Attila the Hun: life of the week

So in chaos and terror throughout the Roman Empire, Attila the Hun came to be seen as something of an Antichrist figure. But did the 5th century leader really deserve this formidable reputation? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Miles Russell talks to Spencer Mizen about Attila's astonishing life and legacy. Hello Marles, thanks for joining us today. We're here to talk about someone who's come to be regarded as one of history's great bogeymen, one who was famously described as God Scourge, yet someone who many of our listeners won't perhaps know a great deal about, and that is Attila the Hun.

Now Attila appears to have scared the living daylights out of many of his contemporaries, and he's been invoked as this figure of fear over about 15 or so centuries since he died. But the question I want to unpack today is, did he deserve this terrifying reputation? So Mars, just to kick us off in our endeavours to get to the bottom of that question, I wonder if you could give us a brief Overview of Attila's life. And who was Attila the Hun in a nutshell?

You're absolutely right. He is the archetypal bogeyman. He's one of the most famous people from ancient history. He's always perceived to be the most preeminent of of all the barbarian leaders contributing to the downfall of Rome. He was alive in the early decades of the 5th century, so probably born sometime around about 405 AD, and then died in 453, probably in his mid-40s.

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