7 things you might not know about Attila the Hun

Despite popular depictions of an uncouth and uncivilised man, Attila the Hun was of high birth and education. He was born into the most powerful family north of the Danube River and his uncles ruled the Hun Empire. He read and spoke both Gothic and Latin. He was taught archery, horse riding, sword fighting as well as military and diplomatic tactics.

When his uncles died, Attila and his brother Bleda took over the Hun Empire and made a peace treaty with Emperor Theodosius II in 434. This entailed the Romans paying the Huns an annual fee of 700 lbs of gold in exchange for peace. However in 441, they claimed the Romans had violated the terms and led a series of attacks on Eastern Roman cities in retaliation. Theodosius was forced to increase the fee to 2,100 lbs of gold in order for Attila and his men to retreat.

To secure absolute power over his empire, Attila killed his eldest brother, Bleda in 445. Now the sole ruler, he marched his men through the Balkans and into Greece and after various clashes with the Romans, forced them to pay him even higher annual fees.

In 450, Honoria, the sister of Valentian III, Emperor of Western Rome sent a ring to Attila as a way to get out of marrying a Roman aristocrat. Attila declared she would be his next wife (he already had many) and claimed that half the Western Roman Empire should rightfully now be his. Honoria quickly retracted her intentions and married the aristocrat, but Attila continued to invade and raid Gaul in the name of Honoria for several years.

Attila was only defeated once, at the Battle of Catalaunian Plains. Here the Romans joined forces with King Theodoric I of the Visigoths and were able to successfully defeat Attila and push his forces out of Italy. This still did little to deter him, as he successfully invaded Italy just a year later.

While he certainly liked power and gold, Attila is recorded as dressing and eating modestly. Roman diplomat Priscus wrote that Attila, "ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher…His cup was of wood, while his guests were given goblets of gold and silver" and that his "dress, too, was quite simple, affecting only to be clean.”

In 453 Attila married Ildico (likely daughter of a Goth noble or royalty). On the morning after their wedding night, guards found Attila dead. Some say he died from internal bleeding caused by binge drinking, others say he suffered a severe nose bleed and choked to death and there's also speculation that one of his other wives murdered him. No wound was found, nor was his burial site, leaving his cause of death a total mystery.