Talk to Attila the Hun
Ruler of a steppe empire who ravaged the Roman frontier
c. 406–453Hunnic Empire (Great Hungarian Plain and the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire)
Ruler of the Huns from 434 (jointly with his brother Bleda until 445) to his death in 453, the leader of a multi-ethnic steppe empire centred on the Great Hungarian Plain. He extracted enormous payments of gold from the Eastern Roman emperors, ravaged the Balkans in the 440s, invaded Gaul in 451 and was checked at the Catalaunian Plains, raided northern Italy in 452, and died in 453 on the night of his wedding to a young woman named Ildico. Almost everything known about him comes from Roman and Gothic writers, chiefly the envoy Priscus, who met him in 449.
Talk to Attila out loud in the Yuga app.
Questions to ask
- What did you think when the Roman envoys came to your hall in 449?
- Why did you eat from wooden plates while your guests ate from silver?
- Why did you invade Gaul and then Italy?
- Did you really meet Pope Leo and turn back?
- How do you feel about being called the Scourge of God?
Which Attila picks up
- 449Attila's court beyond the Danube (Great Hungarian Plain). Aged about 43, receiving the Roman embassy of Maximinus, with the historian Priscus among its members, in his wooden halls, where he dines simply from a wooden plate while his guests eat from silver.
- 435Margus (on the Danube). Aged about 29, co-ruling with his brother Bleda, negotiating the treaty of Margus with Eastern Roman envoys, which doubles the annual payment of gold and obliges Rome to return Hun fugitives.
- 447The Balkans. Aged about 41, after campaigns in which Hun armies defeat the Roman field army and ravage the Balkans down to Thermopylae, forcing Theodosius II to agree to heavier tribute.
- 451Gaul (Catalaunian Plains). Aged about 45, leading the Huns and their allies into Gaul, besieging Orléans and, on the Catalaunian Plains, facing the Roman general Aetius and the Visigoth king Theodoric I.
- 452Northern Italy. Aged about 46, after the sack of Aquileia, receiving an embassy from the Western emperor and, according to tradition, Pope Leo I near the Mincio river before turning back.
Questions about Attila
- Who was Attila the Hun?
- Ruler of the Huns from 434 (jointly with his brother Bleda until 445) to his death in 453, the leader of a multi-ethnic steppe empire centred on the Great Hungarian Plain. He extracted enormous payments of gold from the Eastern Roman emperors, ravaged the Balkans in the 440s, invaded Gaul in 451 and was checked at the Catalaunian Plains, raided northern Italy in 452, and died in 453 on the night of his wedding to a young woman named Ildico. Almost everything known about him comes from Roman and Gothic writers, chiefly the envoy Priscus, who met him in 449.
- Can you talk to Attila with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Attila, set in Attila's court beyond the Danube, 449. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Attila's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Attila say about Tribute and fugitives?
- Attila demanded annual gold payments and the return of Huns who had fled to Roman territory, and treated Roman delay as a breach of the treaty. Source: Treaty of Margus, 435; Priscus, fragments on the embassies of 449, preserved in the Excerpta de Legationibus (as translated in R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians, vol. 2, 1983).
- What did Attila say about Roman envoys and the plot of 449?
- Attila complained that the Romans had sent envoys who plotted to assassinate him, after his officer Edeco revealed the scheme planned by the eunuch Chrysaphius. Source: Priscus, fragments on the embassy of 449.
- What did Attila say about the campaign in the west?
- Jordanes reports that Attila wrote to the Western emperor in 451 presenting his attack in Gaul as aimed at the Visigoths, though modern historians point to the request of Honoria, sister of the western emperor Valentinian III, and to political ambition. Source: Jordanes, Getica, c. 551, drawing on Priscus; discussed in Christopher Kelly, The End of Empire, 2009.
How Attila talks
Terse, plain and calculating; he lets silence and gesture do the work and delivers demands as non-negotiable facts. In negotiation he is shrewd, sarcastic and alert to insults. He is fond of ritual hospitality but eats simply and expects those near him to show loyalty. Humour is rare and sharp.