A History of Central Eastern Europe

substance that fantastic myths are made of. He did not come from the east leading a warrior army
of invaders; he was a home-grown leader commanding an army built up over at least three
generations of his forebears.
By 352 C.E. the Roman Empire had fractured into the Western Empire centered on Rome
and later Ravenna and the Eastern Empire centered at Constantinople, each led by their
respective Emperors. The fracture opened up regions to attack and the ill-defined border where
the two empires met was one such weakened area.
ATTILA was an expert politician as well as an adept military leader, commanding a
fearsome army. This army was distinguished by its mounted fighters who were fierce warriors
that remained on horseback during battle. This feature was not known to the Imperial forces
whose own horses were larger and more useful in hauling; the site of warriors charging on swift
horses with weapons drawn presented an imposing sight.
He demanded, and received, tributes in the form of gold, from each EMPEROR in
exchange for guarantees of peace. When the tribute was withheld, ATTILA would descend and for
the most part, was victorious. The closest he came to defeat was the Battle of the Catalunian
Plains in 451 C.E. This battle, near Orléans, France, pitted ATTILA and his allies – Gepids,
Ostrogoths with the southern Franks and Burgundians – against the Imperial armies of the
western EMPEROR VALENTINIAN III (419 – 455) and their allies – the “Spanish” Visigoths,
northern Franks and Burgundians, Saxons and other Gallic tribes. The Roman general AËTIUS
(396 – 454) failed to win a decisive victory, nor was he defeated – the battle ended in a draw.
ATTILA’S armies were strong enough to traverse the Alps and march the length of the Apennine
Peninsula, sacking Rome and Naples in the following year. Refugees from several northern
Italian cities, fearing the approaching Huns, fled to the safety of several islands in a lagoon at the
northern end of the Adriatic Sea – and, unwittingly, founded one of the world’s greatest cities –
Venice. After military success came domestic celebration; ATTILA married ILDICO, the last of his
wives, in spring of 453 and then, it was over. On his wedding night he died under suspicious
circumstances. His three sons battled each other for sixteen years over Pannonia which was
ruined. The possibility exists that the descendants of the Hunin survive today in the Hungarian
ethnic minority called the Székely.
The end of the once mighty Roman Empire came with the fall of the Eastern Empire in
480 C.E. and the subsequent birth of the Byzantine Empire while a much-reduced Western
Empire, sans Emperor, lasted
until 486 C.E. 2
Within decades, two
branches of the Ural-Altaic
people swept in from the East
to occupy the lands only
recently ruled by the Hunnic.
The Ural-Altaic tribes came
from the Turanian Plain
(Turkmenistan) which
stretches 1,500 miles eastward
from the Caspian Sea to Lake
Balqash in Kazakhstan. First
were the Bulgars followed by
the more tenacious Avars; the
two coalesced to form
Onoguria around 635 C.E.
This Onoguria is thought by
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