ScandinavianRoman

Excellent post. That is probably why Roman recruits were hard to get in the later years of the Empire. They got fed up with all the strict disipline and wanted a lot of money to put up with that. Money was not something Rome had a lot in its later years.

Several reasons. For one, the patriotism that the legions served under had declined since Rome was an empire. Now, the Roman legions wanted money and lots of it. Each soldier cost a lot. Money was not something the Roman Empire had a lot of, due to several economic crashes which I won't go into detail here. Barbarian mercenaries were willing to fight for Rome for a smaller cost than Romans, so the Roman Empire hired lots of them. Such recruitment among barbarians that were officially Rome's enemies caused some very interesting diplomatic situations with Rome and the other barbarian nations. Anyway, by the time of Chalons, half of the entire Roman legions were barbarian mercenaries. However, these mercenaries were not as well trained or reliable as true Roman soldiers.

Actually, I have heard that the Cataphracts survived as the Kataphractoi in the Byzantine Empire long after 800 A.D. They fell into decline after the battle of Manzikert because of the loss of Asia Minor due to that battle. The best horses came from Asia Minor.

Okay. Thanks.

The Cataphracts were mostly recruited from the middle class. Their horses generally came from the East because the East had the faster stronger cavalry. The Eastern Roman Empire had the Cataphracts, while the Western Roman Empire depended on Samartians cavarly and some Palatina.

So Attila was a pagan, I just got the idea he was an aethist from an inaccurate source on Roman history then. It is mentioned in history that he did meet with the pope. Well, the bad omen did not stop him from battling the Romans at Chalons.

Does anyone have any articles on the Cataphracts? I found a few on Wikipedia(not very accuarate) and a few other sites. I know that the Cataphracts orginated in Armenia and Persia, but how did they miagrate over to Eastern Roman Empire use? I also know that the Cataphracts were middle class elite troops. The Cataphracts are perhaps my favorite miliatary unit.

There probably would have been a lot of barbarian mercs, and some cominsates(I did not spell that right, but I meant the heavier fighters that came about due to Constantine's military reforms.

Yes, I would like to be part of the Cataphracts. Either that, or I would like to be part of the Urban cohort which was an elite group of the Praetorians.

That's cool. I like the Byzantine Empire. I especially like their military units, the Kataphractoi and the Varangian guard.

According to history, Atilla made it to Rome and was about to take over when Pope Leo 1(I think that was his name) stopped him. How did a Pope convince a Hun to leave? There are three possibilities. One: He impressed the Hun with his piety and claimed that Saint Paul helped him. This seems unlikely, since piety didn't stop the Hun from destroying churchs elsewhere? Also, I doubt Saint Paul helped him. Besides, I doubt he would help the empire that had him beheaded. Two: The Pope used Atilla's superstition against him. Let's remember that while Atilla was aethistic he did have many superstitious beliefs. He was known to have a band of shamans and magicians. The Pope might have told him that the spirits of the saints would be angry if he took Rome. Three: He used political savvy to get Atilla to leave. This is the most likely. There was a plague going on in Italy at that time, so Attila feared that his victory would be undone if he took a plagued city. Also, Rome had been sacked several times and was in ruin. The Pope might have convinced Atilla that Rome was not worth taking for it was in such ruin. Atilla didn't care about money, he cared about conquest, so the Pope could not give him money to leave. Somehow, the Pope convinced Atilla to leave. Atilla probably thought that he would come back later to take Rome. Unfortunately, he died of suffocation by a nosebleed so that didn't work out. Comments and corrections are welcome.

It could be. I'm surprised the Danes didn't massacre any military presence the Romans had there, if they had any.