 | irishgit (138)
04/14/2008 |  Flagellum Dei (the Scourge of God) was as tough a customer as the Romans ever faced. He appears in the Nibelungenlied as Etzel and as Atli in the Icelandic sagas.
So terrible was the onslaught of the Huns that the eastern empire took every opportunity to pay him tons of gold in tribute. Proving himself not simply a man of the sword, he was a cunning and dangerous negotiator, and generally bested the Romans at every diplomatic encounter.
In 451, Attila turned his attention to the western empire, claiming the emperor's sister as his wife and demanding half the empire as dowry. An alliance between the Visigoths and Romans met him somewhere near Orleans, and in a bloody engagement drove the Huns back.
It was Attila's only defeat.
He later invaded Italy, ravaging the north before abandoning the campaign due to pestilence in the region.
Records describe him as a short, squat man with a large head. Truculent and irritable, he was nonetheless a skilled and persistent negotiator. One record left by a Roman ambassador tells of Attila being served off wooden plates while his chief captains dined off silver platters.
Died on the eve of another planned invasion of the Eastern Empire, reputedly of a stroke while cavorting with a new wife.
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 | GenghisTheHun (168)
12/25/2005 | I know for a fact that there are good Huns and bad Huns. Now, Attila had his detractors. Many historians concluded that he was a little heavy handed in his dealings with cities, civilizations and peoples. These pedants feel that wholesale slaughter and massacre were not constructive methods of correction and rehabilitation.
Well, put yourself in Attila's shoes. What would you do to a bunch of clods who wouldn't take "no" for an answer and kept killing your soldiers? Would you hire grief counselors for your soldiers widows or strike back?
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 | Enkidu (37)
03/27/2004 | A barbarian so famous his name is still a household word more than 1500 years later. A man with an attitude, an army on horseback, and a nasty temper. According to one source he died of a nosebleed he got during a night of wild sex. Live in the saddle, die in the saddle. There's worse ways to go.
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