"God's whip" that made Europeans tremble: Attila the Hun

He is a war hero with the same fame as Alexander the Great, Charlie the Lionheart, and Genghis Khan Temujin; he has also built a huge empire across Europe and Asia; the place where his troops have stepped left a plague-like fear spreading everywhere; Like Temujin, he is the whip of God in the eyes of Europeans.

In the eyes of Western Europeans, he is regarded as a symbol of cruelty and predation, and is the most terrible enemy; but in the eyes of the Sakya people in Northern Europe, he is the greatest emperor. His empire stretched from the Aral Sea in the east, the Atlantic coast in the west, the Danube in the south, and the Baltic Sea in the north. His life only lived for 47 years, but at that time the most powerful Eastern and Western Roman Empires surrendered under his iron cavalry; he invaded the Balkans twice, expedition to Gaul (now France), and vowed to swallow the entire Apennine Peninsula. ...He is Attila known as the "King of the Huns" and "God's Whip".

Brother kills the king

In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Eurasian continent was full of flames. The two ancient civilizations of the East and the West at the ends of the Silk Road, the Chinese Empire and the Roman Empire were all caught in a series of divisions and endless wars. At this moment, a barbarian that the Romans never knew appeared on the banks of the Don River in a terrifying way. When you encounter them, everything will be looted." This group of people was called the "Huns". It was not until the 18th century that someone entrenched them with them for a long time. In the Mongolian steppes, the "Huns" who once posed a huge threat to the Chinese empire were linked together and believed that they were descendants of the Huns who moved westward after their defeat in the war. Although this is still controversial, there is one thing no one can deny that the "Huns" is as powerful as the "Huns." In 406 AD, the Huns welcomed their greatest leader-Attila. As for Attila's childhood, even historians currently know very little about it, and only hypothesize that he was already a good soldier and leader in his childhood. At the age of 12, Attila was taken as a hostage to the court of the Western Roman Empire. In exchange, the Western Roman Empire also sent Attila's future friend and rival Aetius to the court of the Huns. In the Roman court, Attila received a good education. In the meantime, he worked hard to understand the internal affairs and foreign policies of the Romans. These studies and accumulations laid a solid foundation for him to realize his ambitions in the future. At the age of 27, Attila and his brother Breda inherited the throne from his uncle Lua together. As soon as the brothers succeeded to the throne, the Eastern Romans suffered. They forced the Eastern Roman Empire to sign a contract, promising to give their uncle double the annuity during his reign. However, the era of two kings co-ruling only lasted less than 4 years, and the 30-year-old Attila ruthlessly killed his brother and took sole control of the Hungarian empire, opening the "Attila Era." Compared to his grandparents, fathers, and elder brothers, Attila is obviously more ambitious and talented. Not only did he use the advanced position he learned in Rome to govern his own kingdom, but he was also a thirsty king. Under his throne, there were ministers of many nations, including Germans, Greeks, and even Romans. Under his leadership, the empire quickly became stronger. At this time, nothing in Europe can stop Attila's ambitions.

Westward Roma

At the age of 35, Attila was ambitious in 441 AD. After hitting a blood bag in front of the mighty Persian Empire, he quickly targeted the Eastern Roman Empire on the pretext that the Eastern Roman Empire did not pay the annuity on time, harassed the cities on the north bank of Danube, and then crossed the Danube. , Swept the Balkan Peninsula. One of them, a city more than 100 miles south of the Danube, was completely destroyed by the Huns so that when the Roman envoy who went to see Attila passed by here a few years later, there were still many bones on the shore and the corpses inside the city were stinking. In January 447 AD, a strong earthquake occurred in the provinces of Constantinople and Thrace, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, lasting four months. Attila took the opportunity to aggressively attack East Rome. According to historical records, the place where Attila’s army passed by "killed countless, blood flowed into rivers. They looted churches and monasteries, killed monks and nuns everywhere... They completely destroyed Thrace, making it impossible to restore the old appearance of the past. NS". During the entire battle, more than 70 cities and fortresses were destroyed by Attila's army. Finally, Attila led a large army to the city of Constantinople and surrounded the city. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II had to beg to surrender. The price was that in addition to repaying the annuity owed before, the amount of the annuity was increased to 2,100 pounds of gold per year, which is 7 times the previous amount, and a large area of ​​territory south of the Danube was ceded. . Since then, East Rome’s finances have almost collapsed. Attila's wild victory over the Eastern Roman Empire shocked the whole of Europe, and his empire reached unprecedented strength. From then on, this short stature, broad shoulders, stubby neck, and the huge head of the Hungarian leader and his invincible army became a nightmare for the Romans and Germans of all tribes. They gave Atti with fear and awe. Pull a resounding title-"God's Whip". In 450 AD, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II died. As soon as his son Masian took over the throne, he ordered people to build a strong defensive line in the Balkans to prevent the Huns from invading, and at the same time categorically suspended the payment of annuities to Attila. Of course, the behavior of Eastern Rome made Attila unhappy, but he clearly saw that in the past few years, Eastern Rome had been exploited by him almost, and the attack on Eastern Rome was not worth the loss. So he decisively turned the horse's head to the west, to transfer the anger against Eastern Rome to Western Rome. Compared with Eastern Rome, Western Rome has weaker forces, and wealth is not looted like Eastern Rome.

Disaster leads to western Rome

Unlike Eastern Rome, before that, the Hungarian Empire had not had any wars with Western Rome but had close contact with each other. This is due in part to the friendship between Attila and Aetius. After Attila came to power, Aetius even borrowed the Hungarian army three times to conquer the Visigoths, Burgundians, and other Germanic barbarians. But in 450 years, in order to satisfy his ambition, Attila categorically cut off this friendship. At this time, a beautiful princess gave Attila an excellent reason to send troops. Honoria, the sister of the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III, was romantic, passionate, and wild. She fell in love with a low-level official in the palace and had an affair with him. After the affair was revealed, Honoria was imprisoned in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Out of hatred and revenge, the princess actually resorted to a trick that was almost annihilating the country - and at the same time sent a courtship letter with the same content to his brother’s rivals, the Visigoth king Theodoric and Attila. After receiving the letter, Theodoric led an army to sack the Eastern Roman Empire but retreated without mentioning the marriage contract. In order to prevent Attila from coming, the Eastern Roman emperor Masian bought the guards around Attila and let him wait for an opportunity to assassinate, but Attila saw through this strategy. East Rome fell into panic again. Unexpectedly, what they were waiting for was not the news of Attila’s invasion, but a generous gift and Attila’s message to Marian: "You and I were both nobles, but your behavior made you lose your life. The qualification of this title, but I retained the glory with my merits. So we can distinguish between the superior and the inferior." At this time, Marxian can no longer be as tough as he was against Attila at the beginning of his succession. His father paid a large amount of gold just as humiliatingly for peace. Attila did not take action against Eastern Rome. It was not that he had shown any kindness, but that he had greater ambitions. What he wanted was the entire Western Rome. Soon, on the grounds of receiving a letter from Princess Honoria, he asked to marry the princess and asked half of the land of the Western Roman Empire as a dowry. For this kind of unreasonable request, the Western Roman Empire naturally rejected it. So Attila used this as an excuse to invade Western Rome.

Defeated Gaul

The first target of Attila's army was the Gaul region of Western Rome. He led a large army across the Rhine, conquering the city and plundering the land all the way to the bottom of Orleans. Orleans was the most important city in Gaul at the time. Once it was captured, it would be able to control Gaul’s military center. But at this moment, Attila encountered reinforcements led by Aetius. After Attila's army invaded Gaul, Aetius realized that Western Rome alone could not resist the Huns. So he used diplomatic skills to persuade the Theodoric King of Visigoths and the leaders of the Burgundians and Alans, and even King Falak, to form a coalition to resist Attila. A big battle is inevitable. The war took place near Chalons on the Marne River in the present-day Champagne province of France. This is a famous war in medieval European history and one of the most famous wars in world military history. The number of troops and casualties on both sides was unprecedented. However, this time, Attila suffered the most tragic failure of his life and had to temporarily abandon the occupation of Gaul and the grand plan of extending the empire's territory to the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean. If Attila is compared to a fierce tiger, the defeat of Gaul at best only injured one of the tiger's paws, and did not dampen Attila's ambitions at all. After two years of rest, Attila led the army to come back. This time, his reason is still to fulfill his marriage contract with Princess Honoria. However, his goal is no longer Gaul, but to swallow the entire Apennines. Attila took his iron cavalry across the Alps, razing northern Italy to the ground with an unpredictable force. After the fear, the Romans described Attila's army and said: "Where Attila's horseshoe tramples, grass will never grow." Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III fled from the palace all the way back to the old city of Rome in order to avoid the edge, leaving only Aetius to defend himself in the north. In the end, the Huns stopped their offensive on the Po River in the northern Apennines. The Western Roman Empire sent a delegation composed of prominent figures such as Pope Leo I, Chief Senator Avinus, and Commander of the Guards, Trigeius. After some bargaining, Attila decided to accept the agreement and let go, but at the same time, he warned that if the Western Roman Empire violated his marriage contract with Princess Honoria, he would invade Rome again. Weird death on the wedding night There are still divergent opinions about the reasons for Attila's withdrawal. Some people say that the food and grass are inadequate, others say that the plague has stopped the army, and some people think that Attila is worried that the Eastern Roman Empire will retaliate behind it... But anyway, Attila finally stopped his pace of war. He returned to his palace on the north bank of the Danube. One year later, in 453 AD, Attila seemed to have forgotten Princess Honoria, and he married a German girl named Idico, who had already been in groups of wives and concubines. Early in the morning of the second day of the wedding, when everyone was preparing to congratulate the couple, they found that the bridegroom Attila had already died in the bedroom, while the bride was trembling with fright. According to historical records, Attila died of suffocation due to excessive drinking and emotional excitement on the wedding night. But there are also legends that on the wedding night, the bride killed her husband with her own hands. A generation of heroes, Attila, passed away in an almost grotesque way. After hearing the news of his death, his soldiers cut off a bunch of their hair and used swords to cut wounds on their faces. They believe that "the greatest warrior should not be mourned with the wailing and tears of women, but with the blood of warriors." After Attila died, he was placed in a three-layer coffin made of gold, silver, and iron, and was buried along with the trophies and the prisoners who were responsible for digging the tomb. What remained behind him was a huge empire from the Aral Sea in the east, the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Danube in the south, and the Baltic Sea in the north. The size of this empire and the number of races surpassed that of any previous empire. But soon after Attila's death, his ambitious sons began endless vendettas and fights, and the empire collapsed immediately. From the time the Huns first appeared on the north bank of the Don River, to the fall of the empire, it was only more than 80 years, like a meteor flashed by, but its once light made humans unforgettable. As the most outstanding leader of the Huns, Attila has evolved into a different legend. So far, the bronze statues of the Hungarian warriors still stand on the Heroes' Square in Budapest, Hungary, and seem to be still looking down on the Eurasian continent where they once galloped.