In the past, the Huns were identified by some scholars as the nomadic "Xiongnu" recorded in ancient Chinese literature, but modern Western scholars have disputed this, arguing that there is no conclusive evidence that the Huns who invaded Europe were descendants of the Xiongnu. In fact, this statement is false. According to a large number of ancient historical materials of Western continental civilization, it describes the process of the Xiongnu being defeated and divided by the Han Dynasty and moving westward, and the Qin and Han dynasties and other documents record that the Xiongnu were active in Northeast China and Central Asia at that time. Their combat effectiveness and mobility are very high, giving them a regular military advantage, especially when fighting against some highly civilized peoples. Later, after the Xiongnu were repeatedly defeated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, a branch of the Xiongnu, the Northern Xiongnu, began to move westward. Some believe that they were the Huns who entered Europe around 350 AD.

Attila was born around 406 C.E., and little is known about his childhood, except for the hypothesis that he was a good warrior and leader in his childhood, but there is not enough evidence to support it.

In 418 AD, at the age of 12, Attila was sent to the Roman court as one of the hostages of the Peace Treaty (during the reign of Emperor Honori, the first emperor of the Western Roman Empire). At the same time, the Huns were given hostage to Aetius (the general who later commanded the Roman army and successfully resisted Attila's further westward advance). While in Rome, Attila received a good education at the court, where he learned about the traditions and customs of the Romans, as well as their lavish lifestyle. The Romans hoped that this would enable him to spread the Roman culture back to the Huns, so as to increase Roman influence over the surrounding peoples. The Huns, on the other hand, hoped that the exchange of hostages would allow them to obtain more information about Rome's interior.

While staying in Rome, Attila attempted to escape but failed. He began to concentrate his attention on the internal structure of Rome, and focused on Rome's internal and foreign policy. Sometimes, he even researched this information by surreptitiously observing diplomatic conferences held by diplomats. It can be said that what Attila learned at that time was of great help to his later rule over the Huns, and even to his conquest of Rome.

In 432 A.D., the Hun tribes were unified under the leadership of Ruga. After Ruja's death in 434 AD, he was succeeded by his two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who ruled over the Huns. In 436, Attila ruthlessly murdered his brother and reigned alone in the Empire. Their power expanded rapidly, and they began to negotiate with the Roman Emperor Theodosius II to return several apostate tribes under the patronage of the Byzantine Empire. The following year, Attila and Blaida met with a delegation from the Byzantine Empire in Margus (present-day Pozarevac, a city in Serbia), and after negotiating a very successful treaty: Byzantium promised to return the apostate tribes that had aided Byzantium against the Vandals, and tripled the annual tribute to the Huns of 350 Roman pounds (about 114.5 kilograms of gold), opened more markets with Hun merchants, and paid a ransom of 8 gold coins for each captured Roman. After the signing of the treaty, the Huns, in order to consolidate and strengthen their empire, retreated inland on the Byzantine border. Theodosius II took this opportunity to build the walls of Constantinople and fortifications along the Danube, strengthening the defense capabilities of the Byzantine Empire.

Over the next five years, the Huns did not launch another major offensive against the Byzantine Empire, but instead turned to the Persian Empire. However, when they were defeated by the Persians in Armenia, Attila gave up the conquest of Persia. In 440 AD, the Huns again turned their attention to the Byzantine Empire and repeatedly infested the merchant cities on the north bank of the Danube. Attila accused the Byzantines of not fulfilling their treaty, and claimed that the bishop of Magus had desecrated the royal tombs of the Huns on the north bank of the Danube, threatening to attack Byzantium again. Attila led the Huns across the Danube, destroying the Illyria region (present-day western Balkans) and Thrace, including the provincial capital Femirakon. The Huns attacked as far as Magus, where the Huns fled and abandoned the city while the Huns were negotiating with the Byzantines for the surrender of the bishop.

Theodosius II, after the capture of Carthage by the leader of the Vandals, Geselic and the invasion of Armenia by the Sassanid emperor Easterd II, decided to remove the fortifications along the Danube, making it easier for Attila to attack the Balkans. In 441 AD, the Huns captured the cities of Magus, Viminacium, Sinidunum (present-day Belgrade), and Sirmium, until the following year, when Theodosius II brought back his troops from North Africa and issued new gold coins to pay for his military expenses, temporarily halting Attila's offensive. After this, he believed that he had enough strength to fight Attila and refused the Huns' request.

After his request was denied, Attila launched a major offensive along the Danube in 443 AD, capturing the military town of Ratiara and besieging Naissu (Nis, a city in present-day Serbia). In these two battles, the Huns used heavy equipment such as battering rams and siege engines for the first time. The Huns then swept across the Balkans again, capturing the Byzantine capital of Constantinople along the Nishava River, such as Sherdika (present-day Sofia, Bulgaria), Philippopolis (present-day Plovdiv, Bulgaria), and Arcadiopolis (present-day Turkey).

Although the Huns eliminated the Roman defenders outside the city, they lacked siege equipment and could only besiege Constantinople in the face of the huge walls.

After a long siege, Theodosius II surrendered and ordered the royal envoy Anatorius to negotiate a peace treaty with Attila. Eventually, Theodosius II reached an agreement with Attila for a more severe treaty: Byzantium agreed to pay 6,000 Roman pounds (about 1,963 kilograms of gold) as punishment for breaking the treaty, and the annual tribute was tripled to 2,100 Roman pounds (about 687 kilograms of gold), and the ransom paid by each captured Roman was increased to 12 gold coins. These terms, while placing a heavier burden on the Byzantine Empire, temporarily satisfied the Huns* and caused them to retreat inland again. According to the writings of Nishava and Priscus, Bleda was killed by Attila around 445 AD, shortly after the Huns had withdrawn inland. After killing Burida, Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns and once again pointed the finger at the Byzantine Empire.

A series of man-made and natural disasters befell Constantinople after Attila led the withdrawal of the Huns: the great riot in the hippodrome, the severe plague and famine of 445-447 AD, and the earthquake that nearly completely destroyed the great walls of Constantinople. In 447 A.D., Attila, who had consolidated himself as the sole leader of the Huns, waited for an opportunity to invade the province of Moesia. On the banks of the Vit River, Arnegisclus, a Gothic cavalry commander, led a Roman army to resist, but was defeated by Attila. However, the losses of the Roman army were still modest, so Attila bypassed some of the major military towns and crossed the Balkans to the mouth of Thermopylae (present-day Greece). But when the Huns reached Constantinople again, they were helpless in the face of the rapidly rebuilt walls. Attila then put forward the conditions for the restoration of "peace": "the Byzantines must continue to fulfill their duty of tribute, and remove all the fortifications within the five-day ride south of the Danube". Since then, the negotiations have continued intermittently for about three years.

Expansion into the West

In 450 AD, Attila began to focus his attention on Western Europe and offered an alliance with the Western Roman Empire against the powerful Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse. Prior to this, Attila maintained a good relationship with the Western Roman Empire, especially with Aetius, who had become Grand Duke at the time, who had been exchanged as a hostage to the Huns as a child and had a close friendship with Attila. At that time, the Hunsian army was victorious over the Basques and Goths, so that:

The Huns, however, in Rome, where the then emperor Valentinian III and his sister Honoria (Honoria) had the opposite opinion on Attila's proposals. In order to avoid a marriage contract with a court official, Honoria proposed to Attila in the spring of that year. After considering it, Attila accepted her offer, but offered to give half of the empire as a dowry. When Valentinian III learned of this, he asserted that he rejected the proposal and replied to Attila on the grounds that "the marriage proposal was not legal", and sent a message to the regent Empress Gara. At the suggestion of Gallaplacidia, Honoria was exiled. However, Attila was not convinced, and sent an emissary to Ravenna to demand further explanations, preparing to attack the Western Roman Empire if a satisfactory answer could not be obtained.

In the same year, in the eastern Byzantine Empire, Emperor Theodosius II, who had ruled for 42 years, was killed by a fallen horse, and the successor Marcian stopped paying tribute to the Huns, because after years of being ravaged by the Huns and other barbarians, there was little left of the Balkans, the economic lifeblood of the empire. At the same time, the Frankish kingdom ruled under Attila's rule, after the death of the king, his two sons clashed over the throne, and the eldest and second sons appealed to Attila and Aetius for help, respectively. Renowned historian J.B. Bury believes that Attila's ultimate purpose in intervening may have been to extend his empire beyond Gaul to the Atlantic coast.

After receiving no reply from the emissaries sent to Ravenna, and with the help of the Franks, Attila decided to gather a large army and attack Gaul. He drew troops from the Alans, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Herulians and other peoples who were subject to the rule of the Huns, plus the Hun cavalry under his leadership, to form a mixed army to attack the territories of the Western Roman Empire in Gaul. In 451 AD, when Attila arrived in the Belgian provinces of the Roman Empire with a large army, there were 500,000 (albeit exaggerated) according to Jordanis. On 7 April he captured the city of Metz, at the same time that the Roman commander Aetius was drawing troops from among the Celts, Franks, and Burgundians.

When Attila moved further west, Avitas, a senator, was instructed to persuade the Visigothic king Theodoric to ally the Visigoths with the Romans and to form a large army ready for a decisive battle with the Huns. This army rushed to the Orleans area before Attila in order to stop the Hun army from advancing. Eventually, Aetius caught up with Attila's army at the present-day city of Chalons-en-Champagne in France, and the famous Battle of Châlons broke out. The battle ended in a victory for the Roman-Visigothic forces, but the Visigothic king Theodoric was killed in the battle, and Aetius was forced to disband the coalition because he could not effectively control the coalition. After this battle, Attila left Gaul and set his sights on mainland Italy.

Attila's EmpireIn 452 AD, when Attila re-appealed to the Western Roman Empire for Honoria's marriage, the Huns' armies simultaneously crossed the Alps and invaded the heart of the Roman Empire, Italy proper. His army destroyed many cities and completely destroyed the military town of Aquileia in northeastern Italy, rendering it permanently disappear from the map. Frightened, Emperor Valentinian III fled from Ravenna to the old capital of Rome, leaving only Aetius to defend in the north, but with little support. Eventually, the Huns halted their offensive at the Po River in northern Italy, and Attila received a delegation of legations led by Pope Leo I, Aviennus, chief senator, and Trigetius, the commander of the Praetorian Guard. After a round of deliberations, Attila decided to accept the terms of peace and let it go, but he also warned that he would invade Rome again if the Romans broke their marriage contract to Honoria.

History has different theories as to why Attila suddenly scattered. One of the most plausible reasons suggests that Attila's army may have been plagued by food shortages or plague, or forced by the Byzantine Emperor* to cross the Danube and invade the rear. Another possible reason, according to Pliscus, was Attila's fear of repeating the vicissitic death of Visigothic King Alaric I shortly after his invasion of Rome in 410 AD. This prophecy by the prophet Aquitaine, after being embellished with the brush of the painter Raphael and the chisel of Agadi, forms a portrait on the right of the Pope protected by St. Peter and St. Paul, warning the barbarians against invading Rome, the "Eternal City".

In any case, Attila left Italy with the Hun army and crossed the Danube to his palace. At the same time, he also planned another attack on Constantinople, so that the Byzantine Emperor Marcian would resume the tribute that had been interrupted for three years. At this time, he died suddenly in early 453 AD. The most common explanation for this comes from the writings of Priscus, which records that Attila died of asphyxiation in his sleep after his wedding to Hildico, a young girl of Gothic or Burgundian origin, who ruptured a blood vessel in his sleep and suffered blood reflux. This rupture of a blood vessel may have been caused by Attila drinking too much. A conqueror who once said wildly, "Where my horse has been trampled, no new grass will grow", this is how strangely and rebelliously he died.

When his squires and warriors found out of his death, they mourned him by cutting off a handful of their hair and stabbing them in the face with their swords. Jordenis also writes of the situation: "The greatest warriors mourn not with the wails and tears of women, but with the blood of warriors". At the funeral, the Hunnic knights circled around the large silk canopy where Attila's body was kept, singing mourning songs to their greatest leader. After the ceremony, the Hungarians drank and had fun in front of Attila's grave, as is traditional. His body was placed in three coffins made of gold, silver, and iron, and was buried along with the booty, along with the captives who had been killed after digging the graves. After his death, his story evolved into a different legend. In The Song of the Nibelungen (a long German medieval epic), Etzel and Ferson Saga (Icelandic epic) are both characters based on the life of Attila.

There is another version of the legend and story about Attila's death. About eighty years after Attila's death, a Roman chronicler (Countmarcellinus) wrote: "Attilarexhunnorumeuropaeorbator provinciaenoctumulieris manucultroqueconfoditur." (Attila, Emperor of the Huns and destroyer of Europa, was killed with a knife by his wife.) In the Song of Nibelungen and the Buddha Sakya, "atli" is described as being killed by his wife, Gudrun. However, most scholars reject this explanation, choosing instead to believe in the account of Priscus, who lived in Attila's time. New arguments have emerged to refute Prescus's account. Based on a detailed philological analysis, Babcock proposed that the theory of natural death, as recorded in Priscus's writings, was tampered with by missionaries who were under political pressure from the Byzantine emperor Marcian at the time, and therefore its credibility is questionable.

After Attila's death, his designated heirs, Ellak, Dengizich, and Ernakh, fought each other over the succession to the empire, dividing the Hun Empire, as Jordannis writes, "as if the warlike kings and their people should be divided among them like family property." Later, the anti-Hunnic coalition under the leadership of King Idaric, King of Gepid, defeated the Huns at the Battle of Nidao (Battlenedao), killed Ayrak, and completely disintegrated the Hun Empire and began to fade from European history.

In medieval cultures, rulers often boasted that their ancestors were some of the most powerful conquerors. Attila, a barbarian conqueror from Asia, has been legendarily preserved for this reason, and his bloodline has been passed down through the ages. Among them, the Tsar of Bulgaria was considered at the time to be the most credible descendant of Attila. At present, some genealogists are trying to rearrange the map of the Attila family. Some of these experts have tried to connect Attila's bloodline to Charlemagne, but so far they have not been able to do so.

Attila's physical features

Attila's main source of information about Attila's appearance, characteristics, and personality comes from Priscus's Chronicles of the Huns, written in 448 AD when he was on a mission to the Huns with a delegation led by the Byzantine courtier Maximin. It records the size of the camps built by the Huns on the steppe on the size of a large city, and the fortifications with wooden walls. In the book, he describes Attila's appearance in the following words: "Short stature, broad chest, large head and small eyes, sparse and gray beard, flat nose, and uneven body length." These are among the common characteristics of the Huns. "Sima Teng was the king of Dongyan, and Liu Kun was the history of the state assassin. After Liu Kun arrived in Bingzhou, due to famine and war, it was difficult for the people here to survive on their own, and more than 10,000 people were led by Li Yun and others, and went into exile in Jizhou with Sima Teng to form a "beggar army". There are less than 20,000 Han Chinese residents living in Bingzhou. Liu Kun had no choice but to go to Shangdang to organize the army, with more than 300 people, and was attacked by Liu Yuan's general Liu Jing, who could not gain a foothold in Shangdang, so he moved to Jinyang (now south of Taiyuan City, Shanxi). At that time, Liu Yin, Wang Yu and others in the service said to Liu Yuan: "Your Highness has gone through several years since the beginning of the army, but he is still on one side, and Wang Wei has not been shocked. If you can gather the troops of the Quartet, and fight with your strength, take Hedong, establish the emperor, and then wave the southwest to conquer Chang'an, and then use it as the capital, levy the troops in Guanzhong, take Luoyang, and destroy the Western Jin Dynasty It will be easy. This is also the strategy of Emperor Gaozu to establish the foundation. Liu Yuan was overjoyed when he heard this, and then sent troops to conquer Pusaka (now Yongji County, Shanxi) and Pingyang (now Linfen City, Shanxi) and possessed the entire territory of Hedong. At this time, the Central Plains uprising, such as Jisang, Wang Mi, Shile and Xianbei Lu Zhuyan, all surrendered to Liu Yuan one after another, and quickly formed a huge wave of people of all ethnic groups against the Jin Dynasty in Bingzhou.

In August 304, Liu Yuan's cousin, Liu Xuan, the king of Youxian, saw the chaos in the Jin court and killed each other, and thought that the time had come to rebel, so he said to his people: "Since the fall of the Han Dynasty, our Shan Yu has been in vain, and we no longer have an inch of land. The rest of the princes were relegated to the same status as the common people. Now that Sima's flesh and blood relatives are killing each other, and the turmoil in the four seas is like boiling water in Dingzhong, it is the right time to restore the cause of Hu Han Evil! So they plotted with each other, promoted Liu Yuan as the big Danyu, and sent his henchman Hu Yanyu to Yecheng to inform him. When Liu Yuan found out, he was very happy, he was in Yecheng at the time, so he asked to return to the north for a funeral under the pretext of mourning. Sima Ying did not allow it. Liu Yuan had no choice but to secretly order Hu Yanyu to go back first, inform Liu Xuan and others, and ask them to gather the accumulated strength of the five Xiongnu and various small ethnic groups, step up preparations, and wait for an opportunity to oppose Jin.

Sima Teng was the king of Dongyan, and Liu Kun was the history of the state assassin. After Liu Kun arrived in Bingzhou, due to famine and war, it was difficult for the people here to survive on their own, and more than 10,000 people were led by Li Yun and others, and went into exile in Jizhou with Sima Teng to form a "beggar army". There are less than 20,000 Han Chinese residents living in Bingzhou. Liu Kun had no choice but to go to Shangdang to organize the army, with more than 300 people, and was attacked by Liu Yuan's general Liu Jing, who could not gain a foothold in Shangdang, so he moved to Jinyang (now south of Taiyuan City, Shanxi). At that time, Liu Yin, Wang Yu and others in the service said to Liu Yuan: "Your Highness has gone through several years since the beginning of the army, but he is still on one side, and Wang Wei has not been shocked. If you can gather the troops of the Quartet, and fight with your strength, take Hedong, establish the emperor, and then wave the southwest to conquer Chang'an, and then use it as the capital, levy the troops in Guanzhong, take Luoyang, and destroy the Western Jin Dynasty It will be easy. This is also the strategy of Emperor Gaozu to establish the foundation. Liu Yuan was overjoyed when he heard this, and then sent troops to conquer Pusaka (now Yongji County, Shanxi) and Pingyang (now Linfen City, Shanxi) and possessed the entire territory of Hedong. At this time, the Central Plains uprising, such as Jisang, Wang Mi, Shile and Xianbei Lu Zhuyan, all surrendered to Liu Yuan one after another, and quickly formed a huge wave of people of all ethnic groups against the Jin Dynasty in Bingzhou.

In August 304, Liu Yuan's cousin, Liu Xuan, the king of Youxian, saw the chaos in the Jin court and killed each other, and thought that the time had come to rebel, so he said to his people: "Since the fall of the Han Dynasty, our Shan Yu has been in vain, and we no longer have an inch of land. The rest of the princes were relegated to the same status as the common people. Now that Sima's flesh and blood relatives are killing each other, and the turmoil in the four seas is like boiling water in Dingzhong, it is the right time to restore the cause of Hu Han Evil! So they plotted with each other, promoted Liu Yuan as the big Danyu, and sent his henchman Hu Yanyu to Yecheng to inform him. When Liu Yuan found out, he was very happy, he was in Yecheng at the time, so he asked to return to the north for a funeral under the pretext of mourning. Sima Ying did not allow it. Liu Yuan had no choice but to secretly order Hu Yanyu to go back first, inform Liu Xuan and others, and ask them to gather the accumulated strength of the five Xiongnu and various small ethnic groups, step up preparations, and wait for an opportunity to oppose Jin.

At the beginning of August 304 AD, Liu Yuan found a reason to hide from Sima Ying, returned to Zuoguocheng (now Lishi, Shanxi), Liu Xuan and others immediately gave him the title of Da Danyu, more than 20 days, with 50,000 horses, the capital of Lishi County. In October, Liu Yuan moved the capital to Zuoguocheng...... Then, Liu Xuan and others asked Liu Yuan to give him an honorific title, and Liu Yuan said: "Now that the Quartet has not been pacified, let's call the King of Han according to Han Gaozu for the time being." So, Liu Yuan sacrificed to the sky in the southern suburbs, ascended the throne of the Han king, announced an amnesty, and changed the Yuan Yuanxi.

In the second year of Yongjia (308), Liu Yuan was officially proclaimed emperor, moved the capital to Pingyang, and founded the country as the Great Han. The Liu family of the clan is based on the estrangement of relatives and the proximity of the rank, and they are all named the kings of the county and the county, and the different surnames are named the princes and marquis of the county and the county with the merits of the war. With Liu Xuan as the prime minister, Liu Hong as the captain, Liu He as the great Sima, Liu Happy as the great Situ, Hu Yanyi as the great Sikong, and Hu Yanyou as the Zongzheng.

In the winter of this year, Liu Yuan sent Liu Cong, Liu Yao, and Liu Jing to lead 50,000 elite cavalry to attack Luoyang, and Sima Yue, the king of the Eastern Sea of the Western Jin Dynasty, sent Sun Xun to join the army, and the general Qiu Guang led troops to resist, and the Han army was defeated.

In July of the fourth year of Yongjia (310), Liu Yuan was seriously ill, and Liu Huanhuan, the king of Chen, was appointed as Dazai

At the beginning of August 304 AD, Liu Yuan found a reason to hide from Sima Ying, returned to Zuoguocheng (now Lishi, Shanxi), Liu Xuan and others immediately gave him the title of Da Danyu, more than 20 days, with 50,000 horses, the capital of Lishi County. In October, Liu Yuan moved the capital to Zuoguocheng...... Then, Liu Xuan and others asked Liu Yuan to give him an honorific title, and Liu Yuan said: "Now that the Quartet has not been pacified, let's call the King of Han according to Han Gaozu for the time being." So, Liu Yuan sacrificed to the sky in the southern suburbs, ascended the throne of the Han king, announced an amnesty, and changed the Yuan Yuanxi.

In the second year of Yongjia (308), Liu Yuan was officially proclaimed emperor, moved the capital to Pingyang, and founded the country as the Great Han. The Liu family of the clan is based on the estrangement of relatives and the proximity of the rank, and they are all named the kings of the county and the county, and the different surnames are named the princes and marquis of the county and the county with the merits of the war. With Liu Xuan as the prime minister, Liu Hong as the captain, Liu He as the great Sima, Liu Happy as the great Situ, Hu Yanyi as the great Sikong, and Hu Yanyou as the Zongzheng.

In the winter of this year, Liu Yuan sent Liu Cong, Liu Yao, and Liu Jing to lead 50,000 elite cavalry to attack Luoyang, and Sima Yue, the king of the Eastern Sea of the Western Jin Dynasty, sent Sun Xun to join the army, and the general Qiu Guang led troops to resist, and the Han army was defeated.

In July of the fourth year of Yongjia (310), Liu Yuan was seriously ill, and Liu Huanhuan, the king of Chen, was appointed as Dazai

Attila's appearance is similar to that of the yellow race of eastern Asia, and even to the Tatars. He also has features similar to those of the Turkic language groups of Central Asia, so he ensures that he has the physical characteristics typical of Eastern Asia, but not the physical characteristics of Europeans.

Attila is often referred to as the "Whip of God" in Western history, and his name has become synonymous with brutality and barbarism. This may also have something to do with his appearance and features. In the usual depictions, those new conquerors of the steppes, such as Genghis Khan, Timur, etc., are seen as the embodiment of brutality, murderous and warlike. But in reality, his character is perhaps more complex. The Hun culture of Attila's time had a great deal of interaction with the Roman civilization for a time, mainly through the borders of the Germanic Belgian provinces. When the envoys sent to the Huns in 448 AD, Priscus was able to identify the two main languages commonly spoken by the Huns, Hun and Gothic, and some Huns understood Latin and Greek. Priscus had also met with a Byzantine captive, who had apparently adapted to the Huns' way of life and did not want to return home. Byzantine historians at that time unequivocally expressed their admiration for the humility and simplicity of the Huns.

Origin of Attila's name

The origin of Attila's name is believed to have evolved from the Gothic word for "little father" (the prefix "atta" and "father" plus the suffix "-la"). It is also possible that it is from the Altaic language family ("ataturkalma-ata", today "almaty" in Altaic, should be formed by the prefix "atta", "father" plus "il", "land"). "Atil" is also the name of the Volga River today in the Altaic language, so it is also possible to name it after the river.