Аттила «Бич Божий».

ATTILA, THE SCOURGE OF GOD, king of the Huns, who played a significant role in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

The eastern Roman historian Jordanes described Attila as follows:

“He was a man born into the world to shake the nations, the scourge of all lands, who in some way terrified all mankind by the rumors noised abroad concerning him. He was haughty in his walk, rolling his eyes hither and thither, so that the power of his proud spirit appeared in the movement of his body. He was indeed a lover of war, yet restrained in action; mighty in counsel, gracious to suppliants, and lenient to those who were once received under his protection. He was short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard was thin and sprinkled with gray. He had a flat nose and a swarthy complexion, revealing his origin.”

The origin of the Huns is shrouded in mystery. All we know is that they came from the east, and that they were unlike any other people the Romans had faced before. Although there’s practically no evidence of that correlation, it is possible that their rise and migration westwards was related with the earlier Xiongnu Empire, which had stretched over the Mongolian steppe and eastern Siberia at the time of the Han dynasty of China. It is even possible that the Hus were just a continuation of the Xiongnu, although that’s pure speculation. In any case, both the Xiongnu and the Hunnic empires would have been multi-ethnic, so it’s not unlikely that the Huns emerged from a people that had been part of the Xiongnu confederation. Jordanes’ description of Attila is very different from Herodotus’ description of the Scythians (stereotyped as tall, red-haired and sporting full beards) so it is safe to assume that the Hunnic elite at least had roots in East Asia, even if the Hunnic army was made of peoples of diverse origins (including the descendants of the Scythians and other Iranic peoples, Finno-Ugric peoples, Baltic peoples, etc.). To the eyes of the Romans, the Huns not only surpassed all other barbarian peoples known to date in terms of savagery, but also had an outlandish appearance because their heads were artificially elongated and sported facial scarifications.