Late Roman Empire, Valentinian-Theodosian Dynasty (364-455), 80*Valentinian III: Attila the Hun [2/3]

80*VALENTINIAN III (35; r.425-455) (W)

Attila the Hun (c.47; r.434-453) [2/3]

With their southern border secured by the Treaty of Margus (435), Bleda and Attila from 435 to 439 campaigned to consolidate their acquisitions. In 440 they breached the treaty with an attack on Castra Constantia, a Roman fortress on the Danube River. They justified their actions with the accusation that the Bishop of Margus had robbed the rich graves of the Hunnic kings. When the Romans denied this allegation the Huns continued with their military action. 

In 441 Attila, enjoying a clear path westwards with little resistance through Moesia Superior province, sacked the important cities of Margus (near Pozarevac) and Viminacium (the capital of Moesia Superior) and then captured Singidunum (=Belgrade, the capital of Serbia) and the important town of Sirmium (the capital of Pannonia Inferior) where he halted. 

In 442 Attila after first securing his rear by occupying the military base at Ratiaria (capital of Dacia Ripensis, between Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior) continued up the Morava Valley where, using battering rams and mobile siege towers for the first time, he captured Naissus (Dacia Mediterranea, south of Dacia Ripensis).

Continuing his advance eastwards along the Nisava Valley, Attila captured Serdica (=Sofia; capital of Dacia Mediterranea province), Philippopolis (=Plovdiv; capital of Thraciae diocese) and Arcadiopolis (=Luleburgaz; capital of Europa province). He met and annihilated a Roman army not far from Constantinople, and defeated another in the vicinity of Callipolis (=Gallipoli). However, Attila was unable to breach the walls of Constantinople and Theodosius’ mediator ⁵⁷Flavius Anatolius, magister militum per Orientem (433-446), negotiated a peace in which the Romans agreed to pay the Huns six thousand pounds of gold and an annual tribute of one thousand pounds of gold.

In 445 Bleda died, possibly murdered at the instigation of Attila, who took unchallenged command of his people. On 27 January 447 there was a major earthquake and a section of the walls of Constantinople collapsed. Almost certainly connected with the news that Constantinople was now vulnerable and also annoyed that Theodosius had discontinued the subsidies when the Empire’s forces returned from Sicily, Attila sent envoys to Constantinople demanding payment.

The Romans said they were ready to talk but promised nothing. The weakening of Constantinople’s walls forced a change in the defence of the city. The army was divided into three mobile groups to cover all the possible land routes to the capital. This deployment failed to halt the Hun advance, but it slowed it down long enough for the capital’s defences to be repaired, said to have been achieved in less than two months.

Attila crossed the Danube and ravaged Illyricum, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace and penetrated up to Thermopylae. The magister militum Arnegisclus met Attila at the Battle of Utus River in Moesia Superior but lost decisively and died in the fighting. After the Huns won a decisive battle in Thracian Chersonese, Theodosius’ government, dominated by his chief minister Chrysaphius (fl.441-450) and his supporter, the master of offices Nomus (fl.443-450), though protected by the capital’s defences, felt they had to buy Attila’s withdrawal once more.

Anatolius was sent to negotiate and new treaty was agreed in 448: the terms were that the arrears in tribute had to be paid immediately; the annual tribute was to increase to two thousand one hundred pounds of gold; and a strip of land of breadth at least a five days’ march extending eastwards along the right (south) bank of the Danube to be evacuated, stretching from Singidunum (=Belgrade, Serbia) some three hundred miles (500 km) to Novae (=Svistov, Bulgaria), and the new southern boundary to run through Naissus.

These conditions provoked some opposition to the continuing policy of appeasement. This feeling became centred on the military commander of Constantinople, ⁶⁴Flavius Zeno (fl.447-451). Chrysaphius, in an attempt to improve his fortunes, supposedly suborned Edeco, one of Attila’s lieutenants, who was at Constantinople on one of the many embassies, to kill Attila on his return. Attila discovered the plot and Zeno demanded Chrysaphius’ head. But Chrysaphius survived and quickly arranged a new embassy to Attila, led by Anatolius and Nomus, two men with whom Attila was willing to deal. 

It seems that Attila by now had begun to see the Eastern Empire not as an area to plunder but rather as a source of annual extortion. In 450 he agreed to abide by the conditions set in 448, to dismiss the question of Chrysaphius’ punishment, to cease his demands that he had made during previous during previous negotiations for the return of Hun or subject fugitives, and to drop his demands for the huge belt of Balkan territory. It was perhaps after realising that Constantinople prevented further eastward expansion that Attila decided to concentrate his attention to the Western Empire.