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Attila the Hun “The Scourge of God” ( – 453) 59th King of Huns

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 30, 2021
18 Comments on Attila the Hun “The Scourge of God” ( – 453) 59th King of Huns

A painting of Attila riding a pale horse, by French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)

Figure of Attila in a museum in Hungary

The Empire of the Huns and subject tribes at the time of Attila

The Huns at the Battle of Chalons
by Alphonse de Neuville (1836–85)

The general path of the Hun forces in the invasion of Gaul

Emperor Gaozu of Han

Tonantius Ferreolus (418 – 476) served as one of the last Gallo-Roman praetorian prefects of Gaul at the time Attila and his Hunnic army invaded Gaul. Before the invasion, he was instrumental in allying independent Gallic barbarian armies, including those led by Merovech Meroving (411 – 458), grandfather of Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, and Theodoric I Balthus (393 – 451) King of the Visigoths under the banner of Roman General Flavius Aetius for the successful defense of the Roman territory at the Battle of Châlons in 451.

Attila’s decisive defeat at the Battle of Châlons marks a major turning point in human history since his victory might have spelled the end of Western Civilisation. Accordingly, it’s ranked as the 6th most decisive military battle ever fought in Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy’s book, entitled The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo (1851). The following excerpt opines as to its relative significance:

“Attila’s attacks on the Western empire were soon renewed; but never with such peril to the civilized world as had menaced it before his defeat at Chalons. And on his death, two years after that battle, the vast empire which his genius had founded was soon dissevered by the successful revolts of the subject nations. The name of the Huns ceased for some centuries to inspire terror in Western Europe, and their ascendency passed away with the life of the great king by whom it had been so fearfully augmented.”

Attila was the 59th King of the Huns of the Xiongnu dynasty that had an 18th-century BC origin in the immediate region centered in and around Mongolia. The primogenitor of the lineage was named Chungvi. During the 2nd-century BC, one of his descendants married the granddaughter of the founder of the Chinese Han Dynasty, namely, Emperor Gaozu of Han (256 – 195 BC).

Before contact with the west during the 5th-century AD, the Huns were historically warlike nomads who regularly blundered foreign settlements, initially around China’s northwestern border, as they eventually migrated en masse westward toward eastern Europe through eastern Asia, finally settling in Hungary just before or around the time of Attila’s advent. Fighting from horseback, mainly armed with bows and arrows and lances, few armies could repel Huns’ invasion of their lands, much less defeat them in battle.

After Attila’s death, the Huns living in Europe began to adopt the traditional customs of contemporary Europeans, such as those focused on trade and bartering.

For good, bad, or indifferent, the aftermath of Attila’s egregious menace in Roman occupied lands may well have been one of contributing factors leading to the subsequent total collapse of the Western Roman Empire twenty years after his demise. Be that as it may, his unsuccessful campaign to conquer all of Italy after the Battle of Châlons more than probably put the Roman Empire on its heels, so to speak, for good. Anyway, it’s academic as Attila’s planned reinvasion campaign never came to fruition due to his death.

He’s ranked #168 in Hart’s Most Influential People in History – Top 500 List (125).

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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