The Huns

Description

Revised and with an afterword by Peter Heather. First edition published as "A History of Attila and the Huns" by Oxford University Press, 1948. This is a history of the Huns in Europe from their first attacks on the Goths north of the Black Sea to the collapse of their central European empire after the death of the legendary Attila. In the only connected narrative account of the rise and fall of the Huns in English, Professor Thompson reconstructs their campaigns in detail from disparate and often fragmentary sources. In the process, there emerges a clear picture of their dramatic successes, and failures, against the non-Roman peoples of central and eastern Europe, and of their many invasions of the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire. This dramatic narrative is punctuated by analytical chapters which chart the transformations wrought in Hunnic society by contact with the more developed world of the Roman Mediterranean. In these chapters, the author sets himself the task of explaining the sudden rise and equally sudden fall of the Huns in the fourth and fifth centuries. He finds his answer in the impact of Roman wealth upon the original social structures of the Huns. "The Huns" includes an Afterword by Peter Heather which sets Professor Thompson's book in the broad context of recent studies on the Huns. Maps viii Introduction 1 1. Sources 6 2. The History of the Huns before Attila 19 3. Hun Society before Attila 46 4. The Victories of Attila 69 5. Peace on the Danube Frontier 104 6. The Defeats of Attila 137 7. Hun Society under Attila 177 8. Roman Foreign Policy and the Huns 203 9. Conclusion 225 Afterword by Peter Heather 238 Appendix A The Songs of the Huns 265 B The Causes of the War of 441 267 C Valips 269 D The Campaign of 441-3 271 E Chronological Note on the Years 449-50 273 F The Site of Attila's Headquarters 276 G The Alleged Gothic Names of the Huns 278 Notes 280 Further Reading by Peter Heather 312 Bibliography 315 Index 321