Attila and the Huns

The Huns appear in the Volga-Don steppes in the late fourth century ce, bringing with them Inner Asian traditions of war and statecraft. After subduing the Alans, the Huns overwhelmed the Goths, sending waves of refugees toward the Roman frontier on the Danube. Roman mismanagement of the resulting crisis led to the Gothic victory at Adrianople (378), the first sign of the disasters to overtake the Mediterranean world in the years to come. The shock occasioned by the Huns’ two dramatic raids across the Caucasus in the 390s lasted until the Arab Conquest. In the fifth century, the rising Hunnic proto-state on the Danube became a growing threat to the Eastern Empire, while the Western Empire gradually slipped into military dependence upon the nomads, particularly during the years of the patrician Aetius’s dominance. In Attila’s reign, Hunnic power stretched from the Rhine to the Dnieper. The Huns ravaged the Roman Balkans in 441–442 and 446–447, invaded Gaul in 451, and raided northern Italy the next year. Their assaults entailed widespread devastation and ended urban life over much of the Balkans. When Attila died suddenly in 453, his empire collapsed. Although the Huns eventually faded from history, our sources continued to refer to Hunnic raids for decades. The Huns’ legacy in terms of military history is complex. The danger they posed led to profound innovations in Roman tactics, equipment, and military engineering. Hunnic mounted archery began a process that ended centuries of infantry dominance in the Mediterranean world.