HUNIC INVASION

The ancestors of the Huns - the Xiongnu tribe of nomads - lived in the steppes of Central Asia. Ancient chronicles reported that “they have no houses and do not cultivate the land, but live in tents; respect elders and set time they gather for years to organize their affairs." The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote about the same thing: "They wander through the mountains and forests; no one plows among them and has never touched a plow... They feed on the roots of wild herbs and half-raw meat of all kinds of livestock, which she places on the backs of horses under her hips and lets them trample a little.”
Most likely, Ammianus is exaggerating somewhat here. The Xiongnu were cattle breeders and could easily eat boiled meat, horse meat and lamb. As for “rotten meat,” the historian might not have known that in this way many nomadic tribes treated the backs of horses rubbed by the saddle.
From the end III century BC The Huns began to make regular raids on the northwestern borders of China. Energetic and talented leader of the Huns Mode rallied his tribe, conquered part of the neighboring peoples and, after victories, forced the Emperor of China to conclude a “treaty of peace and kinship” with him, according to which the empire was actually obliged to pay tribute to the Huns.
The civil strife actually divided the tribe into two hostile camps - northern and southern. In 55 BC. the southern tribes went over to the side of China, the northern ones, led by the great Zhi-Zhi, migrated to the west and founded a new kingdom in the steppes of Eastern Kazakhstan.

« The Great War of the Alans with the Huns in the South Ural Mountains in the winter of 294-295.
295 Alans and Huns conclude a peace treaty near the Kura River.
Battle of the Ruskolans with the Huns near Semivezhye on the Moscow River (May 15, 316). 311-316 - The Huns destroy the Chinese Empire.
And it so happened that in those years the Huns, like the Scourge of God, fell on the region of Sinsky, as well as on the kingdoms of the Dalians and Chinese. And the throne of the Lord of Heaven was crushed by the Huns, and the emperor himself was captured and executed. Also, Saraev-grad was destroyed and burned, and Gamayun-grad was captured. The Huns sat down behind the Great Wall and began to suck out the juices of that land.
And in the east, the new emperor of the Sinians from the Samo clan took the name of the Yellow Dragon, and moved beyond the Great Kuban River, and there established the throne in Singrad.
And so, seeing the extreme weakening of the emperor of the Xin people from the leaders and generals of Moriyar, the dragon of the Huns, who, like a fire, was devouring cities, subjugating and exterminating the Chinese, Dalians and Xin people, Dazhen-yar, the prince of the East, was extremely concerned. He feared that the Huns, defeated on the Volga, would again gather forces in the steppes and mountains and repay for the defeat by invading with countless armies. And so again they will begin to torment Ruskolania. And in Ariystan of Parsi, King Shapug also feared for his country. He expected trouble both from the cruelty of the Huns and from the Armenian king Triedar.” Yarilin's book.

The steppe people moved west and along the way mixed with other tribes, for example with the Ugrians who lived in the Urals and Lower Volga.
IN 375 Huns led by a king Belember crossed the Volga and attacked the Alans. In 375 he creates a new state - Hunnic Khaganate. Khagans - khans of khans are elected (for life) at a meeting of representatives of all the peoples of the country.
By the beginning of the next decade, mobile cavalry units of the Huns controlled the steppes of the North Caucasus from the Caspian Sea to the Azov Sea. The Huns included some of the defeated Alans into their horde. Over the next centuries, these Alans scattered across the vast expanses of future Hungary, France, Spain and North Africa, mixing with the remnants of the Hunnic tribes, Germanic newcomers and the local population. Those Alans who did not submit to the Huns went to the Caucasus, where, together with other ethnic groups, they became the ancestors of the Ossetians.

CRUCIFIXION OF BELOYAR'S BEADS

After the death of Ermanaric and separation from the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths remained in their homeland, that is, in “their ancient Scythian settlements,” under the rule of the Huns. However, Vinitary from the Amala clan retained “the signs of his princely dignity” and tried to avoid submission to the Huns. To do this, he attacked the country of the Antes.
The historian Jordan wrote: “Amal Vinitarius (otherwise Vitimir - the “winner”, the ripper of the Wends) bitterly endured subordination to the Huns. Little by little freeing himself from their power, he sent an army to the region of the Antes.” In the first battle, Vinitarius was defeated, but in subsequent battles he defeated the Antes, and crucified their king God (Bose, Bus) and 70 elders.
Bus Beloyar was crucified, according to the tablets of the Book of Veles, by Amal Vend. This was Vend from the Amal family, in whose veins Venedian and German blood merged. This happened in vernal equinox. See Crucifixion of Bus Beloyar.
About a year later, the Hun leader Belember destroyed the last traces of Ostrogothic freedom. To do this, he called Gesimund, the son of Hunimund the Elder. He “with a significant part of the Goths” submitted to the power of the Huns, together with whom - “renewing an alliance with them” - he opposed Vinitarius. A long feud began, in which Vinitarius won twice, while the Huns suffered heavy losses. But in the third battle, which took place on the Erak River, Vinitarius was killed by an arrow that hit him in the head. Belembert himself allegedly shot. After this, the leader of the Huns married Va(l)damerka, the niece of the murdered man, and “since then he ruled the world over the entire conquered Gothic tribe, but, however, in such a way that it always obeyed its own leader, although chosen by the Huns.”
In the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” created 80 years later in those places where the center of Ermanaric’s power was located, when describing the misfortunes of the Russian (Kyiv) land, there are the following words: “Behold, the red Gothic maidens hastened on the breeze to the blue sea, ringing with Russian gold, They sing the time of Busovo."
After the defeat by the West Goth leader Vinitaria in the 4th century. the Antes went to the Danube region and founded community of "Seven Clans"(Penkovskaya culture).

For residents living in the south of what is now Ukraine and Russia, disaster struck in winter 377-378 The Huns crossed these lands with fire and sword. “The defeated Scythians (as the Greeks and Romans indiscriminately called all the inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region) were exterminated by the Huns, and most of them died. Some were caught and beaten along with their wives and children, and there was no limit to the cruelty of their beating...” Agricultural regions of Crimea and the Dnieper region turned into wild pastures. The Hun invasion led to the decline of the Ant culture, slowed down the development of the Ants, putting them under the influence or even power of the Huns until the mid-century. V century

Uldin

Uldin (lat. Uldin) (died in October 409 or 412) - ruler of part of the Huns who were in the north of the Lower Danube. He led the Western Huns during the reigns of the emperors Arcadius (394-408) and Theodosius II (408-450).
He first became known to the Romans in December 400, when he attacked the army of the rebel Roman general Gaina, who had recently rebelled unsuccessfully in Thrace. Uldin defeated him, executed him and sent the severed head to Constantinople to the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius, for which he received a generous reward. Uldin's troops attacked the territory of Moesia in the winter of 404/405. In 405, Uldin led an army of Huns along with his allies the Sciri and entered the service of the Western Roman Empire and, together with the military master Stilicho, fought against Radagaisus, who had invaded the territory of the empire.
In 408 he again went on a campaign to Moesia, but after the first successes his offensive was repulsed. Many Huns and their allies were captured, and Uldin was forced to retreat. He died in 409 or 412, after his death the state of the Huns fell into three parts.

Donat

The only source reporting on Donatus are extracts from the “History” of Olympiodorus of Thebes, made for the “Library” of Patriarch Photius the Great of Constantinople. However, the brevity of these notes does not allow historians to accurately establish the circumstances of Donatus’ life and death.
Based on the information reported by Olympiodor, it is assumed that Donatus could have been one of the rulers subordinate to the supreme king of the Huns and owned the eastern regions of the Hunnic state. Some historians suggest that Donatus ruled the Black Sea lands, while others suggest that they ruled the Pannonian lands. It is possible that Donatus was not even an ethnic Hun, as evidenced by his name, which is of Latin origin.
According to Olympiodor, in 412 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Huns and their leader Donatus. It is not known for sure who sent the embassy, ​​the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II or the Western Roman Emperor Honorius. Olympiodor wrote that along the way he had to make a sea voyage and also endure many other dangers. However, soon after the arrival of the ambassadors, Donatus was killed. There is no detailed description of this event in Photius’s extracts: it is only mentioned that Donatus was “cunningly deceived by an oath.” In response to this murder, the “first of the riks” of the Huns, Kharaton, “inflamed with anger,” and only the gifts conveyed by the imperial envoys resolved the conflict. Probably, the murder of Donatus was inspired by the Roman ambassadors. It is assumed that Charaton, after the death of Donatus, could have inherited his power over the lands that were subject to him.

Kharaton

The only source reporting on Charaton are extracts from the “History” of Olympiodor of Thebes, made for the “Library” of Patriarch Photius the Great of Constantinople. However, the brevity of these notes does not allow historians to accurately establish the circumstances of Kharaton’s reign.
According to Olympiodor, in 412 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Huns and their leader Donatus. It is not known for sure who sent the embassy, ​​the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II or the Western Roman Emperor Honorius. It is also unknown which part of the Hunnic state Donatus ruled: it is assumed that he could have ruled either the Black Sea or Pannonian lands. Olympiodorus wrote that along the way he had to make a sea voyage and also endure many other dangers. However, soon after the arrival of the ambassadors, Donatus was killed. There is no detailed description of this event in Photius’s extracts: it is only mentioned that Donatus was “cunningly deceived by an oath.” In response to this murder, the “first of the riks” of the Huns, Kharaton, “inflamed with anger,” and only the gifts conveyed by the imperial envoys resolved the conflict. Probably, the murder of Donatus was inspired by the Roman ambassadors.
It is not known exactly what position Charaton occupied among the Huns at the time of Olympiodor's visit. Opinions are expressed that he could have been a co-ruler of Donatus, could have been his successor on the throne, or could have been the supreme king of the Huns, while Donatus was a subordinate leader. In the latter case, Kharaton could be the successor of King Uldin. Based on the mention of Kharaton as “the first of the riks,” it is concluded that he was the ruler of most of the Hunnic state, perhaps the first king to unite in the 410s. under their rule all the tribes of the Huns living north of the Danube.
Nothing is known about the exact time and duration of Kharaton's reign, but it is assumed that he died no later than 430, when historical sources name the names of other kings of the Huns, possibly his relatives, Oktar and Rua.

Oktar

Information about the life of Oktar is contained in the works of two historians of the 5th-6th centuries. - “Ecclesiastical History” by Socrates Scholasticus and “Getica” by Jordanes. According to these sources, he was the brother of three members of the Hunnic royal family, Rua, Mundzuka and Oebarsa. It is assumed that their father was the ruler of the Huns, Uldin, who died in 409 or 412. Probably, after the death of their possible relative, King Kharaton, Oktar and Rua jointly received power over the Huns, while their younger brothers were removed from the control of the Hunnic state . The circumstances of this event and the date of the beginning of the brothers' reign are unknown. Rua owned the eastern lands of the Huns' possessions, and Oktar - the western ones. The border between the brothers' possessions was probably the Carpathians.
Very little is known about Oktar's reign. The chronicles call him a friend of Flavius ​​Aetius and, probably, references to Hunnic detachments in the troops of this Roman commander in the 420s are connected with this. With the help of the Huns, Aetius liberated the Roman province of Narbonese Gaul from the Visigoths in 427, and in 428 defeated the Franks. Byzantine historian of the 6th century. Marcellinus Comitus wrote that in 427 the Romans managed to regain control of the lands of Pannonia, which were supposed to be under the rule of Oktarus, but modern historians doubt the reliability of this evidence.
At the same time, the Huns waged constant wars with the Burgundians, who lived on the right bank of the Rhine between the Main and Neckar rivers. According to Socrates Scholasticus, the Burgundians, who were in a difficult situation, wanting to enlist divine support, even renounced their pagan beliefs and adopted Christianity. In 430, Oktar himself led a campaign against the Burgundians, but during one of the night feasts he suddenly died from gluttony. Taking advantage of the situation, the Burgundians attacked the army of the Huns, and although there were many more of them, they won a complete victory over their enemies.
After the death of Oktar, King Rua united in his hands all the power over the Hunnic state.

Rugila

The most famous in the sources was the leader of the Huns Rua (Rugila, Roas, Ruga, Roil). Initially he ruled together with his brother Oktar, who died in 430 during a military campaign against the Burgundians.
In 424/425 he assisted the usurper John.
In 432, Rua is mentioned as the only ruler of the Huns. At that time, the Roman military leader Flavius ​​Aetius, due to internal strife in the empire, lost his province of Gaul, property and fled to the Huns. With their help, he was again restored to his post.
In 433, Rua, to whom Byzantium paid an annual tribute of 350 liters in gold, began to threaten the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) to break the peace agreements because of fugitives fleeing the Huns on the territory of the empire. The headquarters of the Hunnic leader Rugila was in Pannonia (Hungary).
In 435 the Huns devastated Thrace, but their campaign ended in failure. Rua died from being “struck by lightning”, and the rest of the Hunnic troops allegedly died due to a plague epidemic. After the death of Rua, Attila and Bleda, the sons of his brother Mundzuk, began to jointly rule the Huns.

Attila

Attila. Detail of a fresco by Delacroix, c. 1840

The first campaign of Attila and Bleda against the Byzantine province of Illyricum (modern Serbia) began in 441, at an extremely unfortunate moment for the Eastern Romans, when their armies were diverted to fight the Persians and the Vandal king Geiseric in Sicily. Geiseric landed on the island in 440, and in the spring of the following year an expeditionary force was sent against him under the command of the Byzantine German commander Areobindus. Areobindus arrived in Sicily too late, when the Vandals had already left it. In the same 441, the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor were attacked by the Persians, however, the war with them quickly ended with peace and concessions from the commander of the Byzantine forces in eastern Anatolia.
According to Priscus, fighting began with an attack by the Huns on the Romans at a trade fair in the area of ​​modern Belgrade. The pretext for the attack was the theft by the bishop of the city of Marg of Hunnic treasures, probably from the royal tombs. Marg was captured, and the nearby larger cities on the Danube Singidunum (modern Belgrade) and Viminacium (modern Serbian Kostolac) fell. The Huns moved further east along the Danube to Ratiaria (modern Bulgarian village Archar) and south along the Morava valley to Naiss (modern Serbian Niš).

The Huns are marching on Rome. Art illustration Ulpiano Keki.

The assault and capture of Naissus is described by Priscus in sufficient detail to understand how the nomadic Huns, using the construction skills of the peoples under their control, were able to capture fortified cities:
Since the inhabitants did not dare to go out to fight, [the Huns], in order to facilitate the crossing of their troops, built a bridge across the river [Nishava] with south side downstream of the city and brought their cars to the walls encircling the city. First they brought up wooden platforms on wheels. Warriors stood on them and shot the defenders on the bastions. Behind the platforms there were people who pushed the wheels with their feet and moved the cars where needed, so that the [archers] could successfully shoot through the screens. So that the warriors on the platform could fight in safety, they were covered with screens of wicker willow with hides and skins thrown over them to protect them from projectiles and incendiary darts [...] When many vehicles were brought to the walls, the defenders abandoned the bastions due to the shower of projectiles . Then the so-called rams brought in […] The defenders threw huge boulders from the walls […] Some of the cars were crushed along with the servants, but the defenders could not withstand their large number […] The barbarians burst through a part of the wall broken through by the blows of the rams, as well as through compound stairs.

The renowned historian E.A. Thompson suggested that Priscus' account of the siege of Naissus was a fiction, since the literary style of the text closely resembled Thucydides' account of the siege of Plataea c. 430 BC However, other historians disagreed with Thompson, pointing out that imitation of classical literature was not uncommon among Greek-speaking writers.
When Priscus, as part of the Byzantine embassy, ​​passed through Naissus in 448, he found it “deserted and destroyed by the enemies... along the river bank everything was covered with the bones of those killed in the battle.”
In 442, hostilities apparently ended. After Emperor Theodosius made peace with the Vandals in 442, Areobindus' army was transferred from Sicily to Thrace, where the fighting ended. The defense of Thrace, covering the capital Constantinople, was coordinated by the commander of the Byzantine troops, Aspar.
According to Priscus, the Huns captured a vast area in the area of ​​modern Serbia, five days' journey south of the Danube.

In 444, according to the chronicle of a contemporary of the events, Prosper of Aquitaine, Attila killed his brother: “Attila, king of the Huns, killed Bleda, his brother and comrade-in-arms in the kingdom, and forced his people to obey him.” A later chronicler of the second sex. VI century Marcellinus Comitus dates the death of Bleda to 445, and the Gallic Chronicle of 452 places this event under 446.
The most detailed source of information about Attila, the historian Priscus, as presented by Jordanes, almost repeats the information of Prosper: “After his brother Bleda, who commanded a significant part of the Huns, was treacherously killed, Attila united the entire tribe under his rule.” Marcellinus Comite and the Gallic Chronicle testify to the death of Bleda as a result of treachery and deception, without directly pointing to Attila as the culprit in the death of his brother.
Olympiodor expressed himself in a similar way in the story of the death of the Hun leader Donatus around 412: “Donatus, treacherously deceived by an oath, was criminally killed,” but there the culprits in the death of the leader were the Romans or their allies.

Attila (medal)

From 444 until his death in 453, Attila single-handedly ruled the powerful Hunnic Empire, which was a conglomerate of various barbarian tribes living north of the Danube in vast territories from the Black Sea region to the Rhine.
Nothing is known about the father of Attila and Bleda, Mundzuk, except that he was the father of the future leaders Attila and Bleda. His brother Optarus is noted in the History of Socrates Scholasticus as the leader of the Huns, who in the 420s. fought with the Burgundians on the Rhine and died of gluttony.
Attila inspired fear not only in the European peoples; the soldiers of his own army, in which iron discipline and combat training reigned, trembled before him. In addition, the Huns were excellent at tactics: “They rush into battle, forming a wedge, and at the same time utter a menacing howling cry. Light and agile, they suddenly disperse on purpose and, without forming a battle line, attack here and there, committing a terrible murder... They deserve to be recognized as excellent warriors, because from afar they fight with arrows equipped with skillfully crafted bone tips , and having come into hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, they fight with selfless courage with swords and, dodging the blow themselves, throw a lasso at the enemy in order to deprive him of the opportunity to sit on a horse or leave on foot.” That is, contemporaries, with all their hostility towards the Huns, could not help but note their courage and military skill. But Christian writers and priests believed that the leader of the Huns and his army were strong because they embodied the victory of the darkest forces on earth. The Gothic historian Jordanes argued: “Perhaps they won not so much by war as they inspired the greatest horror with their terrible appearance; their image was frightening in its blackness, resembling not a face, but, so to speak, an ugly lump with holes instead of eyes. Their fierce appearance betrayed the cruelty of their spirit... They are small in stature, but fast in their agility of movements and extremely prone to horse riding; They are broad in the shoulders, dexterous in archery and always proudly straightened thanks to the strength of their necks. In human form they live in animal savagery.”
Jordan did not spare Attila himself: “Short, with a broad chest, a large head and small eyes, with a sparse beard touched with gray, with a flattened nose, with a disgusting skin color, he showed all the signs of his origin.”

In the period between the first and second campaigns against Byzantium, Bleda died, and Attila concentrated all military force Huns. During this period, there was a war between the Huns and the Akatsirs, nomads from the Northern Black Sea region, which became known through a mention in a conversation between Priscus and a certain Greek, a former captive of Onegesius, an ally of Attila.
The chronology of the campaigns against Byzantium, in which campaign which cities were captured, when the peace treaty was concluded (known from the Priscus fragment), all these events are reconstructed by different researchers in different ways.
The historian O.D. reconstructed Attila’s campaigns against Byzantium in the most detail. Maenchen-Helfen in his work “The World of the Huns”. After the completion of the 1st campaign, Attila, as the only leader of the Huns, demanded from Byzantium the agreed tribute and the surrender of defectors. Emperor Theodosius the Younger at the council decided to enter the war rather than fulfill the humiliating demands of the Huns. Then Attila captured Ratiaria, from where to the end. 446 or beg. 447 attacked the Balkan possessions of Byzantium. Marcellinus Comite in his chronicle under the year 447 left the following entry: “In a terrible war, much more difficult than the first [in 441-442], Attila destroyed almost all of Europe into dust.”
In the ensuing battle on the Utum River east of Ratiaria, the Byzantine forces under the command of the military commander Arnegisclus were defeated, and Arnegisclus himself died in the battle.
The Huns passed unhindered further east along the plain between the Danube and the Balkan ridge to Marcianople, captured this city and turned south, capturing Philippopolis and Arcadiopolis. The scale of the invasion can be judged by the words of contemporary Kallinikos, who reported the capture of more than 100 cities by the Huns and the complete devastation of Thrace. Priscus dwelt in detail on the struggle of the inhabitants of the small fortress of Asimunt on the border of Illyricum with Thrace, who were the only ones (according to surviving evidence) who were able to give a worthy rebuff to the Huns.
The danger was felt even in Constantinople, which was partially destroyed by a strong earthquake on January 27, 447. It is unclear from the sources whether the walls of the city were completely restored (by May 447) by the time the Huns approached it. Many residents fled from the city; Emperor Theodosius himself was ready to flee. Nestorius, in his hagiographical work “Bazaar of Heracleides,” talks about the miraculous salvation of the city through the erection of crosses, upon seeing which the Huns retreated in disarray.
Detachments of the Huns reached the Sea of ​​Marmara and approached Greece, checking in at Thermopylae. On the Thracian Chersonese peninsula, another battle took place with the Huns, after which a difficult peace was concluded for Byzantium.
The terms of Byzantium's peace with the Huns are detailed in a surviving fragment by Priscus:
Give defectors and six thousand liters of gold to the Huns [approx. 2 tons], in salary for the past time; pay annually a certain tribute of two thousand one hundred liters of gold; for each Roman prisoner of war who escaped [from the Huns] and returned to his own land without ransom, pay twelve gold coins; If those who accept him do not pay this price, they are obliged to hand over the fugitive to the Huns. The Romans should not accept any barbarian who resorts to them.
If the edict of Emperor Theodosius dated November 29, 444 (after the 1st campaign of the Huns) spoke of a decrease tax requirements to land estates, now all benefits have been abolished. Money was collected by beatings; wealthy citizens sold off their personal property and their wives’ jewelry. According to Priscus: “Such a disaster befell the Romans [the inhabitants of Byzantium] after this war that many of them starved themselves to death, or ended their lives by putting a noose around their necks.”
Byzantium paid a heavy tribute, and in 448 Attila had only the following demands on the defeated empire - the extradition of fugitives from Hunnic lands and the cessation of agricultural activities in the territories he conquered, which stretched from the Danube to Naissa and Serdika (modern Sofia). During negotiations as part of the Byzantine embassy in 448, Attila's headquarters somewhere on the territory of modern Hungary was visited by the historian Priscus, who became the main source of information for subsequent authors about the deeds of the Huns and the life of Attila.
Priscus told of a failed attempt to kill Attila by bribing the Hun Aedecon, Attila's trusted general. Edecon betrayed the plot, but Attila spared the translator of the Byzantine embassy, ​​Vigila, who was responsible for the execution, taking a large ransom from him as atonement.
In 448, Attila sent his eldest son Ellak to rule among the Akatsir in the Black Sea region, but he was at such an age that he needed a guardian in the person of the military leader Onegesius.

In 449, the Byzantine ambassadors Anatoly and Nome managed to extract from Attila a promise to return the Danube lands to the empire and resolve the issue of handing over fugitives from the Huns. According to Priscus, “disagreements with Attila were stopped.”
In July 450, Emperor Theodosius died as a result of a fall from his horse. On August 25, the emperor's sister Pulcheria installed a new emperor, the military leader Marcian, on the throne of Byzantium, who refused to pay the previous tribute to the Huns:
The Eastern Emperor announced that he was not obliged to pay the tribute appointed by Theodosius; that if Attila remains calm, he will send him gifts, but if he threatens war, he will bring out a force that will not yield to his strength.
At the same time, Attila's relations with the Western Roman Empire worsened, the reason for which was the calling of Attila by Honoria, the sister of the Roman emperor Valentinian. The legend of how Honoria turned to the leader of the Huns with a request for help is set out in the article by Justus Grata Honorius.
The ancient chroniclers replaced the lack of accurate information with legends, which were usually born in Constantinople. Thus, the 6th century chronicler John Malala reported that Attila, through ambassadors, ordered Marcian and Valentinian to keep their palaces ready for him.
In the beginning 451 The Hunnic army moved up the Danube and further north along the banks of the Rhine, and then invaded Gaul. She destroyed all the cities in her path, brutally exterminating their population.
The course of the invasion was not reflected in the records of the chroniclers and is reconstructed from hagiographic sources: the lives of Catholic saints who showed themselves in 451.

The Huns sack a villa in Gaul. Art illustration G. Rochegrosse (1910)

On April 7, 451, Metz was captured and destroyed by the Huns; the cities of Trier, Cologne, Reims, Tonger, and Troyes also fell. Attila approached Orleans in the center of Gaul and may have besieged it. If he took the city, he could cross the Loire on bridges, penetrating the possessions of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in western Gaul. On June 14, at a critical moment, when, according to the life of Saint Annian, the walls of the city had already been broken through by battering rams, the united armies of the Roman commander Aetius and the Visigoth king Theodoric came to the aid of Orleans.
Attila retreated to the Catalaunian fields (more than 200 km east of Orleans), crossing to the right bank of the Seine, probably in the city of Troyes.
Early in the morning June 21, 451 150 km. East of Paris, on the Catalaunian fields, a decisive battle took place between the armies of the Hunnic and Roman coalitions (under the leadership of the commander Aetius Flavius), which received the name “Battle of the Nations” in history. The Goths, Franks, Burgundians: Saxons, part of the Alans and Britons from Armorica fought on the side of the Romans. Slavic (proto-Russian) tribes also participated on the side of the Hun leader Attila. The battle lasted seven days. 165 thousand soldiers died. It was “a fierce, variable, brutal, stubborn battle. No antiquity has ever told about such a battle.”
As a result of the grandiose massacre, both sides suffered heavy losses, King Theodoric I was killed. Apparently, Attila’s army suffered more significant damage, since the next day he locked himself in a fortified camp, surrounding himself on all sides with carts. The initiative passed into the hands of the Gothic-Roman coalition; however, Thorismund, newly elected king of the Visigoths, was the first to withdraw his army from the battlefield to Toulouse in order to secure his power from his brothers.
Then Attila, unmolested, left the battlefield unhindered. He withdrew the surviving troops beyond the Danube.
A year later, Attila again gathered a powerful army, invaded Gaul and attacked northern Italy. In the summer of 452, Attila attacked Italy from Pannonia through a wide plain pass in the Alps. The first to come under attack was Aquileia in the province of Venetia, the largest city on the Adriatic coast at that time. According to Jordanes, “after a long and intense siege, Attila could do almost nothing there; Inside the city, the strongest Roman soldiers resisted him, and his own army was already grumbling and trying to leave.”
However, Attila insisted on continuing the siege, and during an assault using throwing and siege engines, the city fell. Although Jordanes declares the disappearance of Aquileia (“they ravage everything with such cruelty that they seem to leave no trace of the city”), in fact the city was soon restored, but died out naturally in the next century after the invasion of the Lombards, since most residents chose to move to a new city, much better protected by the sea, called Venice. In 458, the Bishop of Aquileia discussed the issue with Pope Leo about men who returned from Hunnic captivity and found their wives married to others.

Attila attacks the symbolic images of Italy and the Muses. Fresco by Delacroix, c. 1840

The remaining cities of Venetia were also captured, after which Attila moved to the west of northern Italy. Probably, the commander of the Roman troops, Aetius, decided to organize defense along the Po River, refusing to protect the cities on its left (northern) bank. Exactly the same tactics brought success to the Romans more than 550 years ago during the Cimbri invasion, when in 102 BC. e. were given over to the barbarians to ravage the land north of the Po, as a result of which they managed to gain time for the transfer of a strong army from Gaul. In a similar way, Alaric’s Goths marched to northern Italy in 401, when the Goths also captured Aquileia and marched to the western Alps, but the commander of the Roman troops, Stilicho, did not allow them to enter Italy south of the Po and then defeated them.
The Huns captured Mediolanum (modern Milan) and Ticinum (modern Pavia). In Mediolanum, Attila occupied the imperial palace (the city was the capital of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 5th century). According to Suda, Attila saw a painting depicting Roman emperors on a throne with dead Scythians stretched out at their feet. Then he ordered to find the artist and forced him to draw himself on the throne, and the Roman emperors pouring gold from their bags at his feet. Most of the inhabitants fled Mediolanum, their houses were looted or burned, and their churches destroyed.

Meeting of Pope Leo with Attila. Fresco by Raphael in the Vatican (1514)

The Pope's secretary, Prosper, wrote in his chronicle that Pope Leo, accompanied by the noble Romans Avienus and Trigetius, met with the leader of the Huns and persuaded him to go beyond the Danube. According to Priscus, Attila, in addition to Pope Leo, was dissuaded from going to Rome by advisers, fearing the imminent death of the leader (which actually happened, although without the capture of Rome) after the capture of the capital of the world, just as Alaric died after the capture of Rome.
However, other sources cover Attila's departure differently. From a letter to Pope Symmachus in 512, the purpose of Pope Leo's mission to Attila became known. Pope Leo negotiated the release of Roman captives (possibly discussing the size of the ransom), including pagans. The convincing reasons for Attila's departure from Italy are set out in the chronicle of a contemporary of the events, Idatius:
Additional troops sent by Emperor Marcian, under the command of Aetius, massacred them [the Huns] in their own camps. They were also destroyed by a plague sent from heaven.
Historians disagree about the identity of Aetius mentioned in the chronicle. While Thompson believed him to be the Byzantine namesake Flavius ​​Aetius and attributed the campaign across the Danube to the deep rear of the Huns, Menchen-Helfen has no doubt that it was Flavius ​​Aetius, and the Byzantine army crossed the sea to Italy, where it began to inflict blows. Historians agree on one thing: the plague among the Huns was a much more decisive factor in their departure from Italy than the persuasion of the Pope.
After returning from the campaign against Italy, Attila again began to threaten Byzantium, demanding tribute agreed with the late Emperor Theodosius. Emperor Marcian tries to come to an agreement with the leader of the Huns, sends gifts, but Attila refuses them. According to Jordan, the threats towards Byzantium were only a cunning cover for Attila’s real plans: “By doing this, he, crafty and cunning, threatened in one direction and directed his weapons in the other.”
Attila launched a swift raid on the Alans who settled on the Loire in the center of Gaul. However, the king of the Visigoths Thorismund managed to come to their aid, and in the battle Attila, if not defeated, was forced to retreat to Pannonia and Dacia. Apart from Jordanes' short account, there are no other sources on this last battle of Attila.

Jordanes, retelling Priscus, alone described Attila's death and funeral:
He took as his wife - after countless wives, as is the custom among those people - a girl of remarkable beauty named Ildiko. Weakened by the wedding from its great pleasure and heavy with wine and sleep, he lay floating in the blood that usually came from his nostrils, but was now stopped in its usual course and, pouring out along a deadly path through his throat, suffocated him. […] Among the steppes, his corpse was placed in a silk tent, and this presented an amazing and solemn spectacle. The best horsemen of the entire Hun tribe rode around, like a circus, the place where he was laid; at the same time, in funeral chants they commemorated his exploits [...] After he was mourned with such lamentations, they celebrate “strava” (as they themselves call it) on his mound, accompanying it with a huge feast. Combining opposite [feelings], they express funeral grief mixed with jubilation. At night, the corpse is secretly buried, tightly enclosed in [three] coffins - the first of gold, the second of silver, the third of strong iron. […] In order to prevent human curiosity in the face of such great riches, they killed everyone who was entrusted with this matter.

Attila's feast. On the right is the Byzantine diplomat and historian Priscus. Hood. Mór Than (1870) based on the memoirs of Priscus.

In March 2014, it was reported that during the construction of a new bridge over the Danube in Budapest, the grave of a noble Hun, possibly Attila, had been found.
Historians believe that Ildiko is a Germanic name. Marcellinus reported a rumor that the “destroyer of Europe” Attila was stabbed to death by an unnamed wife in his sleep. This legend was reflected in the Scandinavian epic in the Elder Edda: the sister of the Burgundian king Gudrun killed her drunken husband, the king of the Huns Atli (Attila).

Attila's numerous sons rushed to divide their father's empire, but the barbarian leaders who had previously controlled him did not want to submit to the new rulers. The Gepid king Ardaric, leading an uprising of a number of Germanic tribes, defeated the Huns in 454 at the Battle of Nedao (the modern Nedava River in Pannonia, a tributary of the Sava), killing Attila's eldest son Ellak in the battle.
The Hun tribes, scattered after the defeat, occupied different places. Attila's youngest son Ernak settled with part of the tribe in Dobruja; the other Huns were pushed east by stronger tribes across the Danube into the territory of Byzantium, where they later fought with the Goths.
The latest news about Attila's Huns dates back to 469, when, according to the chronicle of Marcellinus, "the head of Dengizirich, son of Attila, king of the Huns, was delivered to Constantinople."

Aetius Flavius, who rightly demanded from the Roman Emperor Valentinian III recognition of his pledges in the form of the hand of the imperial daughter Eudoxia, promised to his son, was also killed during an audience on September 21, 454 on the Palatine Hill.

The remnants of the Hunnic tribes mixed with other nomadic tribes, and the ethnonym “Huns” firmly entered the vocabulary of the 6th century authors to designate the barbarian nomadic hordes rolling in waves in Western Europe from the northern coast of the Black Sea.
The Turkic-speaking peoples who came from Central Asia along with the Huns remained nomadic in the steppes of Eastern and partly Central Europe, crowding out the original population, which, under fear of extermination, either fled or went wild. The Barsils, Savirs, and Khazars established themselves in the Ciscaucasia; in the Northern Black Sea region and further along the Ister (Danube) - the Bulgars, Uturgurs, Kuturgurs, Akatsirs, Ogurs, Onogurs, Hunno-Gundurs, etc. Their further life takes place within the framework of the history of the Mediterranean region.

Already towards the end. V century AD, when, according to Western and Armenian sources, the Huns return to the East, they appear there under a different name. Procopius and Moses of Khoren call the leader of the White Huns who defeated Peroz “Kushnavar.” The name of this commander combined two words: Kushan - a term used by a number of Armenian historians to designate nomads, i.e. Kushan of Central Asia, and Avaz=Avar, the name of the famous successors of the Huns in Eastern Europe. The origin of the term Avar is not entirely clear. Note that the Dnieper was called the term Gunnovar, which combines the two names Hun + Avar. In an abbreviated form, the terms Avars and Huns were retained in the tribal name Varkhonites, which was a modification of the phrases yap + huni. The appearance of this name in written sources dates back to the beginning of the second half of the 6th century (approximately 557) Priscus mentions it in 461-465. Avars, who defeated the Savirs, who, in turn, pushed out the Saraugurs, Ugurs and Onugurs, and sent an embassy to Constantinople.
E. Chavannes believed, based on the data of Theophylact, that Uar and Huni are the names of the two most ancient Uyghur princes, who laid the foundation for the two clans, on the basis of which the Varkhonites subsequently arose: “they are identified in the most famous two clans of the Uyghurs, Uar and Huni, whose names come from from two of the most ancient Uyghur princes." See Avar Khaganate.

There were many rumors about the treasures looted by the Huns during their campaigns. According to some of them, they are buried somewhere in Attila's last Italian residence - Bibione. However, this city, formerly located on the coastal strip of the Adriatic Sea, like a number of other ancient seaports, was flooded due to rising water levels in the Mediterranean basin. Finding and exploring the legendary Bibione is the dream of any submariner archaeologist.
Archeology professor Fontani seemed to be closest to solving Bibione. He carefully studied the path of the Hunnic conquerors along the ancient Roman road from Ravenna to Trieste via Padua. A surprise awaited him: the ancient road ended, ending in one of the lagoons of the Gulf of Venice. An interesting detail was also revealed: the residents of the local coastal village extracted stone from the sea to build their houses, and sometimes they managed to get entire stone blocks from the bottom. Local fishermen told the professor that they had more than once found ancient coins on the seabed, which they handed over to the museum for a reward. These coins dated back to the first half. V century Everything indicated that it was here that one should look for Bibione, who disappeared a millennium and a half ago.
Fontani assembled a group of experienced scuba divers who examined quite large plot the bottom of the bay. They found massive walls and watchtowers ancient fortress, remains of stairs, various buildings. Scuba divers recovered many coins, antique household utensils and even urns with ashes from the seabed. But there was no confirmation that it was Bibion ​​who was found. There was nothing to indicate that the coins found were part of Attila’s treasure. (IV - early 8th centuries Antes) "Buy a book"

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