Even while pursuing his claim on Honoria, he decided to take yet another wife, a beautiful young woman named Ildico. Though gruesome, Attila’s death was not the fate you might have predicted for a great warrior and military leader.

He died horribly (and mysteriously) on his wedding night. He “ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher…His cup was of wood, while his guests were given goblets of gold and silver.” Unlike his subordinates, who arrogantly displayed their gold and gems on their horse’s bridle or weaponry, Attila’s “dress, too, was quite simple, affecting only to be clean.” 7.

Attila himself, Priscus observed, was served separately. Despite his legendary lust for gold, Attila himself lived modestly and humbly.Īccording to Priscus, who visited Attila’s headquarters on the Great Hungarian Plain along with visiting Roman ambassadors in 449, the Hun leader threw a banquet at which he served the guests a luxurious meal on silver plates. The Inuit Woman Who Survived Alone on an Arctic Island After a Disastrous Expedition 6. With Hun forces looming just 20 miles of Constantinople, Theodosius was forced to make terms, and agreed to pay Attila the staggering sum of 2,100 pounds of gold per year. But just a few years later, Attila claimed the Romans had violated the treaty and led a devastating series of attacks through Eastern Roman cities in 441. Their first step was to negotiate a treaty with the Eastern Roman Empire, in which Emperor Theodosius II agreed to pay some 700 pounds of gold annually as a promise of peace between the Huns and Romans. With the deaths of their uncles in 434, Bleda and Attila inherited joint control over the Hun Empire. Once Attila rose to power, the first thing he did was negotiate a (short-lived) peace with the Romans. They also spoke–and perhaps read–both Gothic and Latin, and learned military and diplomatic tactics the two brothers were likely present when their uncles received Roman ambassadors. Attila and his elder brother, Bleda, received instruction in archery, sword fighting and how to ride and care for horses. His uncles, Octar and Rugila (also Ruga or Rua), jointly ruled the Hun Empire in the late 420s and early 430s. Far from the stereotype of the unwashed, uneducated barbarian, Attila was born (probably at the beginning of the fifth century A.D.) into the most powerful family north of the Danube River.

Rome 2 vs atilla