9.3. Fragment of speech of Attila.

In the second half of June 451 on Catalaunian Plains (modern province Champagne in France) took place the most famous battle of the early Middle Ages. In fatal fight joined the two most powerful armies of that time. Attila commanded one army. In it, besides Huns, were, Ostgoths, Gepids and a multitude of other peoples led by their leaders. The king of Visigoths Theodorid and the outstanding commander Aetius (Etius) led the other army. In the army, besides Visigoths and Romans, were Alans.

The battle began about nine o’clock in the morning. The Visigoths seized a prevailing mound and hills. Attempts of the Huns to eject them from there ended in failure. Then Attila addressed his native Hunugur soldiers. Finishing his speech, he said: “No spear shall harm those who are sure to live; and those who are sure to die Fate overtakes even in peace. And finally, why should Fortune have made the Huns victorious over so many nations, unless it were to prepare them for the joy of this conflict. Who was it revealed to our sires the path through the Maeotian swamp, for so many ages a closed secret? Who, moreover, made armed men yield to you, when you were as yet unarmed? Even a mass of federated nations could not endure the sight of the Huns. I am not deceived in the issue; here is the field so many victories have promised us. I shall hurl the first spear at the foe. If any can stand at rest while Attila fights, he is a dead man.”

Jordanes. The origin and acts of the Gets. — M.; 1960. Pages 106- 107.

Clarifications: Attila reminded his tribesmen of the Hunugur's migration in 360 - 375 under the leadership of Bulьmar (Belemer), to the coast of the Meotian Sea, their ancestral Cimmerian territory. To attention come Attila's words that the path across the Azov sea (Meotida) for many centuries remained “closed and secret“. In other words, Huns wanted very much, but could not, return to the ancestral home.

9.4. The Hun's funeral song at Attila's funeral.

The best horsemen of the entire tribe of the Huns performed the following funeral song: “The chief of the Huns, King Attila, born of his sire Mundiuch, lord of the bravest tribes, sole possessor of the Scythian and German realms —powers unknown before— captured cities and terrified both empires of the Roman world and, appeased by their prayers, took annual tribute to save the rest from plunder. And when he had accomplished all this by the favor of fortune, he fell, not by wound of the foe, nor by treachery of friends, but in the midst of his nation at peace, happy in his joy and without sense of pain. Who can rate this as death, when none believes it calls for vengeance?”.

Jordanes. The origin and deeds of the Goths. - M.; 1960. Page 117.

9.5. Testament of eyewitnesses about the battle at the Catalaunian Plains (June 451).

“Hand to hand they clashed in battle, and the fight grew fierce, confused, monstrous, unrelenting – a fight whose like no ancient time has ever recorded. There such deeds were done that a brave man who missed this marvelous spectacle could not hope to see anything so wonderful all his life long. For, if we may believe our elders, a brook flowing between low banks through the plain was greatly increased by blood from the wounds of the slain. It was not flooded by showers, as brooks usually rise, but was swollen by a strange stream and turned into a torrent by the increase of blood. Those whose wounds drove them to slake their parching thirst drank water mingled with gore. In their wretched plight they were forced to drink what they thought was the blood they had poured from their own wounds”.

Jordanes. Same work. Page 107.