The leader of the Huns, Attila (395–453), remains a mystery. Having proven himself to be an outstanding diplomat and a brilliant strategist, he managed to unite countless Hunnic troops scattered from the heart of Asia to the center of Europe, and in a decade and a half created an empire stretching from the Aral Sea to the Danube. Having defeated and imposed tribute on the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, he unexpectedly refused to take both capitals - Constantinople and Rome, preferring his collapsible wooden palace to their luxury. Having invaded Gaul in 451, he was stopped in Champagne on the Catalaunian fields and inexplicably retreated before the Roman general Aetius, his childhood friend. Having completed the reorganization of the army, Attila died suddenly on the eve of a new military campaign against the “Roman world.”