What if Attila's father Mundzuk was killed during his childhood? If he dies, then could Attila end up in Constantinople as an orphan, rather than as a political hostage? I'm thinking of ways to have Attila also embrace Byzantine Christianity and he could Rhomanize the Huns if he got into contact with them. If he had a different upbringing, then he doesn't need to impale his opponents. Oh, and here is the preview. I just need input on this:
Constantinople was a place of intrigue for many visitors and other Roman senators which made the eastern city their new home. Of course, the city that labeled itself as the ‘Second Rome’ after the First Rome had fallen into decline. It was also the place where the fates of two people, from two equally hostile worlds, would meet and decide the fate of the ancient world, in a dramatic shift into the darkness, as Byzantium will later realize when its successors have a different motive for the Byzantine Empire. It was in 407 AD, three years before Alaric had sacked Rome, when a young boy was sent to Constantinople as a political hostage by a tribal chief named Mundzuk, in return for a temporary truce between the Byzantine Empire and the Huns. The young teenage hostage’s name was Attila, for whom the Attilid dynasty will take root in the Byzantine Empire from 440 AD onwards.
Arcadius was amused when the young Attila was brought to his court in Constantinople. His father, the former Emperor Theodosius I had secured a temporary peace treaty with the Huns, who were notoriously known in the civilized world as the warriors from hell. Because of the staggering costs of financing the war against both the Huns and the Sassanid Empire in Persia, it was prudent for Arcadius to stop the conflict until he would resolve his empire’s wars with their Persian rivals. Young Attila was the sacrificial lamb in which the peace between the Romans in the East and the Huns would be kept. What Arcadius didn’t know, was Attila’s presence in Constantinople would become his undoing, as he was taught the Greek and Latin languages, and learned about Roman institutions and government. What really generated the teenaged Attila’s curiosity was how the Roman Army fought its wars. After all, his father and uncles had experience in battling the very same army he would later train alongside with. As for Arcadius, he was eager to know how he can change the fighting style of the Roman Army in the East in order to gain an upper hand over the Sassanids and his Western Roman rivals. As Arcadius later learned, Attila’s expertise in horse archery was something the Roman Army in the East definitely needed to take into account, as they often faced against barbarian tribes that are capable of steppe warfare. Attila on the other hand, had a lot to learn from the Romans in terms of how they operate so when the time has come, he would seize power within the Huns and show them how to live a different life from what they were used to before. However, when Theodosius II succeeded Arcadius, he decided to arrange for his sister Pulcheria to marry Attila as a possible stepping stone to the eventual Byzantine alliance with the Huns.
Attila’s knowledge of Roman power would eventually serve him well when he reorganized the Hunnic army on the Roman model, with the reformation of the infantry legions that can fight in terrain where cavalry can’t fight.