We know very little about the Huns, except that they were
not related to the Germans or to any other European people. Some scholars
believe them to have belonged to the Mongolian race. But the Huns, to the
excited imagination of Roman writers, were demons rather than men. Their olive
skins, little, turned-up noses, and black, beady eyes must have given them a
very frightful appearance. They spent most of their time on horseback, sweeping
over the country like a whirlwind and leaving destruction and death in their
wake.
ATTILA THE HUN
The Huns did not become dangerous to Rome for more than
half a century after their first appearance in Europe. During this time
they moved into the Danube region and settled in the lands now known as Austria
and Hungary. At last the Huns found a national leader in Attila, "a man
born into the world to agitate the nations, the fear of all lands," [15]
one whose boast it was that the grass never grew again where his horse's hoofs
had trod. He quickly built up a great military power obeyed by many barbarous
nations from the Caspian to the Rhine.
