The Huns, fearsome nomads, helped destroy the Roman Empire.
The Huns were nomadic warriors, likely from Central Asia, who are best known for invading and terrorizing Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and hastening the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. They were expert horsemen known for their ferocity in battle and their ruthlessness toward conquered peoples.
The most notable Roman writer to describe the Huns in some detail was the historian and soldier Ammianus Marcellinus , though his descriptions are flavored with a heavy dose of bias and ethnocentrism. In his work of later Roman history, called Res Gestae , which covers the period from A.D. 96 to A.D. 378, Ammianus characterized the Huns as"a race savage beyond all parallel," and stated that their place of origin was"beyond the sea of Azov, on the border of the Frozen Ocean.
"As these people moved west, they picked up other peoples along the way, like the Alans and the Gepids, and they created what is called a 'horde,'" Mathisen said."This horde is the Huns as well as all the people they have accumulated." One Roman writer, whose work stands in contrast to Ammianus' depictions of the Huns as crude barbarians, is the fifth-century Byzantine historian Priscus, who, along with another diplomat named Maximus, visited the court of Attila in A.D. 448. He described Attila's residence as"...splendid. It was made of polished boards, and surrounded with wooden enclosures, designed not so much for protection as for appearance' sake." .
This westward movement of Hunnish peoples initiated what historians call the"Great Migration" — a mass movement of Germanic peoples into Roman territory that occurred between roughly A.D. 376 and 476. The Great Migration had a major impact on European history: It played an important role in the Germanization of the Roman army and, ultimately, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire — and later, in the formation of the medieval kingdoms of Europe, according to Britannica .
But this cozy agreement would not last. A significant rift came after A.D. 420, when the Huns began to flex their power by demanding the Romans pay them in gold in exchange for not raiding and plundering Roman provinces. The second major rift in the relationship came in A.D. 434, when Rua , an influential Hunnish king who had succeeded in uniting many of the Hunnish tribes into a single nation, died and was succeeded by his two nephews, Bleda and Attila.
The other advantage Attila's forces possessed was mobility. Atilla's horse warriors could swiftly change position during battle — a tactic that Ammianus described as having devastating effect on Hunnish enemies: The emperor's sister, Honoria, was involved in a scandal that resulted in her being exiled from the Roman imperial family and forced to marry a Roman consul whom she apparently despised, according to Britannica . In an act of revenge, Honoria sent a note to Attila offering herself in marriage. But when Valentinian found out about this, he put an end to the prospective union, which angered Attila.
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