What do you think?
Rate this book
Command #31
Attila the Hun (Command) by Nic Fields
Attila the Hun is one of the iconic figures of history. In a series of epic campaigns dating from the AD 430s till his death in AD 453 he ravaged first the Eatsern Roman Empire and later the Western Roman Empire, invading Italy itself in AD 452 threatening Rome itself.The Huns had moved into Europe in the AD 370s, annexing the territory of the Alans and settling in the Danube region. In AD 433 Rua King of the Huns, died. Rua, an ally of Aetius and the West Romans, was succeeded by his nephews Bleda and Attila. When Attila murdered his brother and ruled alone things began to change. In two campaigns against the Eastern Empire (AD 441–42 and 447) the Huns devastated the Balkans and exacted a heavy tribute. In AD 450 Attila turned his attention to the West. When Attila crossed the Rhine he met very little resistance. Some towns opened their gates to him, others were captured and sacked including Trier, Metz and Reims. Attila's strategy was to keep moving, thereby reducing his logistical problems and, by his devastation of Roman Gaul, force the Western Empire to come to terms with him. He met his major setback at the battle of Chalons in AD 451, also known as the battle of Campus Mauriacus or Catalaunian Plains, when the Roman warlord Flavius Aetius cobble together a hodgepodge force of Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Alans, Saxons, Armorican Britons and Romans who together they managed to drive Attila the Hun out of France by defeating his equally mixed army of Huns, Ostrogoths, Gepids, Franks, Rugians, Thuringians, Burgundians.Despite this setback, Attila invaded Italy the following year, sacking and razing the cities of Aquileia, Vicetia, Verona, Brixia, Bergamum and Milan. Having retired to his Carpathian heartland, Attila died in AD 453 and his empire did not long survive him.This new study explores his extraordinary conquests and the abilities that led him to his establish such a far-flung empire.
Mass Market Paperback
First published November 18, 2014
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Nic Fields
87 books21 followersDr Nic Fields started his career as a biochemist before joining the Royal Marines. Having left the Navy, he went back to University and completed a BA and PhD in Ancient History at the University of Newcastle. He was Assistant Director at the British School of Archaeology, Athens, and is now a lecturer in Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 23, 2015
A close look into the life of the Huns and their infamous greatest leader, whose ruthless and gruesome historical image the author tends to reassess, putting things into perspective by knocking down some Hunnic myths generated by the late ancient or early medieval authors.
March 29, 2022
Tarihi kitap okumak istediğim anda imdadıma Hızır gibi yetişen bir kitap oldu. Tarihi kitapları okurken, olayların öncesini bilmeden okumak bazen olayı anlamamanıza, bazen de kafanızın çok karışmasına sebep olur. Bu kitapta ise yazar güvenilir olabilecek kaynakları belirtip, bu kaynaklar üzerinden yola çıkarak, özellikle olayların öncesi ve sonrasını özet geçerek konuyu anlamanızı sağlamış.
Hunlar ve onların en bilindik Hükümdarı Attila’yı, Attila’nın yaşadığı devirdeki önemli olayları, Roma devletinin yıkılma- ikiye bölünme hikayesini anlatıyor.
Hunların Türk olup olmadığı, bizim Hunları Türk saymamız, Batılıların Türk saymaması gibi itilaflı ve önyargılı konulara girmeden tarafsız bir gözle kitabı okudum. Yazar büyük dürüstlükle İlkçağ ve sonrasında gelen batılı tarihçilerin büyük bölümünün önyargı ve tarafgirlikle Attilla ve Hunları şeytanlaştırdığını, kötü bir mit yarattığını belirtiyor. Attila’yı yüze yüze gören tek tarihçinin Romalı Priscus olduğunu, onun yazdıklarının hepsinin günümüze ulaşmadığını, ulaşan kısımlarda ise Attila’dan büyük bir saygıyla bahsedildiğini özellikle belirtilmiş.
Kısa sürecek tarihsel bir yolculuğa çıkmak isterseniz, doğru yerdesiniz. Çizimleriyle, ara notlarıyla, açıklamalarıyla çok güzel bir kitap
Puanım 9/10
Hunlar ve onların en bilindik Hükümdarı Attila’yı, Attila’nın yaşadığı devirdeki önemli olayları, Roma devletinin yıkılma- ikiye bölünme hikayesini anlatıyor.
Hunların Türk olup olmadığı, bizim Hunları Türk saymamız, Batılıların Türk saymaması gibi itilaflı ve önyargılı konulara girmeden tarafsız bir gözle kitabı okudum. Yazar büyük dürüstlükle İlkçağ ve sonrasında gelen batılı tarihçilerin büyük bölümünün önyargı ve tarafgirlikle Attilla ve Hunları şeytanlaştırdığını, kötü bir mit yarattığını belirtiyor. Attila’yı yüze yüze gören tek tarihçinin Romalı Priscus olduğunu, onun yazdıklarının hepsinin günümüze ulaşmadığını, ulaşan kısımlarda ise Attila’dan büyük bir saygıyla bahsedildiğini özellikle belirtilmiş.
Kısa sürecek tarihsel bir yolculuğa çıkmak isterseniz, doğru yerdesiniz. Çizimleriyle, ara notlarıyla, açıklamalarıyla çok güzel bir kitap
Puanım 9/10
July 22, 2017
I know a little aboout Ghenghis Khan, but little about his predessor from the Huns. Atilla's invasion and attack of Europe and his about turn when meeting the Pope makes for an interesting story of how close Europe came to complete capture.
Clear with many colour pictures, diagrams and maps this is a very easy to follow book and gives an overview of the life of Attila and his impact in Europe.
Clear with many colour pictures, diagrams and maps this is a very easy to follow book and gives an overview of the life of Attila and his impact in Europe.
June 25, 2020
"It was a very different world and a very different mind-set." This is one of the phrases at the end of the book, and I think everyone who reads about history should keep it in mind. This work is awesome, Mr. Fields surprass my expectations in this short book by far (its like 70 pages) but the author takes note of every source we have and explains why of this, pretty realiable for me.
February 18, 2023
Attila ile ilgili birçok biyografik eser okudum. Fields'ın bu eseri ise derli toplu, kısa ve öz bir metin. Bence iyi bir başlangıç kitabı olarak değerlendirilebilir. Ayrıca Osprey'in Büyük Komutanlar Serisi'nin öne çıkan kitaplarından biri. Ben görsel malzemeyi de çok beğendim. Attila ile ilgili en meşhur tabloların tamamı kendine yer bulmuş.
May 7, 2019
Useful for those who want to understand minimally about Attila and contextualization of that time.
October 9, 2025
Boken Attila i strid av Nic Fields undersöker hunnernas historia, som under Attilas ledning utvecklades till en av de mest fruktade makterna i Europa. Läsaren introduceras till hunnernas omdebatterade ursprung.
Fields utforskar också deras militära taktik, kampanjer i Europa, aspekter av deras samhälle samt deras politik och diplomati. Viktigt är att författaren varken glorifierar eller förtalar Attila, utan i stället erbjuder en balanserad skildring som ifrågasätter några av de förutfattade meningar som vanligtvis förknippas med honom.
Boken är lättläst, inte särskilt lång och innehåller många välgjorda illustrationer som gör ämnet mer engagerande.
Fields utforskar också deras militära taktik, kampanjer i Europa, aspekter av deras samhälle samt deras politik och diplomati. Viktigt är att författaren varken glorifierar eller förtalar Attila, utan i stället erbjuder en balanserad skildring som ifrågasätter några av de förutfattade meningar som vanligtvis förknippas med honom.
Boken är lättläst, inte särskilt lång och innehåller många välgjorda illustrationer som gör ämnet mer engagerande.
January 21, 2016
Osprey books are usually researched pretty well and always have great illustrations. Attila the Hun is no exception. I haven’t read many titles in the Command series -- in fact I think the only other one I’ve read is the older one on Alexander the Great. I usually just get the Warrior and Elite series books when I’m working on a wargaming army, and I haven’t really been as involved in wargaming for years. But -- full disclosure -- I got a copy of this one for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Attila is a semi-legendary figure, as we know very little about him apart from what a few Roman writers have recorded about their enemy, and some mythologized impressions of him in the character King Etzel in the Nibelungenlied. What we do know, and much that is presented as reasonable conjecture, makes up the majority of this short book, along with brief looks at some of Attila’s major Roman and Goth adversaries, and short accounts of a few battles. The battles are illustrated with the customary Osprey diagrams. There is practically nothing on the Huns’ equipment, military organization, and orders of battle or army composition -- partly due to the limited amount of information we have and partly because the Command series does not focus on these topics, unlike the other Osprey military history series. So if you are interested in knowing more about how the Huns were armed and fought, you need to look for “The Hun : scourge of God, AD 375-565” in the Warrior series -- also by the author of the present book. This book -- being in the “Command” series -- is mainly interested in Attila’s qualities as a strategist, diplomat, and leader.
What little we can guess about Attila’s motivations and psychology are explored in some detail, and though he remains shrouded by the legends that have grown around his name, the book does manage to give a coherent picture of the man. The author compares him, somewhat unfavorably, to Genghis Khan, but then Attila did not have the benefit of an organized propaganda campaign like Genghis did.
The art in this book is generally good, combining period art, later reconstructions, and a lot of indirectly related things (for example, an image of a 20th century Tibetan archer to suggest how the Huns shot their bows, and armor and other artifacts the Huns might have looted from Goths, Romans, and contemporary steppe nomads). The illustrations commissioned for the book are about average for Osprey’s books -- reasonably detailed, well-researched, and explained exhaustively in the text. They don't have the drama and power of the late Angus MacBride's work, but I can't fault this book on that score.
The bibliography provided in this book is also very detailed, and we see that the author used a range of sources, from the original Latin and Greek historians, scholarly articles, and more “popular” magazines. There is even an entry for John P. Greer’s “Armies and enemies of Ancient China” -- a very dated work that has a lot of misinformation. I think this reflects more the comprehensiveness of the author's research than sloppiness though -- I didn't see anything questionable here.
Attila is a semi-legendary figure, as we know very little about him apart from what a few Roman writers have recorded about their enemy, and some mythologized impressions of him in the character King Etzel in the Nibelungenlied. What we do know, and much that is presented as reasonable conjecture, makes up the majority of this short book, along with brief looks at some of Attila’s major Roman and Goth adversaries, and short accounts of a few battles. The battles are illustrated with the customary Osprey diagrams. There is practically nothing on the Huns’ equipment, military organization, and orders of battle or army composition -- partly due to the limited amount of information we have and partly because the Command series does not focus on these topics, unlike the other Osprey military history series. So if you are interested in knowing more about how the Huns were armed and fought, you need to look for “The Hun : scourge of God, AD 375-565” in the Warrior series -- also by the author of the present book. This book -- being in the “Command” series -- is mainly interested in Attila’s qualities as a strategist, diplomat, and leader.
What little we can guess about Attila’s motivations and psychology are explored in some detail, and though he remains shrouded by the legends that have grown around his name, the book does manage to give a coherent picture of the man. The author compares him, somewhat unfavorably, to Genghis Khan, but then Attila did not have the benefit of an organized propaganda campaign like Genghis did.
The art in this book is generally good, combining period art, later reconstructions, and a lot of indirectly related things (for example, an image of a 20th century Tibetan archer to suggest how the Huns shot their bows, and armor and other artifacts the Huns might have looted from Goths, Romans, and contemporary steppe nomads). The illustrations commissioned for the book are about average for Osprey’s books -- reasonably detailed, well-researched, and explained exhaustively in the text. They don't have the drama and power of the late Angus MacBride's work, but I can't fault this book on that score.
The bibliography provided in this book is also very detailed, and we see that the author used a range of sources, from the original Latin and Greek historians, scholarly articles, and more “popular” magazines. There is even an entry for John P. Greer’s “Armies and enemies of Ancient China” -- a very dated work that has a lot of misinformation. I think this reflects more the comprehensiveness of the author's research than sloppiness though -- I didn't see anything questionable here.
December 26, 2015
Nic Fields provides a excellent introduction to the life and times of Attila the Hun. The book, published by Osprey Publishing, is part of a series issued by the publisher under the name "Command," which covers such leaders as Julius Caesar, Pompey, Hannibal, etc. Each book in the series attempts to review the leadership, strategy, and conflicts associated with the leader of interest.
Fields covers Attila's leadership and conflict, but the strategy element associated with Attila's life is wanting. This may partly be due to the fact that Attila did not have a detailed and systematic strategy to maintain the empire that he built. It seems apparent from Fields' coverage that Attila could not defeat the Western Romans due to a lack of strategy, nor did his empire survive after his death due to a lack of strategic planning regarding succession. As Fields states (p. 47) "he [Attila] left behind him so true governmental machinery or institutions and deprived of his forceful personality, the Hun Empire lost it coherency and soon fell to pieces."
Field's book is replete with examples of Attila's tactics to achieve various goals, most associated with expansion of the Hun Empire, but no overall strategy is mapped out to understand how the tactics fit a overall plan. Perhaps the fact that Attila had no strategy is a study in strategy itself, and explains the rapid decline and fall of the Hun Empire soon after Attila's death in AD 453.
Partian Shot: If you're are interested in reading an introduction to Attila's life, then this book is more than adequate to satisfy your need. It is also very well illustrated, containing photographs of historical artifacts and maps.
Fields covers Attila's leadership and conflict, but the strategy element associated with Attila's life is wanting. This may partly be due to the fact that Attila did not have a detailed and systematic strategy to maintain the empire that he built. It seems apparent from Fields' coverage that Attila could not defeat the Western Romans due to a lack of strategy, nor did his empire survive after his death due to a lack of strategic planning regarding succession. As Fields states (p. 47) "he [Attila] left behind him so true governmental machinery or institutions and deprived of his forceful personality, the Hun Empire lost it coherency and soon fell to pieces."
Field's book is replete with examples of Attila's tactics to achieve various goals, most associated with expansion of the Hun Empire, but no overall strategy is mapped out to understand how the tactics fit a overall plan. Perhaps the fact that Attila had no strategy is a study in strategy itself, and explains the rapid decline and fall of the Hun Empire soon after Attila's death in AD 453.
Partian Shot: If you're are interested in reading an introduction to Attila's life, then this book is more than adequate to satisfy your need. It is also very well illustrated, containing photographs of historical artifacts and maps.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews