The Scourge of God and a Sword of Mars

A timeline where Attila the Hun never sours his relationship with the Western Roman Empire and the tithes from the East keep him supported. Attila also lives longer and succession goes a lot smother.This is my first timeline and I would like help writing it, if anyone has a great knowledge of the Huns, please PM me. I will try to use language suitable for the time, throwing in Latin and Greek for the Romans, and try to find some Hunnic. I'm really not certain how well this will go, but i guess I'll see won't I. This has been influenced by Basileus Giorgios' Isaac's Empire, and hopefully the style of writing will reflect that. My first entry won't be very long, but I should upload to this regularly, if it is well received.

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The sun shone bright on Attila's Court, a shimmering fortress on the banks of the Danube*. The King of the Huns himself, Attila, sat on his modest throne, his remarkably plain clothing in stark contrast to the rest of his court. It had been five years since his brother, Bleda, had died in 445, leaving him as the sole king of the Hunnic Empire. He sat relaxed, thinking of his newest plan that would be set in to action, the invasion of the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse. The Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III, was supporting him, resulting in an powerful alliance, at least for the time being. It was the King Huns relation with a Roman General, Flavius
Aëtius which had landed him this alliance, and Attila planned to use it. He was suddenly jolted out of his fantasy of the battle by a Germanic courier,
"Sire, uhm... A package has arrived f-for you."
He quickly placed the package at the base of the throne a scuttled away, not wanting to face the Hun any longer. When Attila opened the package he found two simple things. A note and a ring.
 
Chapter 2-Gesta Hunnorum
The note read this,

'Dear Great Hun,
I am in need of your help. I have been betrothed to a Roman senator, but i cannot go through with it. I need you to do whatever you can to help. I have enclosed with this note my engagement ring. Do want you want with it, just din't bring it back!I will anxiously be awaiting a return message, or better, Help!
, Honoria Valentinianus'

He examined the ring, a gold band embroidered with shiny jewels. The King was intrigued by the band. He was also fascinated by why she wouldn't want to marry the senator. Those things where trivial for the Hun. All he cared about was the money, and how he would go about getting more.

Summer of 450 A.D., Attila, King of Huns is positioned at the head of his nomad army. He had ravaged northern Italia, and now after weeks of campaigning, he was on the door of The Eternal City. His bright idea for helping out Honoria was to invade Rome itself, and since he hadn't paid attention to which Senator it actually was, he would kill them all, and anyone who wanted to get into his way. So far the Romans hadn't put up an impressive fight. They were busy off in the farther reaches of their empire, far away from Rome itself. The Greeks had tried to put up some resistance, but where in fighting shape, with their own barbarian problem.

The King breathed in a large breath and commanded his men to charge, stampeding down the Italian hills. The horse came upon the gates of Rome, slaughtering the city guards who dared come down from the walls. The Archers stopped and started to bombard the city with flaming arrows, lighting the city aflame.

Attila commanded his men to stop the assault, and ordered his famous battering rams to move against the gate. For hours on end the Huns bombarded the city and rammed the gate in sequence, killing the occasional guard. Finally, after numerous hours the gates broke, and all hell broke loose in the city. For the next three weeks, the Huns pillaged the city, killing soldiers, looting churches, killing all noble men.

The entire senate was killed, and Valentinian was crucified in the center of town. To the Romans this was an outrage. The peasants of Rome and the surrounding country side started to attack Hunnic warriors were ever they could. Men who attacked where brutally murdered, and women where raped. Even to this day over 1/3 of natives to Rome can trace their linage to Hunnic soldiers, 1/4 of these to Attila himself.

The week after Valentinian's death was the bloodiest Rome had seen since its founding, with half the population being killed. The Emperors crucifixion gained him the title of Saint with the Orthodox religion. Since then all Orthodox Christians have celebrated this week in remembrance of the Holy City's
abuse and of Valentinians death, the peak of celebration in the middle on July 15, known as St. Valentinian's Day. It is known as a day of love, for Valentinian's love of the city and her people, as well as the love the survivors of the Huns felt for each other.

Three weeks after first stepping foot in Rome, Attila stops for the first time. He stoped dead in his tracks and, according to Charton, a Hunnic soldier turned philosopher and historian, "He gained a distant look in his eye. He dropped everything he was holding and put his hands to his head, covering his temples. After several minutes frozen like this, with some whispers from him, he jolted into a fit, screaming at anyone who listen that he had seen them, They where coming. He told none of us who 'they' where, but we knew that someone was coming for us. After thirty minutes or so of his nonsensical yelling he formally addressed the army. He told of how he had received a message from God, about how a Roman army, vast in size, was returning from Gaul and would arrive in three days time. He told us to take as much as we could carry and that within three hours we where leaving for the place God had told him to go. Three hours later we where mounted, practically carrying the cities weight worth of gold and valuables with us headed south to an un-known location, only following the man we knew to follow."

The early morning two days later the Hunnic army arrived in Neapolis, tired and hungry, and entirely sore, due to two days of continuous riding. They still managed to capture Neapolis without much of a fight though. the huns turned it into a stronghold, regaining energy, and waiting for the oncoming army.

Supposedly, Attila locked himself into a room in a vacated house and meditated until the Romans arrived, connecting to God. His men didn't know what to think. Not that they had any time to think. for they slept, nearly continuously for 2 days, according to Charton, "We arrived and then we slept. For two days and three nights we slept only moving from our beds to eat. We didn't see Attila the entire time, for he locked himself away, so that we could meditate on what he had seen. And when he did emerge, he was an entirely different man."


Hope you enjoyed, more to come.
 
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