7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7of tribute they had been paying to the Huns and in the
future pay 700 pounds (300 kilograms) of gold each year.
The failure of the Romans to pay the promised trib-
utes prompted Attila to launch assaults on the Danubian
frontier of the Eastern Empire in 441. He captured and
razed a number of important cities, including Singidunum
(Belgrade). The Eastern Romans managed to arrange a
truce for the year 442, but Attila resumed his attack in
- He began by taking and destroying towns on the
Danube and then drove into the interior of the empire
toward Naissus (Niš) and Serdica (Sofia), both of which
he destroyed. He next turned toward Constantinople,
took Philippopolis, defeated the main Eastern Roman
forces in a succession of battles, and reached the sea both
north and south of Constantinople. It was hopeless for
the Hun archers to attack the great walls of the capital; so
Attila turned on the remnants of the empire’s forces,
which had withdrawn into the peninsula of Gallipoli, and
destroyed them. In the peace treaty that followed, he
obliged the Eastern Empire to pay the arrears of tribute,
which he calculated at 6,000 pounds of gold, and he tri-
pled the annual tribute, henceforth extorting 2,100
pounds of gold each year.
Attila murdered his brother Bleda in 445 and became
the sole ruler of the Huns. He made his second great attack
on the Eastern Roman Empire in 447, but little is known
of the details of the campaign. He devastated the Balkan
provinces and drove southward into Greece, where he was
only stopped at Thermopylae. The three years following
the invasion were filled with complicated negotiations
between Attila and the diplomats of the Eastern Roman
emperor Theodosius II. The treaty by which the war was
terminated was harsher than that of 443; the Eastern
Romans had to evacuate a wide belt of territory south of