THE END OF EMPIRE
ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER KELLY
Ruling the Later Roman Empire
The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction
THE END OF EMPIRE
Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome
CHRISTOPHER KELLY
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
New York London
Copyright © 2009, 2008 by Christopher Kelly
Originally published in Great Britain under the title
Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire
All rights reserved
“Waiting for the Barbarians,” from the Collected Poems of C. P. Cavafy: A New Translation by C. P.
Cavafy, translated by Aliki Barnstone.
Copyright © 2006 by Aliki Barnstone. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W.
Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelly, Christopher, 1964–
[Attila the Hun]
The end of empire: Attila the Hun and the fall of Rome/
Christopher Kelly.—1st American ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: Attila the Hun: barbarian terror and the fall of the Roman Empire. London:
Bodley Head, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-393-07266-2
1. Attila, d. 453. 2. Huns—Biography. 3. Huns—History. 4. Rome—History—Empire,
284–476. I. Title.
D141.K45 2009
937'.09—dc22 2009009072
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
FOR MY MOTHER
(1937–2009)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
PROLOGUE:
The Strava of Attila the Hun
PART ONE: BEFORE ATTILA
CHAPTER ONE:
CHAPTER TWO:
CHAPTER THREE:
First Contact
The Axis of Evil
A Backward Steppe
CHAPTER FOUR:
Romans and Barbarians
CHAPTER FIVE:
How the West Was Won
PART TWO: HUNS AND ROMANS
CHAPTER SIX:
A Tale of Two Cities
CHAPTER SEVEN:
War on Three Fronts
CHAPTER EIGHT:
CHAPTER NINE:
Fighting for Rome
CHAPTER TEN:
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Brothers in Arms
Shock and Awe
Barbarians at the Gates
CHAPTER TWELVE:
The Price of Peace
PART THREE: DINNER WITH ATTILA
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Mission Impossible
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Close Encounters
Eating with the Enemy
What the Historian Saw
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Truth and Dare
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
End Game
PART FOUR: THE FAILURE OF EMPIRE
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
CHAPTER TWENTY:
Hearts and Minds
The Bride of Attila
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
Taking Sides
The Fog of War
The Last Retreat
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
EPILOGUE:
Endings
Reputations
Notes and Further Reading
Ancient Texts
Chronology, AD 375–455
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Warm thanks are due to a small—but fiercely loyal—band. For their thoughts, enthusiasm, and help I
wish to particularly mention Julian Alexander, Richard Flower, Maria Guarnaschelli, Jörg Hengsen,
Stuart Hill, Bettany Hughes, Gavin Kelly, Jan and Tony Leaver, Margaret Maloney, Rosamond
McKitterick, Lily Richards, Will Sulkin, and Melanie Tortoroli. I am also most grateful to the
Leverhulme Trust for its generous award of a Senior Research Fellowship, 2006–2008.
THE END OF EMPIRE
Now what will become of us without barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.
—CONSTANTINE CAVAFY, “Waiting for the Barbarians”
(1898)
PROLOGUE
THE STRAVA OF ATTILA THE HUN
Carefully concealed in the long grass that covered the plain, the Roman spies watched with growing
fear and amazement. In the center of a cluster of tents pitched between wagons stood a splendid silken
pavilion. Its open sides allowed a clear view of the body of Attila the Hun. He was short with a broad
chest and a large head. Those who had seen him while alive reported that his eyes were small, his
beard sparse and flecked with gray, his nose flatish, and his complexion dark. This was the powerful
physique of a man who had died suddenly in his prime, a battle-hardened warrior used to fighting and
to traveling for hours on horseback. This was the brilliant commander who had transformed a
disorderly band of smash-and-grab nomads into a disciplined force that in the first half of the fifth
century AD had marched a thousand miles across Europe from the shores of the Black Sea in Romania
to the fertile fields of Champagne in France. Attila the Hun was one of the most frightening enemies
ever faced by the Romans. In lightning raids his army destroyed dozens of prosperous and wealthy
cities that had remained secure for centuries and even threatened Rome—the Eternal City—itself.
The Huns honored Attila in death as in life. His body, draped in rare oriental silks, glittered with
magnificent jewelry, costly gifts from Roman emperors hoping to buy off an enemy whom they had
repeatedly failed to defeat. On his shoulder gleamed a great golden brooch set with a single slice of
onyx the size of a man’s palm. Like the dark waters of the Danube glinting in the sharp summer sun,
the deep purple stone flashed with the fire of burning brands held high by the horsemen riding wildly
around the tent. The faces of these young men were disfigured and smeared with blood. According to
the Roman historian Priscus of Panium, they had cut their long hair and slashed their cheeks “so that
the greatest of all warriors should be mourned not with tears or the wailing of women but with the
blood of men.”
Then followed a day of grief, feasting, and funeral games: a combination of celebration and
lamentation that had a long history in the ancient world. Priscus may have been reminded of the
games, movingly described by Homer, that the Greek hero Achilles held for his fallen companion
Patroclus before the walls of Troy. Twelve centuries after Homer, the Huns raced horses to salute the
achievements of their dead leader. That night, far beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire, Attila
was buried. His body was encased in three coffins: the innermost covered in gold, a second in silver,
and a third in iron. The gold and silver symbolized the plunder that Attila had seized, while the harsh
gray iron recalled his victories in war. The tomb was filled with the weapons of enemies defeated in
battle, precious jewels, and other treasures. The servants responsible for preparing the burial were
killed so that they could not reveal its location. These, too, were honorable deaths, part of the strava,
the Hunnic for a funeral—and thanks to Priscus’ account the only word of Hunnic to have survived.
What most impressed the Romans secretly watching these ceremonies was the dirge solemnly
intoned by the horsemen who galloped around Attila’s tent. It was a slow, deep, rhythmical chant
commemorating a great leader who had established an empire for his own people and hastened the
collapse of Roman rule in western Europe. No Roman could hear these words without remembering
the terror that Attila had inspired. No Hun could ask for a more fitting epitaph.
Attila the king,
Chief of the Huns,
Born of his father Mundiuch,
Lord of the bravest tribes.
Lord of the bravest tribes.
He who captured cities,
He who brought fear to the Romans and their empire.
Their prayers moved him;
He accepted payments each year to save the rest from plunder.
Attila accomplished all this through his great good fortune.
He fell not by an enemy’s blow,
Nor by the treachery of his own followers.
But he died peacefully,
Happy in his joy,
Without pain,
His people safe.
Who can call this death?
When none considers that it demands vengeance?
PART ONE
BEFORE ATTILA