Europe 447: Attila’s invasion of Thrace

Angered that the Eastern Roman Empire had ceased paying tribute—and hoping to exploit the damage caused by an earthquake to the walls of Constantinople—Attila’s Huns crossed the Danube and invaded the Balkans in early 447. Although they were unable to capture Constantinople after all, the Huns completely devastated Thrace before returning north.

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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

446? Revolt of Laimicho ▲

At some point in the 420s or 430s the Huns attacked the Langobards (later known as Lombards), killing their king Agelmund. Following this the Langobards remained under Hunnic domination until about the 440s, when a new king, Laimicho, led the Langobards in a war against their oppressors. This time the Huns were defeated, after which Laimicho ruled a restored Langobard kingdom for as many as forty years. in wikipedia

446 Vitus’ Spanish campaign ▲

In 446 the Western Roman government appointed the general Vitus as magister utriusque militiae and dispatched him with a combined Roman and Visigothic army to recover Hispaniae from the Suebi. Vitus proceeded to march through Carthaginiensis and into Baetica, but was intercepted by the Suebi under their king Rechila, who defeated the Visigoths. Panicking, the Roman general fled back north, leaving the Suebi to plunder the provinces he had ‘liberated’. in wikipedia

446 Groans of the Britons ▲

In the mid 440s the Picts and Scoti (Irish) invaded northern Britain by sea, overrunning a number of cities and seizing Hadrian’s Wall. In despair, the Britons wrote to Aetius during his third consulship (in 446) and pleaded for Roman assistance against the invaders. However, the Romans—at that time concerned by the threat posed by Attila and his Huns—were unable to spare any troops. Forced to take matters into their own hands, the British rallied and, after several years of resistance, expelled the Picts and Scoti from their lands. in wikipedia

26–27 Jan 447 Constantinople earthquake ▲

On the night of 26/27 January 447 an earthquake hit Constantinople, destroying fifty-seven towers and parts of the land wall. Although the disaster shocked the Eastern Roman Empire—and helped encourage Attila’s Huns to exploit Roman weaknesses by launching an invasion across the Danube—Flavius Constantinus, the Praetorian Prefect of the East, responded swiftly to the emergency. Mobilizing supporters of the Blues and Greens chariot racing parties, Constantinus rebuilt the wall, gates, and towers within three months and by the time the marauding Huns arrived, the capital was once again impenetrable. in wikipedia

447 Attila’s invasion of Thrace ▲

By 447 relations between the Huns and Eastern Romans had broken down again, with the Hunnic king Attila complaining that the Romans had stopped their tribute payments and were refusing to hand over Hunnic fugitives. When, in January of that year, an earthquake damaged the walls of Constantinople, Attila seized the opportunity to march across the Danube with his Hunnic army, ravaging the countryside as he advanced on the Eastern capital. However, by the time he arrived, in late March or early April, the walls had been repaired, prompting him to turn his attention to destroying “seventy cities” in Thrace before returning north. in wikipedia

447 Battle of the Utus ▲

In early 447 Attila and his Huns invaded the Eastern Roman Empire at Ratiaria and advanced east along the Danube to the river Utus (Vit). There a Roman army under the magister militum Arnegisclus attempted to stop them but was outmaneuvered and slaughtered in a hard fought battle. Arnegisclus himself was killed in the encounter, despite fighting on after his horse fell beneath him. in wikipedia

447 Battle of Chersonesus ▲

When Attila’s Huns neared Constantinople in early 447 and realized that they could not penetrate its walls, they spread out to reach the sea at both the Pontus (Black Sea) and Propontis (Sea of Marmara), cutting the capital off from the rest of Thrace. In a bid to break through, a Roman army under Aspar fought the Huns near the Thracian Chersonese (Gallipoli) but was decisively defeated. Triumphant, the Huns proceeded to ravage the countryside as far as the Pass of Thermopylae, sacking numerous towns. in wikipedia

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Attila’s invasion of Thrace