169- Huns and Vandals and Goths, Oh My

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Episode 169, Huns and Vandals and Goths, Oh My. As you know, the Huns have been playing a major role in Roman politics for the last fifty years at least. Arriving on the Hungarian plane back in the March, the Hun sparked a multi generational migration of the former native tribes of the region into Roman territory, which led to, among other things, the Battle of Adrianople, the mass invasion of four zero six, the sack of Rome, and now the vandal takeover of North Africa. This is to say nothing of the endless revolts, civil wars, and assassinations, all this demographic unrest had forced the Romans to deal with within their own ranks. But for the most part, the Hun impact on the Roman world had thus far been indirect. Aside from the brief abortive thrusts of Olden in the early four hundreds, the Huns had basically stayed on the North side of the Danube River. Their arrival in the West was an epoch defining event for the Romans. Sure. But mostly in a domino toppling sort of way, rather than a I'm punching you directly in the face sort of way. But that was all about to change. New leaders were about to take over the Huns, and new leadership meant new policies, and new policies meant new headaches for the Roman Empire. Headaches caused by repeated Hun punches to the face. When Oden died in 04/12, you'll recall that his coalition split into three major factions. Each pursued its own course and was led by its own leaders for the next decade or so, but by the mid four twenties, they began re coalescing around a pair of brother kings who I introduced briefly last week, Octar and Rua. This recent realization of Hun power naturally led the brothers to think up ways to use their new strength to their advantage. And they hit upon the idea of making the Romans pay for the privilege of not being attacked. I don't know if they ever actually planned to follow through on the threats they began issuing to Constantinople, but I kind of like to think that they didn't. That Rua and Octar were fine with just sitting around doing nothing and were like, hey, the Romans don't know that we're fine with just sitting around and doing nothing. So let's see if we can trick them into forking over a bunch of gold. At some point in the mid four twenties, they sent envoys down to Constantinople demanding an annual payment of £350 of gold or we will invade your empire. Yeah. That's the ticket. Do you think they bought it? The Romans did indeed buy it. £350 of gold was a lot, but not back breaking. And the Huns were awfully menacing, what with their ridiculous horsemanship and crazy accurate archers. So Theodosius II's ministers agreed to the terms, and for the next decade sent along the gold …