The peace of Anatolius ended a war in which Attila had beaten the armies of the eastern empire in the Balkans. It was concluded after a Roman defeat in the Chersonese, through the envoy Anatolius.[1][2] Theodosius II could not defend his empire by arms. He admitted defeat and sent Anatolius, the commander of his armies, to negotiate.[3]

The terms

Priscus gives the terms. The fugitives were to be handed back to the Huns. For past arrears, 6,000 pounds of gold were to be paid. In future the tribute was to be 2,100 pounds every year. For every Roman captive who had escaped home without ransom, a fine of twelve solidi was to be paid. If it was not paid, whoever had taken the captive in had to give him back. The Romans were also to admit no barbarian who fled to them.[1] The one payment came to about 2,000 kilograms of gold. The tribute, tripled, came to about 700 kilograms a year. The price for every Roman captive in Hun hands rose considerably.[4] The 6,000 pounds were a little more than 2.2 per cent of the money the treasury received in a year.[5]

Priscus writes that the Romans pretended they had agreed of their own free will. In truth the fear that had seized their generals drove them to accept any terms, however harsh. The emperor forced everyone to pay, even those whom earlier emperors had relieved of the land tax. Senators paid a fixed levy of gold according to their rank. Men who had inherited wealth put their wives’ jewellery and their furniture up for sale in the market, and many killed themselves by starving or hanging. The treasuries were emptied, and the gold and the fugitives were sent to the Scythians, for Scottas had come to receive them.[6] The Romans killed many of the fugitives who refused to be handed over. Among them were some of the royal Scythians who had refused to serve under Attila and had gone over to the Romans.[6][7]

The terms have been called harsh, but considerably less so than might have been expected.[8] A different judgement is that the war ended with the greatest victory the Huns ever won. From then on, it says, Attila was obeyed without condition as king, commander in chief and supreme judge.[9] After the treaty the Hun leaders withdrew deeper into their own territory.[10]

Asemus

Attila added one demand. The people of Asemus, a strong town not far from Illyricum, were to give back the captives they held. During the war they had not sheltered behind their walls. They had fought outside them against the Scythian multitude until the Huns gave up the siege. Then they had fallen on bands driving off Roman booty, freed many Romans and killed many Scythians. Attila declared that he would neither withdraw his army nor ratify the treaty until the captives were handed back. Anatolius and Theodulus, the commander of the garrison troops of Thrace, could find no argument against him. They wrote to the townspeople. The townspeople answered that they had let the Romans who fled to them go free and had killed every Scythian who fell into their hands. They had kept two Hun captives, because after the siege the Huns had seized some boys pasturing flocks before the walls. The boys could not be found, and the two captives were released after the Huns swore that they did not have them.[11] Asemus lay between Oescus and Novae, where the little river Asemus, the modern Osma, flows into the Danube.[8]

Date

Priscus dates the peace only after the battle in the Chersonese. One dating places it in 443, at the end of a war that began in 441.[12][13] The treaty was provisionally signed before 27 August 443, when Theodosius returned from Asia Minor to Constantinople. It was ratified in the autumn.[12][13] A second dating places it in the autumn of 447, at the end of the great invasion of that year. On this dating there was no war in 443.[14] The edition of Priscus dates the fragment to 447.[15]

Later agreements

The first count has three agreements negotiated by Anatolius. The second, in 448, was much harsher than that of 443. Attila demanded that the Romans evacuate a belt south of the Danube five days’ journey wide, and the new frontier was to run through Naissus.[16] The tribute continued, at a rate that is not known.[16] In Priscus the belt and the market at Naissus appear as demands in a letter that Attila sent to Constantinople.[17] The third agreement came in 450, after the plot against Attila. Anatolius and the patrician Nomus met Attila at the river Drenco. He swore to keep the peace, to withdraw from the land south of the Danube and to trouble the emperor no more about fugitives.[18] Some scholars regard it as a brilliant success for the eastern government.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 74
  2. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 123–124
  3. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 95
  4. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 95–96
  5. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 182
  6. ^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 74–75
  7. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 85–86
  8. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 85
  9. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 124–125
  10. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 96
  11. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 5, p. 75
  12. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 86
  13. ^ a b Bury 1923, p. 275
  14. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 115–117, 124
  15. ^ Müller 1851, p. 74
  16. ^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 97–98
  17. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 76
  18. ^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 14, p. 97–98
  19. ^ Thompson 1948, p. 123

Sources

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)

Related

What links here10

Persons
Attila · Bigilas · Scottas · Theodosius II
States
Hunnic Empire
Conflicts
Attila's Balkan wars
Battles & Events
Embassy of Maximinus to Attila
Institutions and Titles
Captives and the Unfree · Envoys and Embassies
Sources
Priscus

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Peace of Anatolius.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/peace-of-anatolius/

Last revised: 8 November 2026