Attila Attila ( or ; ? – 453 ) , frequently referred to as Attila the Hun , was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453 . He was leader of the Hunnic Empire , which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea . During his reign he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires . He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans , but was unable to take Constantinople . He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul ( modern France ) , crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum ( Orléans ) before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains . Subsequently he invaded Italy , devastating the northern provinces , but was unable to take Rome . He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453 . Etymology . The origin of Attila ' s name is unclear . Menander used the term " Attila " as the name of the Volga River . Pritsak considers it to mean " universal ruler " in a Turkic language related to Danube Bulgarian . Maenchen - Helfen suggests an East Germanic origin and rejects a Turkic etymology : " Attila is formed from Gothic or Gepidic atta , " father " , by means of the diminutive suffix - ila . " He finds Pritsak ' s etymology " ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable " . However , he suggests that these names were The name has many variants in modern languages : Atli and Atle in Norse , Attila / Atilla / Etele in Hungarian ( Attila is the most popular ) , Etzel in German Nibelungenlied , Attila , Atilla , Atilay or Atila in Turkish , and Adil and Edil in Kazakh or Adil ( " same / similar " ) or Edil ( " to use " ) in Mongolian . Historiography and sources . The historiography of Attila is faced with a major challenge , in that the only complete sources are written in Greek and Latin , by the enemies of the Huns . His contemporaries left many testimonials of his life , but only fragments of these remain . Priscus , a Roman diplomat and historian who wrote in Greek , was both a witness to and an actor in the story of Attila , as a member of the embassy of Theodosius II at the Hunnic court in 449 . Although he was obviously biased by his political position , his writing is a major source for the life of Attila and he is the only person known to have recorded a physical description of him . He was the author of an eight - volume work of history covering the period from 434 to 452 . Today we have only fragments of this work , but it was cited extensively by the 6th - century historians Procopius and Jordanes , especially in Jordanes ' s The Origins and Deeds of the Goths . As it contains numerous references to Priscus ' s history , it is an important source of information about the Hunnic empire and its neighbours . Here , he describes the legacy of Attila and the Hunnic people for a century after Attila ' s death . Marcellinus Comes , a chancellor of Justinian during the same era , also describes the relations between the Huns and the Eastern Roman Empire . Numerous ecclesiastical writings contain useful albeit scattered information , sometimes difficult to authenticate or distorted by years of hand - copying between the 6th and 17th centuries . The Hungarian writers of the 12th century , wishing to portray the Huns in a positive light as their glorious ancestors , repressed certain historical elements and added their own legends . The literature and knowledge of the Huns themselves was transmitted solely orally , by means of epics and chanted poems that were handed down from generation to generation . Indirectly , this oral history has reached us via the literature of the Scandinavians and Germans , literate neighbours of the Huns who wrote between the 9th and 13th centuries . Attila is a major character in many Medieval epics , such as the Nibelungenlied , as well as various Edda s and saga s . Archaeological investigation has uncovered some details about the lifestyle , art and warfare of the Huns . There are a few traces of battles and sieges , but today the tomb of Attila and the location of his capital have not yet been found . Appearance and character . While there is no surviving first - person account of Attila ' s appearance , there is a possible second - hand source , provided by Jordanes , who cites a description given by Priscus . Early life and background . The Huns were a group of Eurasian nomads , appearing from east of the Volga , who migrated into Europe c . 370 and built up an enormous empire there . Their main military techniques were mounted archer y and javelin throwing . They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first expansion of Turkic people across Eurasia . Even though they were in the process of developing settlements before their arrival in Europe , the Huns were a society of pastoral warriors whose primary form of nourishment was meat and milk , products of their herds . The origin and language of the Huns has been the subject of debate for centuries . According to some theories , their leaders at least may have spoken a Turkic language , perhaps closest to the modern Chuvash language . One scholar suggests a relationship to Yeniseian . According to the " Encyclopedia of European Peoples " , " the Huns , especially those who migrated to the west , may have been a combination of central Asian Turkic , Mongolic , and Ugric stocks . " Attila ' s father , Mundzuk , was the brother of the kings Octar and Rugila , who reigned jointly over the Hunnic empire in the early fifth century . This form of diarchy was recurrent with the Huns , but historians are unsure whether it was institutionalized , merely customary , or an occasional occurrence . His family was from a noble lineage , but it is uncertain whether they constituted a royal dynasty . Attila ' s birthdate is not known , but the journalist Éric Deschodt and the writer Herman Schreiber have proposed a date of 395 . However , the historian Iaroslav Lebedynsky and archaeologist Katalin Escher prefer an estimate between the 390s and the first decade of the fifth century . Attila grew up in a rapidly changing world . His people were nomads who had only recently arrived in Europe . After crossing the Volga river during the 370s and annexing the territory of the Alans , they attacked the Gothic kingdom between the Carpathian mountains and the Danube . They were a very mobile people , whose mounted archers had acquired a reputation of invincibility , and the Germanic tribes seemed unable to withstand them . Vast populations fleeing the Huns moved from Germania into the Roman Empire in the west and south , and along the banks of the Rhine and Danube . In 376 , the Goths crossed the Danube , initially submitting to the Romans but soon rebelling against the emperor Valens , whom they killed in the Battle of Adrianople in 378 . On 31 December 406 , to escape the Huns , large numbers of Vandals , Alans , Suebi and Burgundians crossed the Rhine and invaded Roman Gaul . The Roman Empire had been split into half since 395 and was ruled by two distinct governments , one based in Ravenna in the West , and the other in Constantinople in the East . In Attila ' s lifetime , despite several power struggles , the Roman Emperors both East and West were generally from the same family , the Theodosians . The Huns dominated a vast territory with nebulous borders determined by the will of a constellation of ethnically varied peoples . Some were assimilated to Hunnic nationality , whereas many retained their own identities and rulers but acknowledged the suzerainty of the king of the Huns . While the Huns were the indirect source of many of the Romans ' problems by driving various Germanic tribes into Roman territory , relations between the two empires were cordial : the Romans used the Huns as mercenaries against the Germans and even in their civil wars . Thus , the usurper Joannes was able to recruit thousands of Huns for his army against Valentinian III in 424 . They exchanged ambassadors and hostages , the alliance lasting from 401 to 450 and permitting the Romans numerous military victories . The Huns considered the Romans to be paying them tribute , whereas the Romans preferred to view this as payment for services rendered . By the time Attila came of age during the reign of his uncle Rugila , the Huns had become a great power , to the point that the Patriarch of Constantinople , Nestorius , deplored the situation with these words : " They have become both masters and slaves of the Romans . " Campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire . The death of Rugila ( also known as Rua or Ruga ) in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk , Attila and Bleda ( Buda ) , in control of the united Hun tribes . At the time of two brothers ' accession , the Hun tribes were bargaining with Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II ' s envoys for the return of several renegades ( possibly Hunnic nobles who disagreed with the brothers ' assumption of leadership ) who had taken refuge within the Eastern Roman Empire . The following year Attila and Bleda met with the imperial legation at Margus ( Požarevac ) and , all seated on horseback in the Hunnic manner , negotiated a successful treaty . The Romans agreed , not only to return the fugitives , but also to double their previous tribute of 350 Roman pounds ( ca . 115 kg ) of gold , to open their markets to Hunnish traders , and to pay a ransom of eight " solidi " for each Roman taken prisoner by the Huns . The Huns , satisfied with the treaty , decamped from the Roman Empire and returned to their home in the Great Hungarian Plain , 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 few years while they invaded the Sassanid Empire . When defeated in Armenia by the Sassanids , the Huns abandoned their invasion and turned their attentions back to Europe . In 440 they reappeared in force on the borders of the Roman Empire , attacking the merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been established by the treaty . Crossing the Danube , they laid waste to the cities of Illyricum and forts on the river , including ( according to Priscus ) Viminacium , a city of Moesia . Their advance began at Margus , where they demanded that the Romans turn over a bishop who had retained property that Attila regarded as his . While the Romans discussed turning the bishop over , he slipped away secretly to the Huns and betrayed the city to them . While the Huns attacked city - states along the Danube , the Vandals led by Geiseric captured the Western Roman province of Africa and its capital of Carthage . Carthage was the richest province of the Western Empire and a main source of food for Rome . The Sassanid Shah Yazdegerd II invaded Armenia in 441 . The Romans stripped the Balkan area of forces , sending them to Sicily in order to mount an expedition against the Vandals in Africa . This left Attila and Bleda a clear path through Illyricum into the Balkans , which they invaded in 441 . The Hunnish army sacked Margus and Viminacium , and then took Singidunum ( Belgrade ) and Sirmium . During 442 Theodosius recalled his troops from Sicily and ordered a large issue of new coins to finance operations against the Huns . Believing he could defeat the Huns , he refused the Hunnish kings ' demands . Attila responded with a campaign in 443 . Striking along the Danube , the Huns , equipped with new military weapons like the battering ram s and rolling siege towers , overran the military centres of Ratiara and successfully besieged Naissus ( Niš ) . Advancing along the Nišava River , the Huns next took Serdica ( Sofia ) , Philippopolis ( Plovdiv ) , and Arcadiopolis ( Lüleburgaz ) . They encountered and destroyed a Roman army outside Constantinople but were stopped by the double walls of the Eastern capital . They defeated a second army near Callipolis ( Gelibolu ) . Theodosius , stripped of his armed forces , admitted defeat , sending the " Magister militum per Orientem " Anatolius to negotiate peace terms . The terms were harsher than the previous treaty : the Emperor agreed to hand over 6 , 000 Roman pounds ( ca . 2000 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 . 700 kg ) in gold ; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner rose to 12 " solidi " . Their demands were met for a time , the Hun kings withdrew into the interior of their empire . Following the Huns ' withdrawal from Byzantium ( probably around 445 ) , Bleda died . Attila then took the throne for himself , becoming the sole ruler of the Huns . Solitary kingship . In 447 Attila again rode south into the Eastern Roman Empire through Moesia . The Roman army under the Gothic " magister militum " Arnegisclus met him in the Battle of the Utus 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 Isauria n troops of the " magister militum per Orientem " Zeno and protected by the intervention of the prefect Constantinus , who organized the reconstruction of the walls that had been previously damaged by earthquakes , 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 " ) In the west . In 450 , Attila proclaimed his intent to attack the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse by making an alliance with Emperor Valentinian III . He had previously been on good terms with the Western Roman Empire and its influential general Flavius Aëtius . Aëtius 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 was Honoria , who , in order to escape her forced betrothal to a Roman senator , had sent the Hunnish king a plea for help – and her engagement 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 sent an emissary 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 . Attila interfered in a succession struggle after the death of a Frankish ruler . Attila supported the elder son , while Aëtius supported the younger . ( The location and identity of these kings is not known and subject to conjecture . ) Attila gathered his vassals — Gepids , Ostrogoths , Rugians , Scirians , Heruls , Thuringians , Alans , Burgundians , among others and began his march west . In 451 , he arrived in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to half a million strong . 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 Ocean . On April 7 , he captured Metz . Other cities attacked can be determined by the hagiographic " vita e " written to commemorate their bishops : Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims ; Servatus is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers , as Saint Genevieve is to have saved Paris . Lupus , bishop of Troyes , is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person . Aëtius moved to oppose Attila , 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 Orléans ahead of Attila , ( Later accounts of the battle report that the Huns were either already within the city or in the midst of storming it when the Roman - Visigoth army arrived ; Jordanes mentions no such thing . See Bury , ibid . ) thus checking and turning back the Hunnish advance . Aëtius gave chase and caught the Huns at a place usually assumed to be near Catalaunum ( modern Châlons - en - Champagne ) . The two armies clashed in the Battle of Châlons , whose outcome is commonly considered to be a strategic victory for the Visigothic - Roman alliance . Theodoric was killed in the fighting and Aëtius failed to press his advantage , according to Edward Gibbon and Edward Creasy , because he feared the consequences of an overwhelming Visigothic triumph as much as he did a defeat . From Aëtius ' point of view , the best outcome was what occurred : Theodoric died , Attila was in retreat and disarray , and the Romans had the benefit of appearing victorious . Invasion of Italy and death . Attila returned in 452 to claim his marriage to Honoria anew , invading and ravaging Italy along the way . The city of Venice was founded as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon . His army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site . Legend has it he built a castle on top of a hill north of Aquileia to besiege the city , thus founding the town of Udine , where the castle can still be found . Aëtius , who lacked the strength to offer battle , managed to harass and slow Attila ' s advance with only a shadow force . Attila finally halted at the River Po . By this point disease and starvation may have broken out in Attila ' s camp , thus helping to stop his invasion . Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys , the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius , as well as the Bishop of Rome Leo I , who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua , and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor . Prosper of Aquitaine gives a short description of the historic meeting , but gives all the credit of the successful negotiation to Leo . Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric — who died shortly after sacking Rome in 410 — gave him pause . In reality , Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452 ; Attila ' s devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest . To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy , and taking the city would not have improved Attila ' s supply situation . Therefore , it was more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat back to his homeland . Secondly , an East Roman force had crossed the Danube under the command of another officer also named Aetius — who had participated in the Council of Chalcedon the previous year — and proceeded to defeat the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories . Attila , hence , faced heavy human and natural pressures to retire " from Italy without ever setting foot south of the Po . " As Hydatius writes : After Attila left Italy and returned to his palace across the Danube , he planned to strike at Constantinople again and reclaim the tribute which Marcian had stopped . ( Marcian was the successor of Theodosius and had ceased paying tribute in late 450 while Attila was occupied in the west ; multiple invasions by the Huns and others had left the Balkans with little to plunder ) . However , Attila died in the early months of 453 . The conventional account , from Priscus , says that at a feast celebrating his latest marriage to the beautiful and young Ildico ( if uncorrupted , the name suggests a Gothic , more likely Ostrogoth origin ) he suffered a severe nosebleed and choked to death in a stupor . An alternative theory is that he succumbed to internal bleeding after heavy drinking , possibly a condition called esophageal varices , where dilated veins in the lower part of the esophagus rupture leading to death by hemorrhage . Another account of his death , first recorded 80 years after the events by the Roman chronicler Count Marcellinus , reports that " 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 " also claim that King Atli ( Attila ) died at the hands of his wife , Gudrun . Most scholars reject these accounts as no more than hearsay , preferring instead the account given by Attila ' s contemporary Priscus . Priscus ' version , however , has recently come under renewed scrutiny by Michael A . Babcock . 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 to 457 ) was the political force behind Attila ' s death . Jordanes says : " 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 where 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 they celebrated a " strava " ( lamentation ) over his burial place with great feasting . Legend says that he was laid to rest in a triple coffin made of gold , silver , and iron , along with some of the spoils of his conquests . His men diverted a section of the river , buried the coffin under the riverbed , and then were killed to keep the exact location a secret . His sons Ellac ( his appointed successor ) , Dengizich , and Ernakh fought over the division of his legacy , specifically which vassal kings would belong to which brother . As a consequence they were divided , defeated and scattered the following year in the Battle of Nedao by the Ostrogoths and the Gepids under Ardaric who had been Attila ' s most prized chieftain . Attila ' s many children and relatives are known by name and some even by deeds , but soon valid genealogical sources all but dry up and there seems to be no verifiable way to trace Attila ' s descendants . This has not stopped many genealogists from attempting to reconstruct a valid line of descent for various medieval rulers . One of the most credible claims has been that of the khans of Bulgaria ( see Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans ) . A popular , but ultimately unconfirmed , attempt tries to relate Attila to Charlemagne . Later folklore and iconography . Attila himself is said to have claimed the titles " Descendant of the Great Nimrod " , and " King of the Huns , the Goths , the Danes , and the Medes " – the last two peoples being mentioned to show the extent of his control over subject nations even on the peripheries of his domain . Jordanes embellished the report of Priscus , reporting that Attila had possessed the " Holy War Sword of the Scythians " , which was given to him by Mars and made him a " prince of the entire world . " Attila was the standard source of legitimacy on the European steppe until Genghis Khan . By the end of the 12th century the royal court of Hungary proclaimed their descent from Attila . Lampert of Hersfeld ' s contemporary chronicles report that shortly before the year 1071 , the Sword of Attila had been presented to Otto of Nordheim by the exiled queen of Hungary , Anastasia of Kiev . This sword , a cavalry sabre now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna , appears to be the work of Hungarian goldsmiths of the ninth or tenth century . Later writers developed the meeting of Leo I and Attila into a pious " fable which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of Algardi " , reporting that the Pope , aided by Saint Peter and Saint Paul , convinced Attila to turn away from the city . According to a version of this legend related in the Chronicon Pictum , a mediaeval Hungarian chronicle , the Pope promised Attila that if he left Rome in peace , one of his successors would receive a holy crown ( which has been understood as referring to the Holy Crown of Hungary ) Some histories and chronicles describe him as a great and noble king , and he plays major roles in three Norse sagas : " Atlakviða " , " Völsungasaga " , and " Atlamál " . The " Polish Chronicle " represents Attila ' s name as " Aquila " . Frutolf of Michelsberg and Otto of Freising pointed out that some songs as " vulgar fables " made Theoderic the Great , Attila and Ermanaric contemporaries , when any reader of Jordanes knew that this was not the case . In 1812 , Ludwig van Beethoven conceived the idea of writing an opera about Attila and approached August von Kotzebue to write the libretto . It was , however , never written . In World War I , Allied propaganda referred to Germans as the " Huns " , based on a 1900 speech by Emperor Wilhelm II praising Attila the Hun ' s military prowess , according to the Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru . " Der Spiegel " commented on November 6 , 1948 that the Sword of Attila was hanging menacingly over Austria . American writer Cecelia Holland wrote " The Death of Attila " ( 1973 ) , a historical novel in which Attila appears as a powerful background figure whose life and death deeply impact the protagonists , a young Hunnish warrior and a Germanic one . In modern Hungary and in Turkey , " Attila " and its Turkish variation " Atilla " are commonly used as a male first name . In Hungary , several public places are named after Attila ; for instance , in Budapest there are 10 Attila Streets , one of which is an important street behind the Buda Castle . When the Turkish Armed Forces invaded Cyprus in 1974 , the operations were named after Attila ( " Atilla I " and " Atilla II " ) . The 1954 Universal International film " Sign of the Pagan " starred Jack Palance as Attila . References . Primary sources Historiography