army reached him. Although he practically had control of the city, to keep it meant that Attila would be himself besieged inside of it, with an unfriendly population and far from home. He broke camp, and proceeded back towards his country, doubtless looking for a spot where he could make a stand, with Theodoric and Aetius in close pursuit. The two forces at last met at the Catalaunian Fields on June 20, a date first proposed by J.B. Bury and since accepted by many, although some sources claim September 20. The actual location of the Catalaunian Fields is not known with certainty: Historian Thomas Hodgkin located the site near Méry-sur-Seine, but current consensus places the battlefield at Châlons-en-Champagne.

Battle

The night before the main battle, one of the Frankish forces on the Roman side encountered a band of the Gepids loyal to Attila. Jordanes records that this skirmish left 15,000 dead on either side (Getica 41.217). Attila, following his people's customs, had his diviners examine the entrails of a sacrifice that morning, which foretold disaster would befall the Huns and that one of the leaders of his opponents would be killed. Hoping that in the fight Aetius would be slain, he at last gave the orders for combat, even at the risk of his own life; but he delayed until the ninth hour (approximately 3 pm), so that the impending dusk might help his defeated troops to flee the battlefield. (Getica 37.196). According to Jordanes, the Catalaunian plain rose on one side by a sharp slope to a ridge, which dominated the battlefield, and became the center of the battle. The Huns first seized the right side of this ridge while the Romans seized the left, with the crest unoccupied between them. (He explains that the Visigoths held the right side, the Romans the left, with Sangiban of uncertain loyalty and his Alans surrounded in the middle.) When the Hunnish forces attemped to seize this decisive position, they were foiled by the Roman alliance, whose troops had arrived first and repulsed the Hunnish advance. The Hunnic warriors fled in disorder back into their own forces, thereby disordering the rest of Attila's army (Getica 38). Attila attempted to rally his forces, struggling to hold his position. Meanwhile king Theodoric, while encouraging his own men in their advance, was killed in the assault without his men noticing. Jordanes states that Theodoric was thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, but also mentions that another story had Theodoric slain by the spear of the Ostrogoth Andag. Since Jordanes served as the notary of Andag's son Gunthigis, if this latter story is not true then it is certain that this version was a proud family tradition (Getica 40.209). The Visigoths outstripped the speed of the Alani beside them and fell upon Attila's own Hunnish household unit, forcing Attila to seek refuge in his own camp, which he had fortified with wagons. The Romano-Gothic charge apparently swept past the Hunnish camp in pursuit of the fleeing enemy troops, for when night fell and Thorismund, son of king Theodoric, was retiring to friendly lines, he mistakenly entered Attila's encampment, where he was wounded in the ensuing melee before his followers could rescue him. Darkness also separated Aetius from his own men. As he feared that disaster had befallen them, he searched for his Gothic allies, and spent the rest of the night with them (Getica 40.209-212). On the following day, finding the battle fields "were piled high with bodies and the Huns did not venture forth", the Goths and Romans held a meeting on how to proceed. Knowing that Attila was low on provisions, and "was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows placed within the confines of the Roman camp", they decided to besiege his camp. In this desperate situation, Attila remained unbowed and "heaped up a funeral pyre of horse saddles, so that if the enemy should attack him, he was determined to cast himself into the flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him and that the lord of so many races might not fall into the hands of his foes" (Getica 40.213). During the siege of Attila's camp, the Visigoths went looking for their missing king, and Thorismund, the son of their king. After a long search, they found Theodrid's body beneath a mound of corpses, and bore him away with heroic songs in the sight of the enemy. Thorismund upon learning of his father's death, wanted to assault Attila's camp, but when he first conferred with Aetius, the Patricius had different advice. According to Jordanes, Aetius feared that if the Huns were completely destroyed by the Visigoths, then the Visigoths would break off their allegiance to the Roman Empire and become an even graver threat. So Aetius advised the Gothic king to quickly return home and secure the throne for himself, before his brothers could, which would force Thorismund into a war with his own countrymen. Thorismund quickly returned to Tolosa, present-day Toulouse, and became king without any resistance. On the Visigoth's withdrawal, Attila at first believed it to be a feigned retreat to draw his battered forces out into the open to be annihilated, and so remained within his defences for some time before he risked leaving his canton and at last returning to his homelands (Getica 41.214-217). Gregory of Tours claims Aetius used the same strategem to dismiss his Frankish allies, and collected the booty of the battlefield for himself (Historia Francorum 2.7).

Forces

Both armies consisted of combatants from many peoples. Jordanes lists Aetius' allies as including (besides the Visigoths) both the Salic and Riparian Franks, Sarmatians, Armoricans, Liticians, Burgundians, Saxons, Olibrones (whom he describes as "once Roman soldiers and now the flower of the allied forces"), and other Celtic or German tribes (Getica 36.191). Jordanes' list for Attila's allies includes the Gepids under their king Ardaric, as well as an Ostrogothic army led by the brothers Valamir, Theodemir (the father of the later Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great) and Vidimer, scions of the Amali (Getica 38.199). Sidonius offers a more extensive list of allies: Rugians, Gepids, Gelonians, Burgundians, Scirans, Bellonotians, Neurians, Bastarnae, Thuringians, Bructeri, and Franks living along the Neckar River (Carmina 7.321-325). E.A. Thompson expresses his suspicions about some of these names: :The Bastarnae, Bructeri, Geloni and Neuri had disappeared hundreds of years before the times of the Huns, while the Bellonoti had never existed at all: presumably the learned poet was thinking of the Balloniti, a people invented by Valerius Flaccus nearly four centuries earlier. On the other hand, Thompson believes that the presence of Burgundians on the Hunnic side is credible, noting that a group is documented as remaining east of the Rhine; likewise, he believes that the other peoples Sidonius alone mentions—the Rugians, Scirans and Thuringians—were likely participants in this battle. However, the number of participants for either side—or in total—is entirely speculative. Jordanes' offers the number of dead from this battle is 165,000, excluding the casualties of the Franko-Gepid skirmish previous to the main battle. Hydatius, a historian who lived at the time of Attila's invasion, reports the number of 300,000 dead. No primary souce offers an estimate for the number of participants The figures of both Jordanes and Hydatius are implausibly high; Thompson remarks in a footnote,"I doubt that Attila could have fed an army of even 30,000 men." As a reference, in the early 3rd century, the Roman Empire maintained thirty legions with just under 5200 actual men each; if we follow the general assumption that the number of auxiliaries matched the number of legionaries, then add the Praetorian Guard as 5,000 strong, and 6 Urban Cohorts, we find that the Empire at its height fielded a grand total of 323,000 soldiers across its territories. A better sense of the size of the combatants may be found in the study of the Notitia Dignitatum by A.H.M. Jones. This document is a list of officials and military units that was last updated in the first decades of the 5th century. Notitia Dignitatum lists 58 various regular units, and 33 limitanei serving either in the Gallic provinces or on the frontiers nearby; the total of these units, based on Jones analysis, is 34,000 for the regular units and 11,500 for the limitanei, or just under 46,000 all told. While the Roman forces in Gaul had become much smaller by this time, if we accept this number as the total of all of the forces fighting with Theodoric and Aetius, we should not be too far off. Assuming that the Romano-Gothic and Hunnic forces were about equal in size, then in total the battle involved just under 100,000 combatants, excluding the inevitable servants and camp followers who usually escape mention.

Archeological evidence

In 1842, a laborer uncovered a burial at Pouan, a village on the south bank of the Aube River, some 10 miles from Mery-sur-Seine. This discovery consisted of a skeleton with a number of jewels and gold ornaments and buried with two swords; this burial obviously was of a Germanic warrior who lived in the 5th century. These find were later given to the city museum of Troyes. The archeologist who described this find, Peigne Delacourt, claimed that it was the remains of Theodoric, who had been slain in battle and quickly interred by his followers who meant to recover his corpse after the battle, but due either to mistake or their death the body recovered and buried at Tolouse was the wrong one. Hodgkins, and later J.B. Bury, expressed their skepticism over this identification.

Aftermath

This battle, especially since Sir Edward Creasy wrote his book, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, has been considered one of the most important battles of late antiquity. However, the number of combatants, while not as small as many conflicts over the following centuries, is not as large as at, say, the unquestionably important Battle of Adrianople in 378. And it did not halt Attila's campaign against the Roman Empire: the following year a weakened Attila invaded Italy, and caused much destruction, only ending his campaign after Pope Leo I met with him at a ford of the river Mincio. It was only after Attila's sudden death in 453, and after the divided and competing Hunnic forces fell upon each other at the Battle of Nedao in the following year, that the Huns vanished as a threat to Europe. Further, the Roman Empire following this victory did not emerge with renewed military might, but instead was likewise weakened, though more slowly than the Huns: despite the assassinations of first Aetius, then emperor Valentinian III, then the sack of Rome by Gaiseric in 455, a generation later there were still sufficient useful remains of the Western Roman Empire for the warlords to fight over. To label a battle as decisive is to state that it irrevocably changed events: had Attila won, his empire still would have dissolved upon his death, the Roman Empire would still have come to an end in the West, Gaul would still have been a prize that the Visigoths, the Burgunds and the Franks later fought over. There are a couple of reasons why this combat has kept its epic importance down the centuries. One is that—ignoring the Battle of Qarqar, which was forgotten at this time—this was the first significant conflict that involved large alliances on both sides. No single nation dominated either side; rather two alliances met and fought in surprising coordination for the time. The second reason is that the ferocity of this campaign left a deep impression upon its contemporaries. Not only did Attila savage much of Europe in a manner unrepeated for centuries, but the battle acquired a reputation for carnage almost immediately. Considering the extravagent totals for casualties, Edward Gibbon remarked that they "suppose a real and effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in a single hour." Two contemporary descriptions survive showing that this battle had an unparalled reputation for its carnage. The first is from Jordanes: :For, if we may believe our elders, a brook flowing between low banks through the plain was greatly increased by blood of the slain. It was not flooded by showers, as brooks usually rise, but was swollen by a strange stream and turned into a torrent by the increase of blood. Those whose wounds drove them to slake their parching thirst drank water mingled in gore. In their wretched plight they were forced to drink what they thought was the blood they had poured from their own wounds. (Getica 40.208) The second comes from the philosopher Damascius, who not many years afterwards heard that the fighting was so severe "that no one survived except only the leaders on either side and a few followers: but the ghosts of those who fell continued the struggle for three whole days and nights as violently as if they had been alive; the clash of their arms was clearly audible." A final reason for the reputation of this battle is that it was the first since the death of Constantine the Great where a predominantly Christian force faced a pagan opponent. This factor was very much apparent to the contemporaries, who often mention prayer playing a factor in this battle (e.g., Gregory of Tours' story of the prayers of Aetius' wife saving the Roman's life in Historia Francorum 2.7). Add to this the progressive demonization of the Hunnish king Attila, who is often portrayed in contemporary entertainment as a medieval version of Adolf Hitler, and it is easy to see how this battle has become a decisive encounter of the forces of Good versus Evil.

References

# The Gaetica (or "Gothic History"), our principal source for this battle, is the work of Jordanes, who acknowledges that his work is based on Cassiodorus' own Gothic History, written between 526 and 533. However, the philologist Theodor Mommsen argued that Jordanes' detailed description of the battle was copied from lost writings of the Greek historian Priscus. It is available in an English translation by Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes (Cambridge: Speculum Historiale, 1966, a reprint of the 1915 second edition); all quotations of Jordanes are taken from this edition, which is in the public domain. # A modern narrative based these sources can be found in E.A. Thompson, The Huns (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), pp. 144-148. This is a posthumous revision by Peter Heather of Thompson's A History of Attila and the Huns, originally published in 1948. # Summarized in Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders (New York: Russell & Russell, 1967 reprint of the original 1880-1889 edition), volume II pp.128ff. # Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinia, Chapter 9, § 4. # Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, volume II, pp. 160-2. # Thompson, The Huns, p.149. # Thompson, The Huns, endnote 65, on page 300. # This is based on a similar calculation made by Chester G. Starr in his The Roman Empire 27 B.C. - 476 A.D., Oxford University Press, Ney York, 1982, p.88. # A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1986 reprint of the 1964 original, pp.1417-1450. # Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, volume II, pp. 155-159. # Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Modern Library, New York, volume II, p.285. # Quoted in Thompson, The Huns, p.155. # J.F.C. Fuller, "The Battle Of Chalons," A Military History of the Western World: From he Earliest Times To The Battle of Lepanto, Da Capo Press, New York, vol. 1. pp. 282-301 ISBN 0-306-80304-6.

External links

- [http://www.literaturemania.com/tfdbt10/page19.asp Sir Edward Creasy's chapter on the Battle of Chalons at Literaturemania.com]
- [http://eserver.org/history/attila-at-chalons.txt Attila the Hun and the Battle of Chalons by Arther Ferrill]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/home.html History of the Later Roman Empire (1923)] at LacusCurtius Chalons Chalons 451 Chalons Chalons 451 Chalons Chalons 451 Chalons ko:카탈로니아 평원의 전투

Flavius Aetius

:This article is about the 5th-century Roman general Aëtius; for the 4th-century theologian, see Aetius (theologian); for the 6th-century Byzantine physician, see Aëtius Amidenus. Flavius Aëtius or simply Aëtius, (circa 396–454), was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He is often called, sometimes along with Count Boniface, "the last of the Romans". His victory over Attila the Hun, guarantees him, as Edward Gibbon says, immortality for as long as men remember Rome.

Early years

Aëtius was born at Dorostolus in Moesia, late in the 4th century. He was the son of an Italian mother named Auraelia and of Gaudentius, who, many historians point out, was possibly of a Germanic family. He rose in the service of the Western empire to be master of the horse, and later count of Africa. Aëtius passed some years as a hostage, first with Alaric and the Goths, and later in the camp of Rugila, king of the Huns. In this way he acquired the knowledge that enabled him to defeat them. There is also a school of thought that Aëtius's upbringing among vigorous and warlike peoples such as the Huns gave him a martial vigour lacking in Rome itself at that period. Certainly he learned every trick the Huns themselves utilized in battle, and he used that knowledge well in his conflicts with Attila.

Aëtius, Boniface and Placidia

In 425, Aëtius led an army of 60,000 Huns into Italy. He first moved to support Joannes, who had proclaimed himself emperor. However, he arrived in Ravenna three days after Joannes' defeat and execution. With his large force of Huns, Aëtius was able to secure a pardon and obtain the office of Magister militum per Gallias (or Master of Soldiers in Gaul) from Galla Placidia, the empress-mother and regent for Valentinian III. In Gaul, Aëtius defeated the Visigoths at Arles, forcing them to return to Aquitaine. He then proceeded to reinforce the Rhine frontier and defend Noricum against German attacks. Meanwhile, in Africa, Count Boniface fell into disfavour with Placidia, perhaps partly due to the intrigues of Aetius and other Roman generals. Boniface was eventually returned to favour by Placidia, not before revolting in Africa and calling in the Vandals. In 432, Boniface was recalled to Italy and given the rank of patrician. Aëtius, believing that Placidia had decided to get rid of him, marched against Boniface and fought against him in a battle near Rimini. Boniface won the battle tactically but was mortally wounded and died a few months later. Aëtius escaped to Dalmatia, and, with the help of the Huns (for which they were rewarded with territory in Pannonia), was restored to power by Placidia in 433.

Ascendancy

From 433 to 450, Aëtius was the dominant personality in the Western empire. He continued to devote his attention to Gaul after his restoration to power. In 436, the Burgundians tried to take advantage of disturbances caused by Bagaudae, bands of lawless brigands, to seize more territory. Aëtius responded by calling in the Huns to intervene, and 20,000 Burgundians were killed. This slaughter is the basis of the Nibelungenlied, a German epic. In 443 Aëtius settled the remaining Burgundians in Savoy, south of Lake Geneva. In the 440s he was mainly occupied with problems in Gaul and Spain, mainly with the Bagaudae. He settled Alans around Valence and Orleans to control unrest around Brittany. In 451 a large army of Huns, led by Attila, invaded Gaul and captured several cities, and proceeded towards Orleans. When the Alans living in the region were ready to defect to Attila, Aëtius and the Visigoth king Theodoric I moved in to relieve the city. The Huns abandoned the siege and retreated to open country, where, on September 20, 451 (some sources place the date at June 20, 451¹), they and their allies battled the Romans and Visigoths, along with their Alan, Frank, and Burgundian allies, on the Catalunian Plains near Chalons. Although tactically the outcome of the Battle of Chalons was indecisive, it was a great triumph for Aëtius and the Romans. Attila was forced to retreat beyond the Rhine and never threatened Gaul again.

Assassination

Although in 453 Aëtius had been able to betroth his son Gaudentius to Valentinian's daughter Placidia, Valentinian felt intimidated by Aetius, who had once supported Joannes against him and whom Valentinian believed wanted to place his son upon the imperial throne. The Roman senator Petronius Maximus and the chamberlain Heraclius were therefore able to enlist Valentinian in a plot to assassinate Aëtius. On September 21, 454, when at court in Ravenna delivering a financial account, Aëtius was slain by Valentinian's own hand. Edward Gibbon credits Sidonius Apollinaris with the famous observation, "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know that you have acted like a man who has cut off his right hand with his left" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 35). Maximus expected to be made patrician in place of Aëtius, but was blocked by Heraclius. Seeking revenge, Maximus arranged with two Hun friends of Aëtius, Optila and Thraustila, to assassinate both Valentinian III and Heraclius. On March 16, 455, Optila stabbed the emperor in the temple as he dismounted in the Campus Martius and prepared for a session of archery practice. As the stunned emperor turned to see who had struck him, Optila finished him off with another thrust of his blade. Meanwhile, Thraustila stepped forward and killed Heraclius. Most of the soldiers standing close by had been faithful followers of Aetius and none lifted a hand to save the emperor.

After death

His final legacy has been similar to that of Stilicho. Both were the best Roman generals of their time, and both were killed by jealous emperors. Aëtius was a brilliant general but failed to look at how the map of Rome would stand later on. At the time of his death, all the provinces of Rome in western Europe had a significant barbarian presence. After his victories he allowed the barbarians to stay inside the Empire's borders in exchange for peace, and their military service. He is also alleged to have failed to continue to develop Rome's navies, a significant problem for later emperors. That blindness, if true, was his greatest mistake. Simply put, he is alleged not to have seen the danger of Africa in barbarian hands. In that he would have been the only significant figure to have not foreseen that danger. Africa was the breadbasket of the Empire, and the source of most of the wealth remaining to the Western Empire. Gibbon however is more kind to Aëtius, and believes his preoccupation with the Huns, more than not caring, limited his attention to the navy, and the subsequent loss of Africa. Emperors Majorian, Leo I and Anthemius saw the necessity of Africa liberation. Even Visigoth puppet Roman emperor Attalus after sacks of Rome in 410 refused to give ships to barbarians for transport to Africa. Many historians feel Aëtius nominally preserved the peace and order, (in addition to his macrohistorical victory over Attila), but his reactionary stances left Rome ripe for its fall. It should be noted however that again, Gibbon, among others, disputes this. One fact however cannot be disputed. Even Gibbon agrees the reliance on barbarian troops was the primary reason for the ultimate fall of the Western Empire, and Aëtius certainly relied on them, to the detriment of the Empire when he was gone. J. B. Bury's assessment, however, was that the battle of Chalôns was fundamentally unimportant. Aëtius attacked the Huns when they were already retreating from Orleans, so Gaul was not in immediate danger; and he declined to renew the attack, the next day, to preserve the balance of power. The important battle was three years later, when the Germans rose up against the Huns after Attila's death, and defeated them at the Nedao, in 454. This decided that there would be no Hunnic Empire, which Bury thinks would have been unlikely even they had crushed the Germans that time. In this light, Chalôns determined chiefly whether Attila spent his last year looting Gaul or Italy.

References

# J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, 1923, Chapter 9, § 4.
- Ferrill, Arther, The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation. Thames and Hudson, London, 1986.
- Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire 284-602. Oxford Press, Cambridge, 1964.
- Oost, Stewart I., Galla Placidia Augusta. Chicago, 1968.
- Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum ii.8, gives a condensed version of Aetius' character and career, using a lost history of Renatus Frigeridus. Aetius Aetius Category:Roman generals Category:Murdered Romans

Attila the Hun

:For other uses, see Attila (disambiguation). Attila (disambiguation).]] Attila the Hun (Old Norse: Atle, Atli; German: Etzel; ca. 406–453) 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 emperor Valentinian III from his capital at Ravenna in 452. Though his empire died with him, and he left no remarkable legacy, he has become a legendary figure in the history of Europe. In much of Western Europe, he is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. In contrast, some histories lionize him as a great and noble king, and he plays major roles in three Norse sagas.

Background and beginnings

:Main article: Huns The European Huns seem to have been a western extension of the Xiongnu (Xiōngnú), (匈奴) n., a group of proto-Mongol 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 splendid 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 supposition that at a young age he was already a capable leader and a capable warrior is reasonable but unknowable. Following negotiation of peace terms in 418, the young Atilla, at the age of 12, was sent as a child hostage to the Roman court of Honorius. In return, the Huns received Flavius Aetius, in a child hostage exchange arranged by the Romans. Most likely the empire schooled Attila in its courts, customs and traditions and in its luxurious lifestyle, in the hope that he would carry an appreciation of these things back to his own nation, thus serving to extend Roman influence. The Huns would probably have hoped that Attila would enhance espionage capabilities by the exchange. Attila attempted escape during his stay in Rome but failed. He turned his attention to an intense study of the empire while outwardly ceasing to struggle against his hostage status. He studied the internal and foreign policies of the Romans. He often secretly observed them in diplomatic conference with foreign ministers. He learned about leadership, protocol and other essentials suited to future rulers and diplomats.

Shared kingship

Hun bow 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 agreed not only to return the fugitive tribes (who had been a welcome aid against the Vandals), but also to double their previous tribute of 350 Roman pounds (ca. 114.5 kg) of gold, open their markets to Hunnish traders, and pay a ransom of eight solidi for each Roman taken prisoner by the Huns. The Huns, satisfied with the treaty, decamped from the empire and departed into the interior of the continent, perhaps to consolidate and strengthen their empire. Theodosius used this opportunity to strengthen the walls of Constantinople, building the city's first sea wall, and to build up his border defenses along the Danube. The Huns remained out of Roman sight for the next five years. During this time, they were conducting an invasion of the Persian Empire. However, in Armenia, a Persian counterattack resulted in a defeat for Attila and Bleda, and they ceased their efforts to conquer Persia. In 440, they reappeared on the borders of the empire, attacking the merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been arranged for by the treaty. Attila and Bleda threatened further war, claiming that the Romans had failed to fulfil their treaty obligations and that the bishop of Margus (not far from modern Belgrade) had crossed the Danube to ransack and desecrate the royal Hun graves on the Danube's north bank. They crossed the Danube and laid waste to Illyrian cities and forts on the river, among them, according to Priscus, Viminacium, which was a city of the Moesians in Illyria. Their advance began at Margus, for when the Romans discussed handing over the offending bishop, he slipped away secretly to the barbarians and betrayed the city to them. Theodosius had stripped the river's defenses in response to the Vandal Geiseric's capture of Carthage in 440 and the Sassanid Yazdegerd II's invasion of Armenia in 441. This left Attila and Bleda a clear path through Illyria into the Balkans, which they invaded in 441. The Hunnish army, having sacked Margus and Viminacium, took Sigindunum (modern Belgrade) and Sirmium before halting its operations. A lull followed during 442, when Theodosius recalled his troops from North Africa and ordered a large new issue of coins to finance operations against the Huns. Having made these preparations, he thought it safe to refuse the Hunnish kings' demands. Attila and Bleda responded by renewing their campaign in 443. Striking along the Danube, they overran the military centers of Ratiara and successfully besieged Naissus (modern Niš) with battering rams and rolling towers—military sophistication that was new in the Hun repertory—then pushing along the Nisava they took Serdica (Sofia), Philippopolis (Plovdiv), and Arcadiopolis. They encountered and destroyed the Roman force outside Constantinople and were only halted by their lack of siege equipment capable of breaching the city's massive walls. Theodosius admitted defeat and sent the court official Anatolius to negotiate peace terms, which were harsher than the previous treaty: the Emperor agreed to hand over 6,000 Roman pounds (ca. 1,963 kg) of gold as punishment for having disobeyed the terms of the treaty during the invasion; the yearly tribute was tripled, rising to 2,100 Roman pounds (ca. 687 kg) in gold; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner rose to 12 solidi. Their desires contented for a time, the Hun kings withdrew into the interior of their empire. According to Jordanes (following Priscus), sometime during the peace following the Huns' withdrawal from Byzantium (probably around 445), Bleda died (killed by his brother, according to the classical sources), and Attila took the throne for himself. Now undisputed lord of the Huns, he again turned towards the eastern Empire.
- [http://www29.homepage.villanova.edu/christopher.haas/embassy.htm Priscus of Panium: fragments from the Embassy to Attila]

Sole ruler

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 the river Vid and was defeated—though not without inflicting heavy losses. The Huns were left unopposed and rampaged through the Balkans as far as Thermopylae; Constantinople itself was saved by the intervention of the prefect Flavius Constantinus, who organized the citizenry to reconstruct the earthquake-damaged walls, and in some places to construct a new line of fortification in front of the old. An account of this invasion survives: : The barbarian nation of the Huns, which was in Thrace, became so great that more than a hundred cities were captured and Constantinople almost came into danger and most men fled from it. … And there were so many murders and blood-lettings that the dead could not be numbered. Ay, for they took captive the churches and monasteries and slew the monks and maidens in great numbers. ::— Callinicus, in his Life of Saint Hypatius monasteries (depicted at right, dressed in white and holding his history):
"When evening began to draw in, torches were lighted, and two barbarians came forward in front of Attila and sang songs which they had composed, hymning his victories and his great deeds in war. And the banqueters gazed at them, and some were rejoiced at the songs, others became excited at heart when they remembered the wars, but others broke into tears—those whose bodies were weakened by time and whose spirit was compelled to be at rest." ]] Attila demanded, as a condition of peace, that the Romans should continue paying tribute in gold—and evacuate a strip of land stretching three hundred miles east from Sigindunum (Belgrade) and up to a hundred miles south of the Danube. Negotiations continued between Roman and Hun for approximately three years. The historian Priscus was sent as emissary to Attila's encampment in 448, and the fragments of his reports preserved by Jordanes offer the best glimpse of Attila among his numerous wives, his Scythian fool, and his Moorish dwarf, impassive and unadorned amid the splendor of the courtiers: :A luxurious meal, served on silver plate, had been made ready for us and the barbarian guests, but Attila ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher. In everything else, too, he showed himself temperate; his cup was of wood, while to the guests were given goblets of gold and silver. His dress, too, was quite simple, affecting only to be clean. The sword he carried at his side, the latchets of his Scythian shoes, the bridle of his horse were not adorned, like those of the other Scythians, with gold or gems or anything costly. "The floor of the room was covered with woollen mats for walking on," Priscus noted. During these three years, according to a legend recounted by Jordanes, Attila discovered the "Sword of Mars": :The historian Priscus says it was discovered under the following circumstances: "When a certain shepherd beheld one heifer of his flock limping and could find no cause for this wound, he anxiously followed the trail of blood and at length came to a sword it had unwittingly trampled while nibbling the grass. He dug it up and took it straight to Attila. He rejoiced at this gift and, being ambitious, thought he had been appointed ruler of the whole world, and that through the sword of Mars supremacy in all wars was assured to him. ::— Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths ch. XXXV [http://www.boudicca.de/jordanes3-e.htm (e-text)] Later scholarship would identify this legend as part of a pattern of sword worship common among the nomads of the Central Asian steppes.

Attila in the west

Central Asia 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 Aetius—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 the Visigoths, may also have influenced Attila's plans. However Valentinian's sister Honoria, in order to escape her forced betrothal to a senator, had sent the Hunnish king a plea for help—and her ring—in the spring of 450. Though Honoria may not have intended a proposal of marriage, Attila chose to interpret her message as such; he accepted, asking for half of the western Empire as dowry. When Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of his mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile, rather than kill, Honoria; he also wrote to Attila strenuously denying the legitimacy of the supposed marriage proposal. Attila, not convinced, sent an embassy to Ravenna to proclaim that Honoria was innocent, that the proposal had been legitimate, and that he would come to claim what was rightfully his. Meanwhile, Theodosius having died in a riding accident, his successor Marcian cut off the Huns' tribute in late 450; and multiple invasions, by the Huns and by others, had left the Balkans with little to plunder. The king of the Salian Franks had died, and the succession struggle between his two sons drove a rift between Attila and Aetius: Attila supported the elder son, while Aetius supported the younger. J.B. Bury believes that Attila's intent, by the time he marched west, was to extend his kingdom—already the strongest on the continent—across Gaul to the Atlantic shore. By the time Attila had gathered his vassals—Gepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians, Scirians, Heruls, Thuringians, Alans, Burgundians, et al.—and begun his march west, he had declared intent of alliance both with the Visigoths and with the Romans. In 451, his arrival in Belgica with an army said by Jordanes to be half a million strong soon made his intent clear. On April 7 he captured Metz, and Aetius moved to oppose him, gathering troops from among the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Celts. A mission by Avitus, and Attila's continued westward advance, convinced the Visigoth king Theodoric I (Theodorid) to ally with the Romans. The combined armies reached Orleans ahead of Attila, thus checking and turning back the Hunnish advance. Aetius gave chase and caught the Huns at a place usually assumed to be near Châlons-en-Champagne. The two armies clashed in the Battle of Chalons, whose outcome commonly, though erroneously, is attributed to be a victory for the Gothic-Roman alliance. Theodoric was killed in the fighting. Aetius failed to press his advantage, and the alliance quickly disbanded. Attila withdrew to continue his campaign against Italy.

Invasion of Italy and death

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 claimed neither Honoria's hand nor the territories he desired. Pope Leo I Several explanations for his actions have been proffered. The plague and famine which coincided with his invasion may have caused his army to weaken, or the troops that Marcian sent across the Danube may have given him reason to retreat, or perhaps both. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric—who died shortly after sacking Rome in 410—gave the Hun pause. Prosper of Aquitaine's pious "fable which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of Algardi" (as Gibbon called it) says that the Pope, aided by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, convinced him to turn away from the city. Various historians (e.g. Isaac Asimov) have supposed that the embassy brought a large amount of gold to the Hunnish leader and persuaded him to abandon his campaign. Whatever his reasons, Attila left Italy and returned to his palace across the Danube. From there he planned to strike at Constantinople again and reclaim the tribute which Marcian had cut off. However, he died in the early months of 453; the conventional account, from Priscus, says that on the night after a feast celebrating his latest marriage (to a beautiful Goth named Ildico), he suffered a severe nosebleed and choked to death in a stupor. His warriors, upon discovering his death, mourned him by cutting off their hair and gashing themselves with their swords so that, says Jordanes, "the greatest of all warriors should be mourned with no feminine lamentations and with no tears, but with the blood of men." His horsemen galloped in circles around the silken tent when Attila lay in state, singing in his dirge, according to Cassiodorus and Jordanes, "Who can rate this as death, when none believes it calls for vengeance?" then celebrating a strava over his burial place with great feasting. He was buried in a triple coffin—of gold, silver, and iron—with the spoils of his conquest, and his funeral party was killed to keep his burial place secret. After his death, he lived on as a legendary figure: the characters of Etzel in the Nibelungenlied and Atli in both the Volsunga saga and the Poetic Edda were both loosely based on his life. An alternate story of his death, first recorded eighty years after the fact by the Roman chronicler Count Marcellinus, reports: "Attila rex Hunnorum Europae orbator provinciae noctu mulieris manu cultroque confoditur." ("Attila, King of the Huns and ravager of the provinces of Europe, was pierced by the hand and blade of his wife.") The Volsunga saga and the Poetic Edda claim that King Atli died at the hands of his wife Gudrun. Most scholars reject these accounts as no more than romantic fables, preferring instead the version given by Attila's contemporary Priscus. The "official" account by Priscus, however, has recently come under renewed scrutiny by Michael A. Babcock (The Night Attila Died: Solving the Murder of Attila the Hun, Berkley Books, 2005 ISBN 0425202720). Based on detailed philological analysis, Babcock concludes that the account of natural death, given by Priscus, was an ecclesiastical "cover story" and that Emperor Marcian (who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from 450-457) was the political force behind Attila's death. His sons Ellak (his appointed successor), Dengizik, and Ernakh fought over the division of his legacy—"what warlike kings with their peoples should be apportioned to them by lot like a family estate" and, divided, were defeated and scattered the following year in the Battle of Nedao by the Gepids, under Ardaric, whose pride was stirred by being treated with his people like chattel, and the Ostrogoths. Attila's empire did not outlast him.

Appearance, character, and name

Ardaric 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 swarthy complexion, showing the evidences of his origin." Attila's physical appearance was probably most likely that of an Eastern Asian or more specifically a Mongol, or perhaps a mixture of this type and the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. Indeed, he probably exhibited the characteristic Eastern Asian facial features, which Europeans were not used to seeing, and so they often described him in harsh terms. Attila is known in Western history and tradition as the grim "Scourge of God", and his name has become a byword for cruelty and barbarism. Some of this may arise from a conflation of his traits, in the popular imagination, with those perceived in later steppe warlords such as the Mongol Great Khan Genghis Khan and Tamerlane: all run together as cruel, clever, and sanguinary lovers of battle and pillage. The reality of his character may be more complex. The Huns of Attila's era had been mingling with Roman civilization for some time, largely through the Germanic foederati of the border—so that by the time of Theodosius's embassy in 448, Priscus could identify Hunnic, Gothic, and Latin as the three common languages of the horde. Priscus also recounts his meeting with an eastern Roman captive who had so fully assimilated into the Huns' way of life that he had no desire to return to his former country, and the Byzantine historian's description of Attila's humility and simplicity is unambiguous in its admiration. The historical context of Attila's life played a large part in determining his later public image: in the waning years of the western Empire, his conflicts with Aetius (often called the "last of the Romans") and the strangeness of his culture both helped dress him in the mask of the ferocious barbarian and enemy of civilization, as he has been portrayed in any number of films and other works of art. The Germanic epics in which he appears offer more nuanced depic

June 20

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June 20

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

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451

Events

Births

Deaths

Battle of Chalons

Prelude

Battle

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Flavius Aetius

Early years

Aëtius, Boniface and Placidia

Ascendancy

Assassination

After death

See also

References

Attila the Hun

Background and beginnings

Shared kingship

Sole ruler

Attila in the west

Invasion of Italy and death

Appearance, character, and name