Attila The Hun — The ‘Scourge Of God’
Prisma/UIG/Getty ImagesAttila, often called Attila the Hun, ruler of the Huns, a non-Christian people from the Great Hungarian Plain in the fifth century B.C.E.
Attila the Hun is one of the most famous — or infamous, depending on who you ask — rulers in history. In the centuries that have passed since his death, his name has become synonymous with violence, conquest, and destruction, but the true story of Attila isn’t quite so straightforward.
The Huns struck fear into the hearts of the people of the Roman Empire, so much so that Attila came to be known as the “scourge of God,” according to Live Science.
Attila’s people plundered, blackmailed, and raided the eastern half of the Roman Empire, amassing thousands of pounds of gold and widely considered to be barbaric in comparison to the devout Christian Romans.
Their leader, however, maintained a fairly simple lifestyle.
One account from the Roman diplomat, Priscus, tells of a banquet he attended, put on by Attila, where a “luxurious meal, served on silver plate, had been made ready for us and the barbarian guests, but Attila ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher.”
“In everything else, too,” Priscus’ account continued, “he showed himself temperate; his cup was of wood, while to the guests were given goblets of gold and silver. His dress, too, was quite simple, affecting only to be clean.”
His temperate lifestyle didn’t dissuade Attila from launching multiple attacks against the Eastern Roman Empire, though. And as Smithsonian Magazine, reported, Attila earned his fair share of frightening descriptions, with the Roman historian Jordanes calling him “a man born into the world to shake the nations.”
Kean Collection/Getty ImagesThe death of Attila, King of the Huns, reportedly a result of a hemmorhage that, due to Attila’s drunkeness, drowned him.
Attila killed his own brother, Bleda, to unite the Hun empire and rule it alone. He pursued militaristic exploits rather than scholarly ones. He ordered massacres and often put entire monasteries to the sword. He was prone to regular explosions of rage.
Despite all of this, though, Attila is not strictly the rocuous barbarian as is often portrayed.
In their short time together, Priscus also noted that Attila regarded his son with unmistakable tenderness, writing, “He drew him close… and gazed at him with gentle eyes.”
The Romans may have cried out in joy upon hearing news of Attila’s death in 453 B.C.E, but the fiercesome ruler’s bad reputation, well over a millennium later, may not be entirely deserved.
After learning about history’s most ruthless warlords, discover some of the fiercest woman warriors throughout history. Or, learn about the outlandish, deranged rulers who have understandably been excluded from history books.
