On this day, Attila, the infamous leader of the Huns, led his armies into Italy, intent on taking Rome, the historic centre of the tottering Roman Empire in western Europe. Attila’s armies had already looted and pillaged across eastern Europe but had failed to breach the defences of Constantinople. They had then been seriously defeated in France. Notwithstanding his heavy losses, Attila managed to raise a new army in just a year and headed into a poorly-defended Italy. His advancement was stopped only by the intervention of Pope Leo I who travelled north from Rome and met Attila on horseback in the middle of a river near the modern city of Mantua in northern Italy. It is not known what was said at the meeting, but Attila retreated from Italy after the meeting and died the following year on his wedding night.
