Siege of Naissus

The siege of Naissus was an attack of the Huns under Attila on Naissus, a city of the eastern Roman empire in the central Balkans. It took place during the Balkan wars of the 440s.^[1]^[2] Naissus, the modern Niš, lay on the river Nišava in Dacia Mediterranea. It was the birthplace of Constantine, the seat of an imperial arms factory and a populous city.^[3] The road from Sirmium by Singidunum, Margus and Viminacium to Naissus was the only military road between Pannonia and Thrace. With the fall of Naissus the fate of Singidunum was sealed.^[2]

The siege

Margus was the key to the Morava valley. After its fall the Huns pushed south and took Naissus.^[2] They came up the valley of the Margus, the Morava, and halted before the walls. The inhabitants made a brave defence. The city yielded to the machines of Attila and the missiles of a countless host.^[1]

Roman prisoners or deserters in Attila’s army built and served the engines. Huns did not.^[4] According to some scholars, the Huns now had rams and other siege engines and used them freely. Naissus, Sofia and Lüleburgaz fell to them without great effort.^[5] Others hold that a battle outside the walls was enough to decide the fate of the city.^[3]

In the account of Priscus a bridge joined Naissus to the other bank of the river. The Huns had built it so that their forces could approach the city easily. Some scholars find this hard to believe. The Huns were already on the same side of the river as the city, and a bridge built in the middle of a campaign is unlikely. The sentence is probably no more than an unhappy guess of the historian.^[6]

The account of Priscus

The narrative of the siege comes from Priscus. Some scholars hold it unreliable.^[2] Others hold that Priscus fell back on phrases from his reading of Herodotus and Thucydides where his information failed him, especially on the course of military operations. They count the siege of Naissus among the passages that show this weakness.^[7]

Date

The chronicler Marcellinus Comes records under 441 that the kings of the Huns broke into Illyricum with many of their warriors and laid waste Naissus, Singidunum and other cities.^[8] Some scholars place the capture in 442.^[2] In their account the attacks were resumed in 442 after a short campaign and a truce in 441, the Romans under the general Aspar suffered one defeat after another, and the Huns took Margus and then Naissus.^[2] They also hold that it cannot be decided whether the account of Priscus refers to 442 or 447.^[2]

Others place the siege in 443, after the breakdown of a one-year truce.^[9] In that year the Huns took Ratiaria on the Danube and rode up the Morava to Naissus. From there they went on to Sardica, Philippopolis and Arcadiopolis.^[6]

The ruined city

The city lay desolate, like Singidunum and Viminacium, until Justinian restored it in the following century.^[3] In 448 or 449 Attila’s envoy Edeco brought a letter to Constantinople.^[10]^[11] Attila no longer wanted the market held on the bank of the Danube as before, but at Naissus, which he had captured and destroyed. He fixed the city as the boundary between Scythian and Roman territory. It lay five days’ journey from the Danube for a man travelling light.^[10]^[11]

In 449 Priscus came to Naissus with the embassy of Maximinus.^[12] The enemy had overturned the city and razed it to the ground. The envoys found it empty of people, except for some sick persons in the ruins of the churches. They camped a little way from the river, because the whole bank was full of the bones of those who had fallen in the war.^[13] According to some scholars, six years had passed since the Huns had captured Naissus, and no effort had yet been made to bring life back to the ruins.^[14]

References

^ a b Bury 1923, p. 274
^ a b c d e f g Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 116
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 83
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 201
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 95
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 83–84
^ Thompson 1948, p. 9–10
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 111
^ Thompson 1948, p. 83, 219
^ a b Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 7, p. 76
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 98
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 124
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 8, p. 78
^ Thompson 1948, p. 105

Sources

Priscus

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)