Editing Attila (section)

== Invasion of Italy and death ==
[[File:Chronicon Pictum P014 Atilla Aquileiát ostromolja.JPG|thumb|Attila is [[Sack of Aquileia|besieging]] [[Aquileia]] ([[Chronicon Pictum]], 1358).]]
[[File:Leoattila-Raphael.jpg|thumb|[[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]'s ''The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila'' depicts Leo, escorted by [[Saint Peter]] and [[Paul the Apostle|Saint Paul]], meeting with the [[Hun]] emperor outside Rome.]]
Attila returned in 452 to renew his marriage claim with [[Justa Grata Honoria|Honoria]], invading and ravaging Italy along the way. Communities became established in what would later become [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the [[Venetian Lagoon]]. His army sacked numerous cities and razed [[Sack of Aquileia|Aquileia]] so completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site.{{r|Thompson|p=159}} Aëtius lacked the strength to offer battle, but managed to harass and slow Attila's advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the [[Po River|River Po]]. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila's camp, thus hindering his war efforts and potentially contributing to the cessation of invasion.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8Muzx1VrbwC&q=site%3A+edu+starvation+stops+attila%27s+invasion&pg=PA471|title=A Roman Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery: Excavation at Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina|last1=Soren|first1=David|last2=Soren|first2=Noelle|date=1999|publisher=L'Erma di Bretschenider |isbn=978-88-7062-989-7|pages=472|language=en}}</ref>

Emperor [[Valentinian III|Valentinian&nbsp;III]] sent three envoys, the high civilian officers [[Gennadius Avienus]] and Trigetius, as well as [[Pope Leo I]], who met Attila at [[Mincio]] in the vicinity of [[Mantua]] and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor.{{r|Kirsch}} [[Prosper of Aquitaine]] gives a short description of the historic meeting, but gives all the credit to Leo for the successful negotiation. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of [[Alaric I|Alaric]] gave him pause—as Alaric died shortly after sacking Rome in 410.

Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452. Attila's devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest.{{r|Thompson|p=161}} To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation. Therefore, it was more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat to his homeland.{{r|Thompson|p=160–161}}

Furthermore, an East Roman force had crossed the Danube under the command of another officer also named Aetius—who had participated in the [[Council of Chalcedon]] the previous year—and proceeded to defeat the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories. Attila, hence, faced heavy human and natural pressures to retire "from Italy without ever setting foot south of the [[Po (river)|Po]]".{{r|Thompson|p=163}} As [[Hydatius]] writes in his ''Chronica Minora'':
{{blockquote|The Huns, who had been plundering Italy and who had also stormed a number of cities, were victims of divine punishment, being visited with heaven-sent disasters: famine and some kind of disease. In addition, they were slaughtered by auxiliaries sent by the Emperor [[Marcian]] and led by Aetius, and at the same time, they were crushed in their [home] settlements&nbsp;... Thus crushed, they made peace with the Romans.<ref>{{cite book |year=1993 |editor1-last=Burgess |editor1-first=R. W. |title=The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jW1oAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Thus+crushed+they+made%22 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=103 |isbn=978-0-19-814787-9 |access-date=22 March 2018 }}</ref>}}

===Death===
[[File:Ulpiano Checa La invasión de los bárbaros.jpg|thumb|The [[Huns]], led by Attila, invade Italy (''Attila, the Scourge of God'', by [[Ulpiano Checa]], 1887).]]
In the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor [[Marcian]] succeeded Theodosius II, and stopped paying tribute to the Huns. Attila withdrew from Italy to his palace across the Danube, while making plans to strike at Constantinople once more to reclaim tribute.<ref name="Kershaw">Kershaw, Stephen P. (2013). ''A Brief History of the Roman Empire: Rise and Fall. London.'' Constable & Robinson Ltd. pp. 398, 402–403. {{ISBN|978-1-78033-048-8}}.</ref>

However, he died in the early months of 453.

The conventional account from Priscus says that Attila was at a feast celebrating his latest marriage, this time to the beautiful young [[Ildico]] (the name suggests [[Goths|Gothic]] or [[Ostrogoths|Ostrogoth]] origins).{{r|Thompson|p=164}} In the midst of the revels, however, he suffered severe bleeding and died. He may have had a [[Epistaxis|nosebleed]] and choked to death in a stupor. Or he may have succumbed to [[internal bleeding]], possibly due to ruptured [[esophageal varices]]. Esophageal varices are dilated veins that form in the lower part of the [[esophagus]], often caused by years of excessive alcohol consumption; they are fragile and can easily rupture, leading to death by hemorrhage.{{r|Man}}

Another account of his death was first recorded 80 years after the events by Roman chronicler [[Marcellinus Comes]]. It reports that "Attila, King of the Huns and ravager of the provinces of Europe, was pierced by the hand and blade of his wife".{{r|Chadwick}} One modern analyst suggests that he was assassinated,{{r|Babcock}} but most reject these accounts as no more than hearsay, preferring instead the account given by Attila's contemporary Priscus, recounted in the 6th century by [[Jordanes]]:

{{blockquote|On the following day, when a great part of the morning was spent, the royal attendants suspected some ill and, after a great uproar, broke in the doors. There they found the death of Attila accomplished by an effusion of blood, without any wound, and the girl with downcast face weeping beneath her veil. Then, as is the custom of that race, they plucked out the hair of their heads and made their faces hideous with deep wounds, that the renowned warrior might be mourned, not by effeminate wailings and tears, but by the blood of men. Moreover a wondrous thing took place in connection with Attila's death. For in a dream some god stood at the side of Marcian, Emperor of the East, while he was disquieted about his fierce foe, and showed him the bow of Attila broken in that same night, as if to intimate that the race of Huns owed much to that weapon. This account the historian Priscus says he accepts upon truthful evidence. For so terrible was Attila thought to be to great empires that the gods announced his death to rulers as a special boon.

His body was placed in the midst of a plain and lay in state in a silken tent as a sight for men's admiration. The best horsemen of the entire tribe of the Huns rode around in circles, after the manner of circus games, in the place to which he had been brought and told of his deeds in a funeral dirge in the following manner: "The chief of the Huns, King Attila, born of his sire Mundiuch, lord of bravest tribes, sole possessor of the Scythian and German realms—powers unknown before—captured cities and terrified both empires of the Roman world and, appeased by their prayers, took annual tribute to save the rest from plunder. And when he had accomplished all this by the favor of fortune, he fell, not by wound of the foe, nor by treachery of friends, but in the midst of his nation at peace, happy in his joy and without sense of pain. Who can rate this as death, when none believes it calls for vengeance?"

When they had mourned him with such lamentations, a strava, as they call it, was celebrated over his tomb with great reveling. They gave way in turn to the extremes of feeling and displayed funereal grief alternating with joy. Then in the secrecy of night they buried his body in the earth. They bound his coffins, the first with gold, the second with silver and the third with the strength of iron, showing by such means that these three things suited the mightiest of kings; iron because he subdued the nations, gold and silver because he received the honors of both empires. They also added the arms of foemen won in the fight, trappings of rare worth, sparkling with various gems, and ornaments of all sorts whereby princely state is maintained. And that so great riches might be kept from human curiosity, they slew those appointed to the work—a dreadful pay for their labor; and thus sudden death was the lot of those who buried him as well as of him who was buried.{{r|Jordanes|p=254–259}}}}

=== Descendants===
Attila's sons [[Ellac]], [[Dengizich]] and [[Ernak]], "in their rash eagerness to rule they all alike destroyed his empire".{{r|Jordanes|p=259}} They "were clamoring that the nations should be divided among them equally and that warlike kings with their peoples should be apportioned to them by lot like a family estate".{{r|Jordanes|p=259}} Against the treatment as "slaves of the basest condition" a Germanic alliance led by the Gepid ruler [[Ardaric]] (who was noted for great loyalty to Attila{{r|Jordanes|p=199}}) revolted and fought with the Huns in Pannonia in the [[Battle of Nedao]] 454 AD.{{r|Jordanes|p=260–262}} Attila's eldest son Ellac was killed in that battle.{{r|Jordanes|p=262}} Attila's sons "regarding the Goths as deserters from their rule, came against them as though they were seeking fugitive slaves", attacked Ostrogothic co-ruler [[Valamir]] (who also fought alongside Ardaric and Attila at the Catalaunian Plains{{r|Jordanes|p=199}}), but were repelled, and some group of Huns moved to Scythia (probably those of Ernak).{{r|Jordanes|pp=268–269}} His brother Dengizich attempted a renewed invasion across the Danube in 468 AD, but was defeated at the [[Battle of Bassianae]] by the Ostrogoths.{{r|Jordanes|p=272–273}} Dengizich was killed by Roman-Gothic general [[Anagast]] the following year, after which the Hunnic dominion ended.{{r|Maenchen-Helfen|p=168}}

Many of Attila's close relatives are known by name, and some even by deeds, but valid genealogical sources are rare, and there seems to be no verifiable way to trace Attila's descendants beyond a few generations. This has not stopped many genealogists from attempting to reconstruct a [[descent from antiquity|valid line of descent]] to various medieval rulers. One of the most credible claims has been that of the ''[[Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans]]'' for mythological [[Avitohol]] and [[Ernak|Irnik]] from the [[Dulo clan]] of the [[Bulgars]].{{r|Golden|p=103}}{{r|Kim|p=59, 142}}{{r|Biliarsky}} The Hungarian [[Árpád dynasty]] also claimed to be a direct descendant of Attila.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last1=Horváth-Lugossy |first1=Gábor |url=https://mki.gov.hu/assets/pdf/MKI_EN_006_kings_and_saints_B5_web.pdf |title=Kings and Saints – The Age of the Árpáds |last2=Makoldi |first2=Miklós |last3=Neparáczki |first3=Endre |publisher=Institute of Hungarian Research |year=2022 |isbn=978-615-6117-65-6 |location=Budapest, Székesfehérvár}}</ref> Medieval Hungarian chronicles from the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian royal court]] like ''[[Gesta Hungarorum]]'', ''[[Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum]]'', ''[[Chronicon Pictum]]'', ''[[Chronica Hungarorum#Buda Chronicle|Buda Chronicle]]'', ''[[Chronica Hungarorum]]'' claimed that the [[Árpád dynasty]] and the [[Aba (genus)|Aba clan]] are the descendants of Attila.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Neparáczki |first1=Endre |url=https://mki.gov.hu/assets/pdf/MKI_EN_006_kings_and_saints_B5_web.pdf |title=Kings and Saints – The Age of the Árpáds |publisher=Institute of Hungarian Research |year=2022 |isbn=978-615-6117-65-6 |location=Budapest, Székesfehérvár |page=243}}</ref>