We know very little about the Huns, except that they were not related to the Germans or to any other European people. Some scholars believe them to have belonged to the Mongolian race. But the Huns, to the excited imagination of Roman writers, were demons rather than men. Their olive skins, little, turned-up noses, and black, beady eyes must have given them a very frightful appearance. They spent most of their time on horseback, sweeping over the country like a whirlwind and leaving destruction and death in their wake.
ATTILA THE HUN
The Huns did not become dangerous to Rome for more than half a century after their first appearance in Europe. [14] During this time they moved into the Danube region and settled in the lands now known as Austria and Hungary. At last the Huns found a national leader in Attila, "a man born into the world to agitate the nations, the fear of all lands," [15] one whose boast it was that the grass never grew again where his horse's hoofs had trod. He quickly built up a great military power obeyed by many barbarous nations from the Caspian to the Rhine.
INVASION OF GAUL BY ATTILA
Attila, from his capital on the Danube, could threaten both the East and the West. The emperors at Constantinople bought him off with lavish gifts, and so the robber-ruler turned to the western provinces for his prey. In 451 A.D. he led his motley host, said to number half a million men, across the Rhine. Many a noble municipality with its still active Roman life was visited by the Huns with fire and sword. Paris, it is worthy of note, escaped destruction. That now famous city was then only a little village on an island in the Seine.
BATTLE OF CHÂLONS, 451 A.D.
In this hour of danger Romans and Germans gave up quarreling and united against the common foe. Visigoths under their native king hastened from Spain; Burgundians and Franks joined their ranks; to these forces a German general, named Aëtius, added the last Roman army in the West. Opposed to them Attila had his Huns, the conquered Ostrogoths, and many other barbarian peoples. The battle of Châlons has well been called a struggle of the nations. It was one of the fiercest conflicts recorded in history. On both sides thousands perished, but so many more of Attila's men fell that he dared not risk a fresh encounter on the following day. He drew his shattered forces together and retreated beyond the Rhine.
ATTILA INVADES ITALY, 452 A.D.
In spite of this setback Attila did not abandon the hope of conquest. The next year he led his still formidable army over the Julian Alps and burned or plundered many towns of northern Italy. A few trembling fugitives sought shelter on the islands at the head of the Adriatic. Out of their rude huts grew up in the Middle Ages splendid and famous Venice, a city that in later centuries was to help defend Europe against those kinsmen of the Huns, the Turks.