biography
| name: |
Attila
|
| |
known as the Scourge of God
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pronunciation:
[atila]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.406–53)
|
| biography:
| King of the Huns (434–53). He ruled with his elder brother until 445, his dominion extending over Germany and Scythia from the Rhine to the frontiers of China. In 447 he devastated all the countries between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, defeating Emperor Theodosius II (ruled 408–50). In 451 he invaded Gaul, but was routed by Aëtius, the Roman commander, and Theodoric I, King of the Visigoths, on the Catalaunian Plain. He retreated to Hungary, but then made an incursion into Italy (452), devastating several cities, Rome itself being saved only by the personal mediation of Pope Leo I. The Hunnish empire decayed after his death. |
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