170- Atilla Cometh

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Episode one seventy, Attila Cometh. So last week, we saw how the myriad external pressures on the Roman Empire threatened to crack it up completely. But you may have noticed that these external pressures were falling unevenly on the two administrative halves of the empire. Sadly, by the mid fifth century, the Western Empire had become little more than a semi functional confederation of barbarian tribes, with the imperial court at Ravenna sort of managing to cling at some semblance of its former prestige. Huge swaths of what had once been a truly united political entity were now autonomous zones run with little regard for the emperor's authority. In contrast, the Eastern Empire was doing pretty well for itself, all things considering. Since hitting rock bottom with the double blow of Julian's failed campaign against the Sassanids in the late three sixties, and the Gothic war of the late three seventies, the East had actually rebounded nicely. I don't mean to imply that the fifth century was some kind of picnic for Constantinople, but you just don't see the succession of, and then they signed a treaty giving away Egypt, and then they signed a treaty giving away Greece, and then they signed a treaty giving away Cappadocia, the way you do with the West. But this week the hammer, or should I say the scourge, is about to drop on the East as hard as it ever fell on the West. And though Constantinople isn't about to lose control of any land, it is going to cost them a pretty penny to hang on to what's theirs. Because Attila the Hun drives a hard bargain. So you'll recall from last week that through the April and into the early four forties, the eastern empire was feeling secure enough in its own position that it was sending troops to the West to help contain the vandals in North Africa. Now this was not a purely altruistic act. Vandals spreading across North Africa means vandals might eventually reach Egypt, which is a totally unacceptable development. Plus, vandal pirates disrupting shipping lanes was bad for everyone's business, both east and west alike. But though containing the vandals was most certainly in the best strategic interest of Constantinople, it was in a long term preventative sort of way. That luxury of being able to think long term came to a screeching halt in April, when the eastern empire was simultaneously attacked on two fronts by its two biggest potential enemies, the Sassanids in the Far East, and the Huns in the North. Suddenly, stripping off soldiers from the Danube frontier and sending them off to Sicily to fight Vandals seemed like a really really poor decision. Now just to get this out of the way, the Sassanid threat receded almost as quickly as it advanced. It is possible that their brief offensive against Roman positions in Armenia had been launched at the behest of Vandal …