Europe 442: Treaty of Carthage

The Hunnic invasion of the Balkans in 441–442 saw the destruction of a number of important cities, including Naissus and Sirmium. To deal with this threat, the Eastern Roman Empire recalled its army from Sicily, leaving the Western Empire alone in its war with the Vandals in Africa. Recognizing their inability to sustain the conflict without adequate military and naval forces, the Western Empire opted to make peace with the Vandal king Gaiseric, effectively recognizing his rule in Carthage.

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Notes

Akatziri and the “Scythian Kingdom” (Kuban Huns)

Little is known about the region north and east of the Black Sea in the first half of the fifth century, except that in c. 400 a “Scythian King” (almost always assumed to be a Hun) lived in the Kuban region and by the 440s a Hunnic people known as the Akatziri lived east of the Dniester. Although fragmented, the Akatziri were powerful enough that, when the Eastern Romans aligned with all but one of their kingdoms in 447, it took over a year for Attila’s armies to crush them and install his son as their king. After this, Attila contemplated invading Persia, implying that suppressing the Akatziri had bought the periphery of his empire close to the Caucasus. All this suggests that the Akatziri may have extended into the North Caucasus and that the “Scythian King” may have been part of the Akatziri, although this is of course conjecture.

Main Events

442 Siege of Naissus ▲

In early 442 the Hunnic kings Bleda and Attila crossed the Danube and, after capturing Ratiaria, besieged the large, well-fortified city of Naissus (Niš). In their first recorded use of siege weapons, the Huns deployed multiple siege towers, covered battering rams, and ladders to overwhelm Naissus’ defenders, then proceeded to sack the city so brutally that it would remain unpopulated for a century. Following this, the Huns raided into Thrace at least as far as Serdica (Sofia) before suddenly deciding to withdraw back across the Danube with their booty, possibly in response to the arrival of Eastern Roman troops returning from Sicily. in wikipedia

442 Siege of Sirmium ▲

In 442, or possibly 441, the Huns invading the Balkans pushed west, capturing and sacking the important cities of Singidunum and Sirmium. The latter city was the capital of the Diocese of Illyricum and had become the capital of the Praetorian Prefecture of Illyricum sometime after the Western Roman cession of the diocese to the Eastern Roman Empire in 437. However, in response to the attacks, the praetorian prefect Apraeumius abandoned Sirmium and fled south to Thessalonica, which once again became the capital of the prefecture. in wikipedia

442 Treaty of Carthage ▲

By 442 the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II had decided to abandon his expedition against the Vandals in Africa in order to focus on the Hunnic threat to the Balkans, effectively forcing the Western emperor Valentinian III to also make peace with the Vandals. At the Treaty of Carthage, Valentinian agreed to recognize the Vandal Kingdom in return for the restoration of the African grain supply to Rome and the dispatch of the Vandal king Gaiseric’s son Huneric to Ravenna as a hostage. The treaty—which saw the Romans implicitly acknowledge the loss of the vital economic center of Carthage—was a major concession for the West, but the ensuing thirteen-year peace with the Vandals would outlast both Valentinian and his magister militum Aetius. in wikipedia