"Attila the Hun is known as one of the most ferocious leaders of ancient times. He was given the nickname Scourge God becuase of his ferocity. During the twentieth century, Hun was one of the worst names you could call a person (I mean, who wants to be killed a vampire, right?), due to Attila. The Huns were a barbaric and savage group of people, and Atilla, their leader, was no exception. He was the stereotypical sacker of cities and killer of babies (so, he got a little hungry!). The Huns lasted long after their dissapearance in mythology and folklore, as the bad guy. Generally, they were not fun people to be around.
Priscus saw Attila the Hun at a banquet in 448. Priscus described him as being a short, squat man with a large head and deep-set eyes. He also had a flat nose and a thin beard. Historians say that his general personality was irritable (he was hungry, and therefore grumpy....he was hungry a lot), blustering, and truculent. He was said to be a persistent negotiator (he always wanted his way), and not at all pitiless.
While Priscus was at the banquet in 448, he observed a few other details about Atilla. All of Attila's cheif lieutenantswere served dainties on silver platters (quite a few of them were vampires and ate as little as possible of the 'human food' so they could eat properly later), but he was served only meat on wooden plates (as raw as possible). No other qualities of Attila as a general really survived through time (but he did!), but he is thought to ave been an outstanding commander from his accomplishments as a barbarian.
Huns themselves were mysterious and feared people (many were vampires). They first appeared in the Fourth Century around the Roman Empire. They rode their warhorses around and caused the Germanic barbarians and Romans alike to fear them. Yet, it was said that they were very uncivilized. It was said that made no use for fire (vampires don't like fire), and just ate the roots of plants they found in the fields (actually they just ate the animals they found in the fields). They were also said to have eaten the almost raw meat of animals (...speaks for itself). The only reason the meat was almost raw was becuase they were said to have cooked it by placing it beetween their thighs and the backs of their horses to give it warmth (if it's warmer, it seems more like human blood).
The Huns sometimes engaged in regular battle (...what? This is not a typo on my part, this is what is says in the essay...I'm just copying and pasting....) . They would attack in an order of columns, and scream very disorderly and savage cries (that was the men that they were eating that would scream). Most of the time, though, the Huns just fought in a very random way. (early in their history, vampires didn't get along very well)They would scream and run about and then all come together in a large group. They would then, as a group, approach the camp or town of the people they were attacking, and destroy it (slaughter). Most of the time, the people the Huns attacked never even saw them coming (once again, VAMPIRES).
There were many ways in which the Huns chose to fight. They often started from a distance, and missiled sharpened bones (from humans) and other objects attached to a long stick into the territory of their victims (totally the right word). When they were forced to fight in close combat, they often fought without regard to their own safety (vampire skin is very tough, they are hard to injure). They often fought with swords, and they threw a net over their enemy to entagle his limbs so that he could no longer walk or ride his horse (blood is better the fresher it is). This is how they earned the title of Barbarians.
The Romans initial impression of the Huns was fear (at that time Quirinus did not rule). But after awhile, the Huns settled on the coast of the Danube, the great Hungarian plain, and became allies of the Romans, instead of attacking them as enemies. In return, the Roman Empire paid them a sum of money (and bodies) to not attack the Roman Empire. The Huns agreed with this, and remained mostly neutral toward the Romans for about fifty years.
Things between the Romans and the Huns began to fall apart when Attila was named King of the Huns in 434 (really, he already ruled them, according to my legend, this was just when the former king died...mysteriously). Attila and his brother (not a vampire), Bleda, inherited a large empire. They had been made joint kings of a vast area from the Alps to the Caspian seas, in the east, to the Baltic Sea in the West. Becuase of the Roman treaty with the Huns at Margus, the Romans had to pay the Huns seven thousand pounds of gold (and blood) annually to leave them alone. Attila's actions beetween 435 and 439 are basically unknown, and were not major or overly important. It is said that he amy have subdued barbarians to the north of east (what?) of his domain, but no can be sure.
In 441, Rome had become delinquent on their payments to the Huns, so Attila and Bleda decided to attack to Roman Empire. While the Roman officials were occupied in the Western Front, Attila attacked the Eastern Front on the Danubian Frontier (who's a smart little vampire? Who's a smart little vampire?....sorry I couldn't resist) The Huns managed to attack and raze many of the cities they came upon (at this time, once again, Quirinus was not an emperor, he was disquised as a farmer), and attract the attention of the Roman Empire. The Romans called a truce in 442, but this only satisfied Attila for a short amount of time. In 443, the Huns attack the towns in Danube again, destroying Naissus and Serdica. He proceeded toward Costantinople and took Philipopolis (i don't know about you, but that sounds like a ridiculous name for a city to me). He defeated the main Eatern Roman forces in a succession of battles. Finally, the Romans arranged a peace treaty that gave the Huns 2,100 pounds of gold each year. This made Attila happy, and the Huns went back to protecting the Romans as their allies.
In 445, Attila decided that he no longer wanted his older brother, Bleda to rule with him. So he killed him (the opposite of Romulus, who's brother was killed by someone else). He planned in 447 to attack Rome again, on an even larger scale that his previous attack. But this idea turned out to be much less that he thought (I'm not sure what that means...). He sent his army to attack the Utus River, and defeated them. But he himself suffered loss and devastation (Romulus had become an 'advisor'). After that, he moved on to the Balkan provinces, and devestated them. Then he traveled down to Greece, but was stopped by Thermpylae (Atli was still a young-ish vampire after all).
Attila spent the next three years working out complicated agreements and negotiations with the Romans. He spent most of his time with the diplomats of the Eastern Emperor Theodosius ||. The result of the agreement was that Attila gained the territory of land to the south of Danube. The Romans also had to pay the Huns even more money to not attack, though the sum of money is not known (it was mostly blood/bodies).
In 450, Attila claimed Honoria, the sister of Valentinian ||| as his wife. The problem with this was that Valentinian ||| was the emperor of the Western Empire. Becuase of this marriage, Attila decided that he deserved half of the Western Empire (pompous like Romulus, but more foolish). In order to get his way, he invaded Gaul in 451.
Aetius got the Visigothic King, theodoric |, to resist the Huns with him when they invaded Gaul. It is told that Attila almost succeeded in occupying Aurelianum before the Allies came. Aetius and Theodoric forced him to withdraw from the city, which he had already gained foot in.
In 452, the Huns invaded Italy. They sacked many cities, including Aquilieia, Patavium, Verona, Brixia, Berfomum, and Mediolamun. There wasn't much Aetius could do about. Luckily, famine and pestilence caused the Huns to leave before crossing the Apennines (can vampires get sick? hm...).
In 453, Attila planned to attack the Eastern Empire becuase the Empereor wasn't paying the money set in previous treaties (I think they were starting to run out of homeless to give the Huns). Nothing ever actually came of these plans because, quite suspiciously, Attila died (yeah , 'died') in his bed the night after his marriage (remember the whole killed by his wife thing?).
When Attila was buried, the Huns went through a lot of trouble. They had to kill anyone who was involved with the burial, so that no one would know of the exact place that Attila was buried (huh, that's conveniant. the part of Attila's ranks that he had turned into vampires quickly realied what happened when they heard how he had 'died' and killed everyone who knew where he was buried. They then went and unburied him. Attila rewarded them by...killing them. He is the the least rational, most easily provoked, angriest, grumpiest, thirstiest of the ancients). Attila was succeeded by his sons, between with the empire was divided.
Attila didn't have a huge inpact on history (I think he would disagree), becuase the Romans very well couuld have done without him. He mainly caused trouble for the Romans, and killed a lot of innocent people just to get his way. Attila the Hun was one of the most important kings of the Huns, though, and he definetly has his place in history (and still does to!), as a barbaric, baby-killing, rude leader of a very ruthless group of warriors."
by the way, did you know that you can't copy and paste using blogspot (or at least I can't)? I had to retype THAT WHOLE THING (I did with the Romulus and Remus one to)
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