Attila the Hun: The Scourge of God Who Made Rome Pay and Died of a Nosebleed

The Rise of Attila

Attila became joint ruler of the Hunnic Empire alongside his brother Bleda in 434 AD, following the death of their uncle Rugila. The Huns were a nomadic people from the Eurasian steppe whose origins remain debated — possibly from Central Asia, possibly from further east. They had swept into Europe in the late 4th century, displacing the Germanic peoples who in turn pushed against the Roman frontier, contributing to the pressures that would ultimately destroy the Western Roman Empire.

Attila consolidated power by having his brother Bleda killed in 445 AD, making himself sole ruler of an empire stretching from the Rhine to the steppes of Central Asia. He would spend the next eight years in almost constant warfare, and would never lose a battle.

Making Rome Pay

One of the most remarkable aspects of Attila's career was his ability to extract tribute from the Eastern Roman Empire — the most powerful state in the western world. The Eastern Emperor Theodosius II agreed in 435 AD to pay an annual tribute of 700 pounds of gold simply to keep Attila away from Roman territory. After Attila's victories in the Balkans in 441-443 AD, this tribute was raised to 2,100 pounds of gold per year.

The spectacle of Rome — the empire that had dominated the known world for centuries — paying protection money to a nomadic chieftain was without precedent. It represented a fundamental shift in the balance of power that contemporaries found almost incomprehensible.

The Invasions of the West

In 450 AD Attila turned his attention westward. His pretext was a letter from Honoria — sister of the Western Emperor Valentinian III — who had sent Attila her ring asking for his help in escaping an unwanted marriage. Attila interpreted this as a marriage proposal and demanded half the Western Empire as her dowry.

The invasion of Gaul in 451 AD was the most significant military campaign of the 5th century. Attila swept through with an army that ancient sources place at hundreds of thousands — almost certainly an exaggeration, but sufficient to devastate city after city. He was finally stopped at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, one of the largest battles of the ancient world, where a combined Roman and Visigoth force under the general Aetius fought him to a standstill.

The following year Attila invaded Italy, sacking and destroying cities across the Po Valley. He withdrew before reaching Rome — ancient sources credit a meeting with Pope Leo I with persuading him to turn back, though disease in his army and a Roman relief force from the east were probably more significant factors.

Death on the Wedding Night

In 453 AD Attila took a new wife — a young woman named Ildico. At the wedding feast he drank heavily, as was customary. He was found dead the following morning. His new wife was discovered beside him, weeping.

The Roman historian Priscus, who had met Attila personally, records that he died from a haemorrhage — specifically that he suffocated on blood from a nosebleed while unconscious from drinking. Other theories have been proposed over the centuries, including assassination, but the haemorrhage explanation is generally accepted by modern historians.

The man who had terrified two continents, forced Rome to pay him tribute, and never lost a battle, died in bed of a nosebleed. His empire disintegrated almost immediately after his death, torn apart by his sons competing for power.

The Hunnic Empire Before Attila

The Huns arrived in European consciousness in the 370s CE, sweeping westward out of Central Asia and pushing the Gothic peoples ahead of them into Roman territory. Their origins and the nature of their relationship to later Central Asian and East Asian peoples remain debated by historians. What is clear is that they were a confederation of nomadic peoples with extraordinary military effectiveness, particularly in their use of composite bows fired from horseback.

The Hunnic confederation that coalesced under Attila's predecessors — his uncle Ruga and his father Mundzuk — had already established a pattern of extracting tribute from both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires in exchange for relative peace. The Romans found it cheaper to pay than to fight. This arrangement suited the Huns, who accumulated wealth without the administrative costs of direct rule, and suited Rome, which avoided costly wars on the northern frontier.

Attila's Campaigns

Attila came to power sharing the throne with his brother Bleda, whom he subsequently murdered in 445 CE to rule alone. His campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire in 441-443 and 447 CE demonstrated both his military effectiveness and the limits of Roman resistance. Eastern Roman cities were sacked, populations killed or enslaved, and vast quantities of tribute extracted. The empire was forced to accept increasingly humiliating terms.

His invasion of the Western Roman Empire in 451 CE brought him into Gaul, where he was met by a coalition of Romans and Visigoths at the Catalaunian Plains — one of the largest battles of the ancient world. The result was, unusually for Attila, a defeat — or at least an inconclusive engagement that forced his withdrawal. The battle has been seen by some historians as decisive in saving western civilisation from Hunnic domination; others argue it was simply one engagement in a campaign that Attila chose to withdraw from for other reasons.

His invasion of Italy in 452 CE devastated northern Italian cities but did not reach Rome. The reasons for his withdrawal — possibly a combination of disease in his army, the approach of Eastern Roman reinforcements, and negotiations with Pope Leo I — remain debated. His death in 453 CE, on the night of his wedding, from a nosebleed or internal haemorrhage, ended the Hunnic threat precipitously.

The Hunnic Legacy

After Attila's death, the Hunnic confederation dissolved with remarkable speed. His sons quarrelled over the succession; the subject Germanic peoples revolted; and within a generation the Huns had ceased to exist as a significant political or military force. The disappearance was so complete that the Huns left almost no archaeological trace and no written records of their own culture.

Their primary historical significance lies in their role as the agent that set Germanic peoples in motion — the pressure that pushed the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and others into Roman territory, accelerating the political transformation of the Western Roman Empire. They were, in this sense, a catalyst for processes they did not control and a history they did not survive to see.