Attila's Balkan wars

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

Attila’s Balkan wars were the invasions of the eastern Roman provinces south of the Danube in the 440s, under Bleda and Attila. They broke the field armies of the eastern empire and cost it a tribute three times as high as before. Some scholars call their outcome the greatest victory the Huns ever won.^[1] In the east the Huns had become the highest military power. The losses of the eastern empire left the Balkans open to barbarian raids until the end of the century.^[2]

The outbreak

After the treaty of Margus the eastern government probably paid none of the tribute and kept the fugitive tribes as soldiers.^[3] In 440 a great Roman fleet sailed for Sicily against the Vandals. In the same year the Persians attacked Armenia.^[4]^[5]

In 441 the Huns attacked with an army while a crowded market was being held on the Danube. They killed many Romans.^[6]^[7] Roman envoys protested. The Huns answered that they were only avenging wrongs. The bishop of Margus, they said, had crossed into their land and robbed the royal treasure, and the Romans still kept the fugitives. Unless both were handed over, there would be war.^[6] The Greek can also be understood to mean that the bishop robbed the royal tombs. If so, the Huns were undoubtedly in the right.^[8]^[9] The Huns crossed the Danube and damaged the towns and forts along the bank. They took Viminacium, which lay desolate until the days of Justinian.^[10]^[9] The bishop of Margus feared that he would be handed over. He went to the Huns and promised to betray his city if their kings rewarded him. He came back with a barbarian force and opened Margus to them at night. “And from that time,” Priscus writes, “the affairs of the barbarians grew greater and better day by day.”^[10]

Singidunum and Sirmium followed. Sirmium was the hinge of the whole defence of the Danube. Its fall has been placed in 441.^[11] Priscus heard that during the siege of Sirmium the bishop had given a secretary of Attila and Bleda the gold vessels of the church. They were meant to pay for the bishop’s ransom, or for that of the citizens, if the city fell.^[12] The commanders Anatolius and Aspar arranged a truce for one year.^[13]

Ratiaria, Naissus and the Chersonese

Attila mustered his forces and wrote to the emperor. The fugitives and the tribute withheld under the pretext of the war were to be sent at once. Envoys were to come to settle the tribute in future. If the Romans delayed or prepared for war, he could no longer hold back the Scythian multitude. The emperor refused to hand over the fugitives. Attila ravaged Roman territory and destroyed forts. He attacked Ratiaria, “a large and populous city”.^[14] Ratiaria was the capital of Dacia Ripensis and the base of the Danube fleet.^[15]

From there the Huns went up the Morava to Naissus, the birthplace of Constantine. They took Sardica, Philippopolis and Arcadiopolis.^[16] The Huns now had rams and other siege engines and used them freely. Naissus, Sofia and Lüleburgaz fell without great effort.^[5] Roman prisoners or deserters in Attila’s army built the engines.^[17] In 449 Priscus found Naissus deserted. Only a few sick people remained, in the ruins of the churches. The river bank was full of the bones of the dead.^[18]

In a succession of battles the Huns beat the generals Aspar, Areobindus and Arnegisclus and forced them back into the Chersonese, the peninsula of Gallipoli. There the last Roman army was broken. The Huns reached the sea at Callipolis and Sestus.^[19]^[5] After the battle in the Chersonese the emperor sent Anatolius to make peace. Under the peace of Anatolius the Romans handed back the fugitives. They paid 6,000 pounds of gold in arrears and raised the yearly tribute to 2,100 pounds.^[20] The townspeople of Asemus had held out against the Huns all through the war. Attila would not ratify the peace until they gave back their captives.^[21]

The invasion of 447

The chronicler Marcellinus calls the war of 447 greater than the first. According to him, Attila ground almost the whole of Europe into the dust.^[22]^[23] The Gepids under Ardaric and the Ostrogoths under Valamir marched with him.^[24] On 27 January 447, in the second hour after midnight, an earthquake threw down the land walls of Constantinople, including fifty-seven towers.^[25]^[26] The praetorian prefect Flavius Constantinus had them rebuilt with the help of the circus factions. By the end of March they stood again.^[25]^[26]

Near the river Utus in Dacia Ripensis the Roman army that had marched out of Marcianople met Attila. Its commander Arnegisclus staked everything on one battle. His horse was killed under him. He fell fighting bravely, after killing many of the enemy.^[27]^[28] The victory was Attila’s. His losses, however, were severe. It may have been the last of his victories over the Romans.^[29] Marcianople fell and lay desolate until Justinian. The Huns drove south into Greece. They were held only at Thermopylae.^[29] A band of them reached the Bosporus. Sickness stopped it there.^[30] The Gallic chronicle of 452 counts no fewer than seventy cities laid waste. Only Adrianople and Heraclea in Thrace escaped. The Life of the monk Hypatius speaks of more than a hundred.^[31]^[2]

Chronology

Priscus gives few dates. The order of his fragments is argued. One reckoning has a war in 441 and 442, no war in 443, and a single great invasion in 447. That invasion ended with the peace of Anatolius in the autumn of that year. On this view, Attila’s letter and the attack on Ratiaria belong to the outbreak of 447.^[32] A second reckoning has a war from 441 to 443, with Ratiaria, Naissus and the Chersonese in 443. A first peace of Anatolius ended it in that year. A second invasion followed in 447, and further treaties in 448 and 450.^[33] A third reckoning dates the peace of Anatolius to 443.^[34] The sources do not say why the Huns broke the peace in 447.^[24]

References

^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 124–125
^ a b Yavuz 2025, p. 97
^ Thompson 1948, p. 77
^ Thompson 1948, p. 79
^ a b c Yavuz 2025, p. 95
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 2, p. 72–73
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 116
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 110
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 80
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 2, p. 73
^ Thompson 1948, p. 80–81
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 84
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 110–111
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 3, p. 73
^ Thompson 1948, p. 83
^ Thompson 1948, p. 83–84
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 201
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 78
^ Thompson 1948, p. 84
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 74
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 75
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 119
^ Thompson 1948, p. 94
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 90
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 120–121
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 91–92
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 119–120
^ Thompson 1948, p. 92–93
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 93
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 123
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 123, 456
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 115–119, 124
^ Thompson 1948, p. 78–98, 218–219
^ Bury 1923, p. 275

Sources

Priscus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, vol. I (1923)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)