BIOGRAPHY:

Attila (Latin Attila, Greek Ἀττήλας, Middle German Etzel, Turkic Atil). Died in 453 in Pannonia. The ruler of the Huns in 434-453, who united Turkic, Germanic and other tribes under his rule, creating a power that stretched from the Rhine to the Volga. The year and place of Attila’s birth are not known with certainty. His age can be determined very approximately based on the testimony of the eyewitness Priscus of Panius, who in 448 gave a description of Attila as a man with a beard only touched with gray. Attila’s eldest son, whom he sent to rule among the Akatsir in 448, was of such an age that he needed a guardian in the person of the military leader Onegesius. Thus, Attila was presumably born in the first decade of the 5th century. According to one version, the name Attila goes back to the Turkic Itil, Atil (Volga) and means “Volga resident”, “man from the Volga”. According to another version, the name comes from the Turkic word “atly, atli”, which means “famous”, “famous”, the second meaning of this word is “horseman”, “horseman”. According to the third version, the name goes back to the word “ata, atta”, which is translated from Turkic languages as “father”, “chief”. Until the 440s, the Huns did not cause much trouble to the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, acting more often as federates of the Western Empire against its Germanic enemies. The area of their settlement in the 420s was noted near Pannonia (approximately in the area of ​​modern Hungary). They roamed beyond the Danube in the vast spaces between its mouth and the Rhine, conquering local barbarian tribes. Father – Mundzuk, was from the royal family of the Huns. The brothers Oktar (or Optar) and Rua (also Roas, Rugila, Ruga, Roil) were leaders of the Huns. Priscus also mentions their fourth brother Oivarsius. Optarus is noted in the History of Socrates Scholasticus as a leader of the Huns who fought the Burgundians on the Rhine in the 420s and died of gluttony. Rua, to whom the Eastern Empire paid an annual tribute of 350 liters of gold, in 433 began to threaten Constantinople with breaking the peace agreements because of fugitives fleeing the Huns on the territory of the empire. During the negotiation process and local raids, Rua died. In 434, Rua’s nephews Bleda and Attila became leaders of the Huns. Bleda was probably the eldest of the brothers, since the Gallic Chronicle of 452 gives only his name as the heir of Rugila (Rua). However, Bleda did not show himself in any way, while the historian Priscus, in his description of events, always mentions Attila as the leader with whom the empire was forced to negotiate. Continuing the negotiations begun by Rua, Attila forced the Byzantine emperor Theodosius the Younger to pay double the annual tribute (700 liters of gold, that is, 230 kg) and imposed other difficult conditions for maintaining peace. The peace treaty was maintained for 7 years, during which the Huns fought with barbarian tribes outside the Roman Empire. One of the famous events was the defeat of one of the first German states, the Kingdom of Burgundy on the Rhine, by the Huns in 437.

. According to Idatius, 20 thousand Burgundians died; the Western Roman Empire provided the survivors with new lands for settlement in Gaul on the middle Rhone (in the area of the modern border of France and Switzerland). In the chronicles, the names of Attila and Bleda were usually mentioned side by side during the period of their joint reign. There is no evidence of how exactly the brothers divided power. When the Huns ravaged the Byzantine Empire in Illyricum (in the region of modern Serbia) in 442, both brothers, Bled and Attila, were called their leaders. In 444, according to the chronicle of a contemporary of the events, Prosper of Aquitaine, Attila killed his brother Bleda: “Attila, the king of the Huns, killed Bleda, his brother and comrade-in-arms in the kingdom, and forced his people to obey him.” A later chronicler of the second half of the 6th century, Marcellinus Comitus, dates the death of Bleda to 445, and the “Gallic Chronicle of 452” places this event under 446. The most detailed source of information about Attila, the historian Priscus, as presented by Jordanes, almost repeats the information of Prosper: “After his brother Bleda, who commanded a significant part of the Huns, was treacherously killed, Attila united the entire tribe under his rule.” Marcellinus Comite and the Gallic Chronicle testify to the death of Bleda as a result of treachery and deception, without directly pointing to Attila as the culprit in the death of his brother. From 444 until his death in 453, Attila single-handedly ruled the powerful Hunnic Empire, a conglomerate of diverse barbarian tribes living north of the Danube in vast territories from the Black Sea region to the Rhine. War with the Eastern Roman Empire. 441-447

The first campaign against Byzantium. 441-442:

The first campaign of Attila and Bleda against the Byzantine province of Illyricum (modern Serbia) began in 441, at an extremely unfortunate moment for the Eastern Romans, when their armies were diverted to fight the Persians and the Vandal king Geiseric in Sicily. Geiseric landed on the island in 440, and in the spring of the following year an expeditionary force was sent against him under the command of the Byzantine German commander Areobindus. Areobindus arrived in Sicily too late, when the Vandals had already left it. In the same 441, the Persians attacked the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor, however, the war with them quickly ended with peace and concessions from the commander of the Byzantine forces in eastern Anatolia. According to Priscus, the fighting began with an attack by the Huns on the Romans at a trade fair in the area of modern Belgrade. The pretext for the attack was the theft by the bishop of the city of Marg of Hunnic treasures, probably from the royal tombs. Marg was captured, and the nearby larger cities on the Danube Singidunum (modern Belgrade) and Viminacium (modern Serbian Kostolac) fell. The Huns moved further east along the Danube to Ratiaria (modern Bulgarian village Archar) and south along the Morava valley to Naiss (modern Serbian Niš). The assault and capture of Naissus is described in detail by Priscus, which makes it clear how the nomadic Huns, using the construction skills of the peoples under their control, were able to capture fortified cities: “Since the inhabitants did not dare to go out to fight, the Huns, in order to facilitate the crossing of their troops, built a bridge across the river Nishava from the southern side downstream of the city and brought their vehicles to the walls encircling the city. First they brought up wooden platforms on wheels. Warriors stood on them and shot the defenders on the bastions. Behind the platforms stood people who pushed the wheels with their feet and moved the cars where needed so that the archers could successfully shoot through the screens. So that the warriors on the platform could fight in safety, they were covered with screens of wicker willow with hides and skins thrown over them to protect them from projectiles and incendiary darts… When many vehicles were brought to the walls, the defenders abandoned the bastions due to the shower of projectiles . Then the so-called rams brought in… The defenders threw huge boulders from the walls… Some of the cars were crushed along with the servants, but the defenders could not withstand their large number… The barbarians burst through a part of the wall broken through the blows of the rams, as well as through composite staircases.” When Priscus, as part of the Byzantine embassy, passed through Naissus in 448, he found it “deserted and destroyed by the enemies… along the river bank everything was covered with the bones of those killed in the battle.” In 442, hostilities apparently ended. After Emperor Theodosius made peace with the Vandals in 442, Areobindus’ army was transferred from Sicily to Thrace, where the fighting ended. The defense of Thrace, covering the capital Constantinople, was coordinated by the commander of the Byzantine troops, Aspar. According to Priscus, the Huns captured a vast area in the area of modern Serbia, five days’ march south of the Danube.

Second campaign against Byzantium. 447:

During the period between the first and second campaigns against Byzantium, Bleda died, and Attila concentrated the entire military power of the Huns in his hands. During this period, there was a war between the Huns and the Akatsirs, nomads from the Northern Black Sea region, which became known through a mention in a conversation between Priscus and a certain Greek, a former captive of Onegesius, an ally of Attila. Chronology of campaigns against Byzantium, in which campaign which cities were captured, when a peace treaty was concluded (known from the Priscus fragment). After the completion of the 1st campaign, Attila, as the sole leader of the Huns, demanded from Byzantium the agreed tribute and the surrender of defectors. Emperor Theodosius the Younger at the council decided to enter the war rather than fulfill the humiliating demands of the Huns. Then Attila captured Ratiaria, from where at the end of 446 or the beginning of 447 he attacked the Balkan possessions of Byzantium. Marcellinus Comite, in his chronicle under the year 447, left the following entry: “In a terrible war, much more difficult than the first, Attila reduced almost all of Europe to dust.” In the ensuing battle on the Utum River east of Ratiaria, the Byzantine forces under the command of the military commander Arnegisclus were defeated, and Arnegisclus himself died in the battle. The Huns passed unhindered further east along the plain between the Danube and the Balkan Range to Marcianople, captured this city and turned south, capturing Philippopolis and Arcadiopolis. The scale of the invasion can be judged by the words of contemporary Kallinikos, who reported the capture of more than 100 cities by the Huns and the complete devastation of Thrace. Priscus dwelled in detail on the struggle of the inhabitants of the small fortress of Asimunt on the border of Illyricum with Thrace, who were the only ones (according to surviving evidence) who were able to give a worthy rebuff to the Huns. The danger was felt even in Constantinople, which was partially destroyed by a strong earthquake on January 27, 447. It is unclear from the sources whether the walls of the city were completely restored (by May 447) by the time the Huns approached it. Many residents fled from the city; Emperor Theodosius himself was ready to flee. Nestorius, in his hagiographical work “Bazaar of Heracleides,” talks about the miraculous salvation of the city through the erection of crosses, upon seeing which the Huns retreated in disarray. Detachments of the Huns reached the Sea of Marmara and approached Greece, checking in at Thermopylae. On the Thracian Chersonese peninsula, another battle took place with the Huns, after which a difficult peace was concluded for Byzantium.

Peace with Byzantium. 448-450:

The terms of peace between Byzantium and the Huns are detailed in the surviving fragment of Priscus: “Give the Huns defectors and six thousand liters of gold (about 2 tons) in salary for the past time; pay annually a certain tribute of two thousand one hundred liters of gold; for each Roman prisoner of war who escaped from the Huns and returned to his own land without ransom, pay twelve gold coins; If those who accept him do not pay this price, they are obliged to hand over the fugitive to the Huns. The Romans must not accept any barbarian who resorts to them.” If the edict of Emperor Theodosius of November 29, 444 (after the 1st campaign of the Huns) stated a reduction in tax requirements for land estates, now all benefits have been abolished. Money was collected by beatings; wealthy citizens sold off their personal property and their wives’ jewelry. According to Priscus: “Such a disaster befell the Romans after this war that many of them starved themselves to death, or ended their lives by putting a noose around their necks.” Byzantium paid a heavy tribute, and in 448 Attila had only the following demands on the defeated empire – the extradition of fugitives from Hunnic lands and the cessation of agricultural activities in the territories he conquered, which stretched from the Danube to Naissa and Serdika (modern Sofia). During negotiations as part of the Byzantine embassy in 448, Attila’s headquarters somewhere on the territory of modern Hungary was visited by the historian Priscus, who became the main source of information for subsequent authors about the deeds of the Huns and the life of Attila. Priscus told of a failed attempt to kill Attila by bribing the Hun Aedecon, Attila’s trusted general. Edecon betrayed the plot, but Attila spared the translator of the Byzantine embassy, Vigila, who was responsible for the execution, taking a large ransom from him as atonement. In 448, Attila installed his eldest son Ellak as leader over the Akatsir tribes in the Black Sea region. In 449, the Byzantine ambassadors Anatoly and Nome managed to extract from Attila a promise to return the Danube lands to the empire and resolve the issue of handing over fugitives from the Huns. According to Priscus, “disagreements with Attila were stopped.” In July 450, Emperor Theodosius died as a result of a fall from a horse. On August 25, the emperor’s sister Pulcheria installed a new emperor, the military leader Marcian, on the throne of Byzantium, who refused to pay the previous tribute to the Huns. At the same time, Attila’s relations with the Western Roman Empire worsened, the reason for which was the calling of Attila by Honoria, the sister of the Roman emperor Valentinian. The legend of how Honoria turned to the leader of the Huns with a request for help is set out in the article by Justus Grata Honorius. The ancient chroniclers replaced the lack of accurate information with legends, which were usually born in Constantinople. Thus, the 6th century chronicler John Malala reported that Attila, through ambassadors, ordered Marcian and Valentinian to keep their palaces ready for him. In the early spring of 451, the Huns and other tribes subject to Attila invaded Gaul.

War with the Western Roman Empire. 451-454:

The course of the invasion was not reflected in the records of chroniclers and is reconstructed from hagiographic sources: the lives of Catholic saints who showed themselves in 451. On April 7, 451, Metz was captured and destroyed by the Huns, and the cities of Trier, Cologne, Reims, Tonger, and Troyes also fell. Attila approached Orleans in the center of Gaul and may have besieged it. If he took the city, he could cross the Loire on bridges, penetrating the possessions of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in western Gaul. On June 14, at a critical moment, when, according to the life of Saint Annian, the walls of the city had already been broken through by battering rams, the united armies of the Roman commander Aetius and the Visigoth king Theodoric came to the aid of Orleans. Attila retreated to the Catalaunian fields (more than 200 km east of Orleans), crossing to the right bank of the Seine, probably in the city of Troyes. North of Troyes, on a vast plain in the modern province of Champagne, a general battle took place, the exact location and date of which remained unknown. Historians suggest the date of the battle to range from late June to early July 451. As a result of the grandiose massacre, both sides suffered heavy losses, King Theodoric I was killed. Apparently, Attila’s army suffered more significant damage, since the next day he locked himself in a fortified camp, surrounding himself on all sides with carts. The initiative passed into the hands of the Gothic-Roman coalition; However, Thorismund, newly elected king of the Visigoths, was the first to withdraw his army from the battlefield to Toulouse in order to secure his power from his brothers. Then Attila, unmolested, left the battlefield unhindered. He withdrew the surviving troops beyond the Danube, from where in the next year 452 he now attacked northern Italy. Trip to Italy. 452 In the summer of 452, Attila attacked Italy from Pannonia through a wide, flat pass in the Alps. The first to come under attack was Aquileia in the province of Venetia, the largest city on the Adriatic coast at that time. According to Jordanes, “after a long and intense siege, Attila could do almost nothing there; Inside the city, the strongest Roman soldiers resisted him, and his own army was already grumbling and trying to leave.” However, Attila insisted on continuing the siege, and during an assault using throwing and siege engines, the city fell. Although Jordanes declares the disappearance of Aquileia (“they are plundering everything with such cruelty that they seem to leave no trace of the city”), in fact the city was soon restored, but died out naturally in the next century after the invasion of the Lombards, since most residents chose to move to a new city, much better protected by the sea, called Venice. In 458, the Bishop of Aquileia discussed the issue with Pope Leo about men who had returned from Hunnic captivity and found their wives married to others. The remaining cities of Venetia were also captured, after which Attila moved to the west of northern Italy. Probably, the commander of the Roman troops, Aetius, decided to organize defense along the Po River, refusing to protect the cities on its left (northern) bank. The same tactics brought success to the Romans more than 550 years ago during the Cimbri invasion, when in 102 BC. e. were given over to the barbarians to ravage the land north of the Po, as a result of which they managed to gain time for the transfer of a strong army from Gaul. The Goths of Alaric marched to northern Italy in 401 in a similar way, when the Goths also captured Aquileia and marched to the western Alps, but the commander of the Roman troops, Stilicho, did not allow them to enter Italy south of the Po River and then defeated them.

The Huns captured Mediolanum (modern Milan) and Ticinum (modern Pavia).

In Mediolanum, Attila occupied the imperial palace (the city was the capital of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 5th century). According to Suda, Attila saw a painting depicting Roman emperors on a throne with dead Scythians prostrate at their feet. Then he ordered to find an artist and forced him to draw himself on the throne, and the Roman emperors pouring gold out of bags at his feet. Most of the inhabitants fled Mediolanum, their houses were looted or burned, and their churches destroyed. The Pope’s secretary, Prosper, wrote in his chronicle that Pope Leo, accompanied by the noble Romans Avienus and Trigetius, met with the leader of the Huns and persuaded him to go beyond the Danube. According to Priscus, Attila, in addition to Pope Leo, was dissuaded from going to Rome by advisers, fearing the imminent death of the leader (which actually happened, although without the capture of Rome) after the capture of the capital of the world, just as Alaric died after the capture of Rome. However, other sources cover Attila’s departure differently. From a letter to Pope Symmachus in 512, the purpose of Pope Leo’s mission to Attila became known. Pope Leo negotiated the release of Roman captives (possibly discussing the size of the ransom), including pagans. The convincing reasons for Attila’s departure from Italy are set out in the chronicle of the contemporary events of Idatius: additional troops sent by Emperor Marcian, under the command of Aetius, massacred the Huns in their own camps, and they were also exterminated by the plague. Historians disagree about the identity of Aetius mentioned in the chronicle. While Thompson believed him to be the Byzantine namesake Flavius Aetius and attributed the campaign across the Danube to the deep rear of the Huns, Menchen-Helfen has no doubt that it was Flavius Aetius, and the Byzantine army crossed the sea to Italy, where it began to inflict blows. Historians agree on one thing: the plague among the Huns was a much more decisive factor in their departure from Italy than the persuasion of the Pope. Raid into Gaul. 453 After returning from a campaign against Italy, Attila again began to threaten Byzantium, demanding tribute agreed with the late Emperor Theodosius. Emperor Marcian tries to come to an agreement with the leader of the Huns, sends gifts, but Attila refuses them. According to Jordan, the threats towards Byzantium were only a cunning cover for Attila’s real plans: “By doing this, he, crafty and cunning, threatened in one direction and directed his weapons in the other.” Attila launched a swift raid on the Alans who settled on the Loire in the center of Gaul. However, the king of the Visigoths Thorismund managed to come to their aid, and in the battle Attila, if not defeated, was forced to retreat to his home in Pannonia and Dacia. Apart from Jordanes’ short account, there are no other sources on this last battle of Attila. The death of Attila, which followed in 453, eliminated the constant threat to the borders of the Roman Empire.

Personality of Attila Jordan, a hundred years after Attila’s death, conveyed a description of his appearance and character: “He was proud in his steps, darted his gaze here and there, and with his very body movements revealed his highly exalted power. A lover of war, he himself was moderate in his hand, very strong in common sense, accessible to those who ask and merciful to those whom he once trusted. In appearance, short, with a broad chest, a large head and small eyes, with a sparse beard, touched with gray hair, with a flat nose, with a disgusting skin color, he showed all the signs of his origin.” Priscus, during his embassy to the Huns in 448, closely monitored Attila’s behavior. In Priscus’s sketches, the leader of many nations differed from his military leaders in his unpretentiousness, wore simple clothes, did not decorate his weapons with gold, and at the feast he ate from a wooden plate, while the guests were served dishes on silver plates. In Priscus’s presentation, Attila behaves at the feast like a German medieval king, in no way resembling the leader of the nomads from the East. Attila’s invasion of Gaul in 451 and his meeting with Pope Leo in 452 left a rich mark on Catholic hagiographic literature. In medieval writings, Attila began to be called the Scourge of God (flagellum Dei) or the Wrath of God, reflecting the Latin church tradition of viewing the leader of the Huns as a collective punishment sent to the people for not serving God diligently enough.

At the beginning of the 7th century, Isidore formulated the established views on the Huns of Attila: “They were the wrath of God. As often as his indignation grows against the believers, he punishes them with the Huns, so that, purified by suffering, the believers reject the temptations of the world and its sins and enter the heavenly kingdom.” In later times, Attila began to be seen as a symbol of savage barbarism, bringing nothing but destruction to Western civilization. Unlike the church tradition, Attila in the German epic is practically no different from the German kings and is characterized as a virtuous, glorious ruler, hospitable and fair with his vassals. This image develops in the Scandinavian songs of the Elder Edda and the heroic tale The Song of the Nibelungs. Around 1200, in the Kingdom of Hungary, a scribe from the court office, who became known as Anonymous, wrote the Gesta Hungarorum (“Acts of the Hungarians”). Anonymous, in his own words, decided to tell in his literary rather than historical essay about “the origin of the Magyar kings and nobles,” since their ancestors in the time of Anonymous could only be learned from “false peasant tales” and “chatty epics.” Thus, the author, in the absence of sources, composed a heroic history of the Hungarian nobility, in which he made Attila the ancestor of the Hungarian kings. A follower of Anonymous, Shimon Kezai, developed the image of Attila in his History of the Hungarians, written c. 1283, and to this day the name Attila is popular in Hungary. Professor of archeology Lotte Hedeager argues that the image of Odin in the Scandinavian sagas, in particular in the Ynglinga Saga, was formed as a result of the merging of the images of the deity of the ancient Germans Wotan and Attila under the influence of the expansion of the Huns. This can be evidenced by a number of coincidences in the mythological biography of Odin and Attila, the path of conquest in the epic, similar to the movements of the Huns in the 4th-6th centuries, the significant role of seers and shamans among the Huns with functions similar to the actions of Odin, as well as the evolution of images of the supreme deity in archaeological finds of that time. The death of Attila and the collapse of his empire The cause of Attila’s death is considered to be nosebleed. Jordanes, retelling Priscus, was the only one who described the death of Attila and his funeral: “He took as his wife – after countless wives, as is the custom of that people – a girl of remarkable beauty named Ildiko. Weakened by the wedding from its great pleasure and heavy with wine and sleep, he lay floating in the blood that usually came from his nostrils, but was now stopped in its usual course and, pouring out along a deadly path through his throat, suffocated him… Among the steppes, his corpse was placed in a silk tent, and it presented an amazing and solemn spectacle. The best horsemen of the entire Hun tribe rode around, like a circus, the place where he was laid; at the same time, in funeral chants they commemorated his exploits in this way… After he was mourned with such lamentations, they celebrate “strava” (as they themselves call it) on his mound, accompanying it with a huge feast. Combining opposite feelings, they express funeral grief mixed with jubilation. At night, the corpse is secretly buried, tightly enclosed in three coffins – the first of gold, the second of silver, the third of strong iron… In order to prevent human curiosity in the face of such great riches, they killed everyone who was entrusted with this case”. Historians believe that Ildiko is a Germanic name. Marcellinus reported a rumor that the “destroyer of Europe” Attila was stabbed to death by an unnamed wife in his sleep. This legend was reflected in the Scandinavian epic in the Elder Edda: the sister of the Burgundian king Gudrun killed her drunken husband, the king of the Huns Atli (Attila). Attila’s numerous sons rushed to divide their father’s empire, but the barbarian leaders who had previously controlled him did not want to submit to the new rulers. The Gepid king Ardaric, leading an uprising of a number of Germanic tribes, defeated the Huns in 454 at the Battle of Nedao (modern Nedava – a river in Pannonia, a tributary of the Sava), killing Attila’s eldest son Ellak in the battle. The Hun tribes, scattered after the defeat, occupied different places. Attila’s youngest son Ernak settled with part of the tribe in Dobrudja; the other Huns were pushed east by stronger tribes across the Danube into the territory of Byzantium, where they later fought with the Goths.

The latest news about Attila’s Huns dates back to 469, when, according to the chronicle of Marcellinus, “the head of Dengizirich (Denzicis), son of Attila, king of the Huns, was delivered to Constantinople.” The remnants of the Hunnic tribes mixed with other nomadic tribes, and the ethnonym “Huns” firmly entered the vocabulary of the 6th century authors to designate the barbarian nomadic hordes rolling in waves into Western Europe from the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Personal life of Attila:

Spouses – Kreka, Ildiko and Kriemhild. It is known about Ildiko (lat. Ildico) that she was his last wife. Based on the ancient Germanic tales about King Atli in the Song of the Nibelungs and the Elder Edda, it is assumed that, most likely, she was the daughter of the King of the Burgundians. There are also versions about its Gothic, Gepid or Frankish origin. In 453, Ildiko, famous for her exceptional beauty, became the wife of Attila.

DEATH:

The historian Jordanes, in his work “On the Origin and Deeds of the Getae,” referring to the original testimony of Priscus of Panius, which has not reached us in the original, wrote that the morning after his wedding night, Attila was found dead in a pool of his own blood next to the crying Ildiko. Jordan believed that Attila died from excessive gluttony and drunkenness, which the king of the Huns indulged in at the wedding feast, but in German legends (“The Song of Atli” in the “Elder Edda”), a plot is developed that Attila was killed by his wife (the Burgundian Gudrun), who thus avenged the death of her brothers at the hands of the Huns. Marcellinus Comite also reported the murder of Attila by his wife. The name Hildiko can be produced as a diminutive of “hild”, a common ending for Old Germanic female names. The corresponding Germanic name would be Hildchen. In The Nibelungenlied, Attila’s second wife is named Kriemhild. The name Ildikó, like the name Attila, is still popular in Hungary. Children: Ellak, Emnetzur, Ultzindur, Irna (Ernak), Dengizikh, Chaba. Son Ellak (Greek Έllac; about 425 – no later than 455) – the eldest son and successor of Attila. The main historical sources telling about the life of Ellak are the writings of Priscus Panius and Jordanes. According to these authors, Ellak was the eldest son of Attila and one of his wives, Kreki. After the death of his father, Ellak, as the eldest and most beloved of his sons, inherited his father’s power over the Hunnic state. However, almost immediately after this, his younger brothers began to demand that they be allocated their own possessions. A family quarrel led to the fact that Attila’s sons decided to divide by lot the power over the lands conquered by their father. This decision, which caused indignation among the leaders subordinate to Attila, led to the separation of many dependent tribes from the Huns. The rebels were led by the king of the Gepids, Ardaric, previously one of the most faithful companions of the deceased king. The warring parties met in the Battle of the Nedao River, which historians date back to 453, 454 or 455. A large army of Gepids, Sciri, Rugians, Suevi and Heruli led by Ardaric marched against the Huns, led by Ellak. Despite Ellak’s personal courage, the Huns and their allies suffered a crushing defeat, losing, according to Jordan, about 30,000 soldiers killed. Among those who fell on the battlefield was Ellak himself. After the defeat at Nedao, the Huns, led by Ellak’s brothers Dengizik and Ernak, retreated to the east, occupying territories in the lower Danube and in the Black Sea steppes. Perhaps Dengizik inherited the title of supreme king of the Huns after the death of his brother, while Ernak limited himself to ruling the eastern lands of the Hunnic possessions. Although information about the further history of the Huns is only partially presented in the works of contemporary authors, historians believe that the Hunnic state as a single whole ceased to exist by the mid-460s. The son of Dengizik (also Denigizih, Dikkiz, Denzik; Greek: Δεγγιζίχ), after the death of his father and the defeat of the Huns in the Battle of Nedao, in which his elder brother Ellak died, took his followers to Dacia. He tried in 468 or 469 to attack the Byzantine possessions in Thrace, but was killed in battle. According to the chronicle of Marcellinus Comita, “the head of Dengisiric, son of Attila, king of the Huns, was brought to Constantinople.”