The Huns who terrorized Europe in the late fourth century lived as no settled people could imagine. They had no permanent homes, only felt tents that could be dismantled in minutes. They cooked and ate in their saddles, their children learned to ride before they could walk properly, their elderly died on horseback during migrations. Where Romans saw cities as civilization's foundation, Huns saw prisons. Their camps moved with the seasons and with opportunity - following herds, avoiding enemies, seeking new victims. When they struck a settlement, mounted archers circled it at distances that made return fire useless, shooting precisely into defensive positions. Once defenses weakened, heavier cavalry crashed through with lances, and then came systematic plunder. Every destroyed granary meant grain for the horde, every captured workshop provided iron and tools, every ruined town stripped of anything portable. This wasn't mindless destruction - it was mobile resource extraction. The Huns didn't just raid territories; they essentially packed up entire settlements and carried them away as supplies for further campaigns.
Under Attila in the 440s, this diffuse raiding culture briefly coalesced into something resembling an empire. Hunnic armies ravaged the Balkans and Gaul, their reputation growing with each campaign. Subject peoples - Goths, Gepids, Alans, Sarmatians - provided infantry to support Hunnic cavalry. But this "empire" had no capital, no administration, only Attila's will holding it together. When he died in 453, the whole structure collapsed within years. Subject peoples rebelled immediately. The Huns themselves fragmented into competing bands. Some groups retreated eastward into the steppes. Others tried settling as Roman federates, gradually losing their distinct identity. By the early sixth century, "Hun" had become a generic term Romans used for any steppe nomad rather than a specific people. The descendants of Attila's warriors scattered across Europe and Central Asia, their language dying out, their way of life abandoned as cavalry forces that once seemed invincible simply dissolved into other populations.
Hun strength was pure mobility and aggression. They moved faster than any contemporary army, their entire population essentially one giant mobile military camp. Every exploration into new territory brought more warriors as scouts discovered fresh targets and survivors from defeated enemies joined the horde. They lived off conquest - cavalry units that destroyed enemy fortifications and field armies gathered immediate material rewards. This created a self-reinforcing cycle: successful raids provided resources for more raids, which attracted more warriors, enabling larger attacks. Their composite bows outranged anything Europeans possessed, their horses were small but tireless, their tactics perfected through generations on the steppes. But Hun weakness was equally fundamental. They created nothing lasting because they valued nothing permanent. They could devastate provinces but not govern them, defeat armies but not build institutions. Without Attila's personal charisma, they had no mechanism for succession or organization. The very mobility that made them terrifying prevented them from creating anything that could outlive a single generation's military success.
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