When the social contradiction between the Huns' maintenance of nomadic traditions and their acceptance of Roman culture accumulated to a certain extent, Attila, as the leader of the Hun empire, subjectively had ambitions for expansion and became a catalyst for the entire Hun empire to be introduced into war.
First, Attila's ambitions
Attila was born in 406 AD to the son of Mondzugus, and his two uncles, Octar and Ruga, were the two monarchs before Attila. According to Jordanis, Attila
"Short stature, broad chest, and large head; his eyes were small and his gray beard was sparser; his nose was flattened and his complexion was dark"
。
In 418 AD, according to the terms of the negotiations between the Huns and the Western Roman Empire, Attila was sent to the court of Emperor Herorius of the Western Roman Empire as one of the hostages exchanged by the two sides, where Attila received a Roman-style education, and at the same time came into contact with the customs of the Romans and gained a certain understanding of the inner affairs of the Roman Empire.
In 425 AD, As commander of the Hunnic army hired by the Western Roman Empire, Attila rushed to Gaul to fight against the Visigoths, defeating the Visigoths at Arès and the Western Roman Empire army.
His early years laid the foundation for Attila's adult assumption of power in the Hun Empire and his relationship with the Roman Empire.
In 434, Attila's uncle Ruga died, and Attila and his brother Breda jointly took over the Hun empire. In 445 AD, Attila murdered Breda. After Breda's death, Attila
"Unite all the people under his rule"
, monopolizing the regime of the Hun empire.
The Successive Hungarian monarchs before Attila also had great ambitions.
For example, in 408 AD, When Urdin led the Huns to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, when the Thracian provinces surrendered, Urdin pointed to the sun with great arrogance and said to the Thracians:
"Wherever the sun shines, I can conquer it if I want to."
Similarly, Attila's uncle Ruga, after accepting the 350 pounds of gold promised by Theodosius II, openly and arrogantly in 432 AD
"Declare that all tribes north of the Danube shall belong to him"
Attila inherited the ambitions of his kings, as Barry said,
Attila did see himself as the highest monarch in all of Europe, including the Roman Empire,...... He dreamed of expanding his empire to the islands of the sea, and soon made efforts to expand to the Atlantic coast. ”
Legend has it that Attila's grand ambitions for expansion were also attributed to him accidentally acquiring a "Sword of Mars" and viewing it as a revelation from heaven. Jordanis's writings contain Prescus's account of this legend:
"A herdsman discovered that one of the heifers in his herd was limping, but did not find out the cause of its injury, so the herdsman anxiously searched for the blood, and finally found a sword, only to learn that it was the heifer who had inadvertently stepped on the sword while grazing and was injured; he dug up the sword and offered it directly to Attila; Attila was overjoyed and ambitious when he received this gift, and he thought that God had appointed him ruler of the whole world. So give him this Mars Excalibur to ensure that he can win all wars. ”
McGowan thought of the sword
"Just one of the ceremonial vessels from the religious ceremonies of the former Ceciian and Salmahians"
Irrespective of
"Mars Excalibur"
Whether the legend is true or not, Attila's grand expansion ambitions are certain, which became one of the factors that caused the outbreak of the Gaulish War in 451.
After years of conquest, Attila greatly expanded the power of the Hun Empire. According to Barry, Attila
"The areas under effective control, including present-day Austria, Hungary, Romania, and southern Russia, are uncertain as to how far north he expanded."
For the Romans, According to the traditional customs of the Huns, Attila twice plundered several provinces in the northern part of the Eastern Roman Empire in 441 and 447 AD, but withdrew his troops after extorting huge amounts of gold and silver. But as the power of the Hun empire expanded, Attila's ambitions grew, and by the eve of the Gallic War in 451, Attila was no longer satisfied with plundering according to the traditional habits of the nomadic peoples, but more or less had the idea of annexing the Roman Empire and becoming the sole ruler of the Mediterranean world. Thus, the loose Hun empire, which was maintained by the authority of its leaders, was bound to eventually lead Attila's personal ambitions into war.
However, according to the existing historical analysis, Attila does not seem to have the foresight and complete and effective measures to build and maintain a huge state, and he does not have the foresight to go beyond the traditional concepts and traditional behaviors of his nomadic peoples, but is only a good implementer of the Hunn nomadic traditions, which also laid the groundwork for his defeat in the Gaul War of 451.
Ii. Princess Honoria's marriage proposal letter
When objective social contradictions and Attila's subjective ambitions for expansion were met, all that was needed to start the war was an excuse, and the marriage proposal letter of Princess Honoria of the Western Roman Empire became the trigger for the Gallic War of 451.
Princess Honoria was the sister of The Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III
"Very smart, ambitious and very assertive"
。 In 434, Princess Honoria lost power in a Roman court struggle, and Empress Placitia, then the "regent", sent her to Constantinople for imprisonment on the pretext of her adultery with the palace guards.
In order to get out of the predicament, Princess Honoria decided to use external forces, so she wrote a marriage proposal letter to Attila,
"Attach a ring to show love"
and managed to secretly deliver the letter to the court of Attila.
Initially, Attila ignored the marriage proposal. As the contradictions between the Huns and the Romans intensified, they added to this
"Lipp Arian Frankish Kingdom" King
Frictions such as succession and the ownership of the gold objects of sirmium church continued to occur, and by the second half of 450 AD, Attila decided to launch a large-scale war against the Western Roman Empire, and revived the marriage proposal letter of Princess Honoria more than ten years earlier.
Attila sent an envoy to the Roman court and demanded that Valentinian III marry Princess Honoria to him, and demanded that half of the empire be used as a dowry. Valentinian III, of course, could not accede to Attila's demands, so the Hun empire used this as an excuse to resort to war.
In summary, the contradiction between the Huns' maintenance of nomadic traditions and their acceptance of Roman culture was the root cause of the Huns' war against Gaul in 451; Attila's own expansion ambitions and Princess Honoria's marriage proposal provided the conditions for the outbreak of the war. When the subjective factors, objective factors and pretexts for the Huns to start the war were already in place, the GaulIsh War in 451 was on the verge of breaking out.
bibliography:
West German Botum, Ancient War and Western War Culture
[Law] René? Grusey's Prairie Empire
Lin Gan's History of the Xiongnu