In general, the Huns fought in much the same way as the Scythians had since the seventh century BCE. Most of the Hunnic warriors, at least until the fifth century, were lightly armed horsemen whose main weapon was the composite bow; like the Scythians, the Huns were reputed to be expert archers. In addition to the bow, the Hun warrior was well suited to hand-to- hand combat. Although the typical warrior did not usually have much in the way of armor, most seem to have been supplied with weapons for melee such as the sword and the lasso, which was used to drag their opponents to the ground (see the Sources box “Ammianus Marcellinus on the Huns”).
Like the earlier nomadic peoples, the Huns also fielded a body of noble cavalry who were better armed and equipped. This must have been particularly true of the Hunnic armies of the fifth century ce, when we know the Huns defeated a number of Roman armies and made use of arms and armor taken from slain and captured Romans. The Hunnic nobles undoubtedly wore metallic armor and, in addition to bow, sword, and lasso, carried a lance.
One characteristic of Hunnic warfare was the ability of their armies to move quickly. This was a result of more than the simple fact that all the Huns were mounted and traveled with all their possessions in carts. Many of their contemporaries had cavalry troops, but none could keep pace with the Huns. The reason for this was that the Hun warrior had not a single horse, but a string of horses that could be ridden in turn during a campaign. This allowed the Huns to cover much greater distances without wearing out their mounts, a tremendous advantage over the Roman cavalryman with his single mount.
Figure 6.2 The Huns Under Attila
By the middle of the fifth century, however, there are indications that the Huns had fragmented into several groups, not all of whom were mounted. It has been suggested that when the Huns settled in Hungary, which possessed the only great plain in Europe that could support a significant number of horses, some of the Huns were, out of necessity, unhorsed. After all, the Hungarian plain was not the steppes; it has been suggested that it could support no more than 150,000 horses, enough for only 15,000 warriors. The rest of the Huns mimicked some of their Germanic subjects, taking up farming and fighting on foot. It has been suggested that in their last great open battle against the Romans in 451 ce, the majority of the Huns fought on foot.
By the 440s ce, there had been a great transformation in the role the Huns played in western Europe.
Prior to that period, the Huns had primarily been seen as raiders and brigands. Their incursions were often serious but not devastating. All of that changed with the rise of a new leader among the Huns—Attila. By the end of the 440s, Attila had transformed the Huns; there were no longer a number of savage kings of the Huns, but only one king who exerted control, albeit less than absolute, over the various Hunnic groups. During the final decades of the western empire, Attila was the Hun with whom the Romans dealt.
On several occasions, Attila, who was apparently aggrieved because the Romans were behind in their tribute, raided imperial territory. But his great campaign was launched in 451 (Figure 6.2). Attila invaded Gaul where he fought and lost a battle at Chalons in July. He then turned toward Italy in 452, but the Romans under their general Aetius countered the Huns’ speed with a new strategy. The western Romans, awaiting aid from the eastern empire, withdrew from northern Italy. Attila sacked several cities, but Roman civilians and soldiers withdrew before the Huns who, laden with booty, were unable to pursue them effectively. Attila spent the summer of 452 in Milan where his army was afflicted by the plague. At the same time, he found himself facing not only a reinforced western army under Aetius but a second eastern Roman army as well.
This was too much for the Huns, and Attila was forced to withdraw in strategic defeat. Not only was his ability to exact tribute from Rome totally undermined, but he had lost more warriors than he could afford to. This proved to be the undoing of the empire of the Huns and, perhaps, of Attila, who died in early 453.
Ammianus Marcellinus, the fourth-century Roman soldier and historian, gives us a glimpse into the customs of the Huns in a lengthy digression. He provides us with the sedentary Romans’ perception of these nomadic warriors from the steppes. Ammianus views the Huns as almost subhuman savages, yet he also betrays the Romans’ grudging admiration of their endurance and martial skills.
1. However, the seed and origin of all the ruin and various disasters that the wrath of Mars aroused, putting in turmoil all places with unwonted fires, we have found to be this. The people of the Huns, but little known from ancient records, dwelling beyond the Maeotic Sea near the ice-bound ocean, exceed every degree of savagery. 2. Since there the cheeks of the children are so deeply furrowed with the steel from their very birth, in order that the growth of hair, when it appears at the proper time, may be checked by the wrinkled scars, they grow old without beards and without any beauty, like eunuchs. They all have compact, strong limbs and thick necks, and are so monstrously ugly and misshapen, that one might take them for two-legged beasts or for the stumps, rough-hewn into images, that are used in putting sides to bridges. 3. But although they have the form of men, however ugly, they are so hardy in their mode of life that they have no need of fire nor of savory food, but eat the roots of wild plants and the half-raw flesh of any kind of animal whatever, which they put between their thighs and the backs of their horses, and thus warm it a little . . . 6. They cover their heads with round caps and protect their hairy legs with goatskins; their shoes are formed upon no lasts, and so prevent their walking with free step. For this reason they are not at all adapted to battles on foot, but they are almost glued to their horses, which are hardy, it is true, but ugly, and sometimes they sit them women-fashion and thus perform their ordinary tasks. From their horses by night or day every one of that nation buys and sells, eats and drinks, and bowed over the narrow neck of the animal relaxes into a sleep so deep as to be accompanied by many dreams. 7. And when deliberation is called for about weighty matters, they all consult as a common body in that fashion. They are subject to no royal restraint, but they are content with the disorderly government of their important men, and led by them they force their way through every obstacle. 8. They also sometimes fight when provoked, and then they enter the battle drawn up in wedge-shaped masses, while their medley of voices makes a savage noise. And as they are lightly equipped for swift motion, and unexpected in action, they purposely divide suddenly into scattered bands and attack, rushing about in disorder here and there, dealing terrific slaughter; and because of their extraordinary rapidity of movement they are never seen to attack a rampart or pillage an enemy’s camp. 9. And on this account you would not hesitate to call them the most terrible of all warriors, because they fight from a distance with missiles having sharp bone, instead of their usual points, joined to the shafts with wonderful skill; then they gallop over the intervening spaces and fight hand to hand with swords, regardless of their own lives; and while the enemy are guarding against wounds from the sabre-thrusts, they throw strips of cloth plaited into nooses over their opponents and so entangle them that they fetter their limbs and take from them the power of riding or walking.
source: Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestaea Fine Corneli Taciti, Book 31, ch. 2, trans. M. Pavkovic and S. Morillo.