Attila The Hun

8 Pages 1887 Words

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At the outset of his reign, sometime after 435 Attila demanded more money, and the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II, obligingly doubled the annual subsidy. For various reasons, however, the new king began in the late 440's to look to the West as the main area of opportunity for the Huns. For the next decade and a half after his accession Attila was the most powerful foreign Leader in the affairs of the Western Roman Empire. The Huns had become a sedentary nation and were no longer the horse nomads of the earlier days.
The next event, the Hunnic invasion of Gaul was a huge undertaking. The Huns had a reputation for cruelty that was not undeserved. In the 440's one of Attila's attacks against the East in the Balkans aimed at a city in the Danubian provinces, Naissus (441-42). It was located about a hundred miles south of the Danube on the Nischava River. The Huns so devastated the place that when Roman ambassadors passed through to meet with Attila several years later, they had to camp outside the city on the river. The riverbanks were still filled with human bones, and the stench of death was so great that no one could enter the city.
After securing a strong position on the Roman side of the Danube the Huns were checked by the famou...