Eamhain Mhacha (or Navan Fort), at the…

Attila establishes his residence along the Tisza River (modern Hungary) and plans the coming campaign in the Balkans.

Attila next turns toward Constantinople.

He takes Philippopolis, then …

…turns on the remnants of the empire's forces, which have withdrawn into the peninsula of Gallipoli, and destroys them.

In the peace treaty that follows, he obliges the Eastern Empire to pay the arrears of tribute, which he calculates at six thousand pounds of gold, and he trebles the annual tribute, henceforth extorting twenty-one hundred pounds of gold each year.

Chrysaphius had become chamberlain (praepositus sacri cubiculi) in 443, which in practice makes him the chief minister of the weak Theodosius II.

Chroniclers record that he was all-powerful in the Palace (Theoph. 150; Priscus 227); the later Patria (II 182; Codinus 47) names him anachronistically as a parakoimomenos, after the all-powerful eunuch officials of the ninth and tenth centuries.

He schemes against the emperor's sister Pulcheria by exalting the influence of the empress Eudocia, and succeeds in arranging her withdrawal from the court for her policy to exile the Jews and destroy their synagogues.

She leaves for the seaport Hebdomon (Turkey) and becomes a nun to support Nestorianism in the Holy Land (Palestine).

Having accomplished this, Chrysaphius next intrigues against the empress, accusing her of adultery with Paulinus, a boyhood friend of the emperor.

She is then banished in 444.

Having removed both the emperor's wife and sister from the court, Chrysaphius is effectively ruler of the empire, and it is said that the emperor signed papers without reading them (Theophanes, A.M. 5942).

Aetius also establishes some of the Alans in Valence, although most of the Alani had gone to North Africa with the Vandals.

Valentinian had readily accepted the Theodosian Code.

Little is known of Valentinian in the years after his marriage, other than that he has spent his life in the pursuit of pleasure.

Acting in conjunction with Pope Leo, who had succeeded Sixtus III in 440, Valentinian issues the famous Novel 17 in 444, which assigns to the bishop of Rome supremacy over the provincial churches.

Valentinian III’s recognition of Genseric as ruler of the independent Vandal kingdom brings a temporary cessation to raids on Roman territory.

Although the Vandals are ardent Arian Christians, they allow the Jews in North Africa to live peacefully.

Aetius and the Settlement of the Alani in Orléans

To contain unrest in Brittany, Flavius Aetius, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, employs a strategic settlement policy, placing a group of Alani in Orléans. Originally an Iranian steppe people from the region northeast of the Black Sea, the Alani had been driven westward by the Huns and had already played a significant role in the migrations of the early fifth century, including the crossing of the Rhine in 406 CE alongside the Vandals and Suebi.

By the 440s, Brittany had become a region of unrest, with semi-independent groups of Armorican rebels resisting both Roman authority and barbarian incursions. In response, Aetius, following his usual divide-and-rule strategy, grants land to the Alani near Orléans, integrating them as foederati—Roman allies tasked with defending imperial interests.

The Role of the Alani in Gaul

• The Alani in Orléans serve as a buffer force between the Armorican insurgents and the rest of Roman-controlled Gaul, helping maintain stability in the region.
• Like other federate groups, the Alani are given autonomy in exchange for military service, and their presence contributes to the shifting ethnic and political landscape of late Roman Gaul.
• Their settlement foreshadows the gradual barbarization of the Western Roman military, as more and more non-Roman warlords rise to prominence within the empire.

A Lasting Presence

Though Aetius successfully manages the crisis in Brittany, his death in 454 CE and the continuing decline of Roman power in Gaul will leave the Alani and other federates increasingly independent. Their legacy endures in the region, with traces of Alanic influence surviving in place names and local traditions around Orléans and the Loire Valley.

A "pestilence" that is probably bubonic plague strikes the British Isles in 444 and makes the country vulnerable to internal revolts.

Attila's movements after the conclusion of peace in the autumn of 443 are unknown.

Bleda, co-ruler of the Huns, dies in a hunting accident.

He has possibly been murdered at the instigation of his younger brother Attila, with whom he has ruled since 434.

Now about thirty-nine, Attila takes the throne for himself and becomes king of the Hunnic Empire, ruling with autocratic powers in peace and war alike.

He administers his huge empire by means of “picked men” (logades), whose main function is the government of and the collection of food and tribute from the subject peoples who have been assigned to them by Attila.