Why was Attila, The Hun called ‘The Scourge of God’?

Answer 1

His nickname was FLAGELLUM DEI (LATIN: SCOURGE OF GOD), king of the Huns from 434 to 453 (ruling jointly with his elder brother Bleda until 445). He was one of the greatest of the barbarian rulers who assailed the Roman Empire, invading the southern Balkan provinces and Greece and then Gaul and Italy, destroying churches in his wake.

Answer 2

At the time of Attila's invasion of italy (mid 450s AD) there was a tendency to attribute the fall of Rome to the huns. Being that Rome was sanctified a Chrisitian state by pope gelasius under Constantine, the destruction of the archetype for the Christian state, Rome(which will become the model for medieval christendom), is the most obvious reason why Attila would be demonized. I personally i have never heard Attila called "the scourge of God," but this seems the most likely answer to me. Furthermore, there is in fact a western european tendency to attribute Attila and the Huns as culturally bestial, thus the name could devolve from a christian/western european characterization of demonic/bestial qualities due to lack of cultural knowledge of the actual Hun empire. Hopefully this helps.

Answer 3

The Scourge Of God

Answer 4

A great god of our ancestors was Tiew. He was a son of Woden and was the god of battle. He was armed with a sword which flashed like lightning when he brandished it. A savage chief named Attila routed the armies of the Romans and so terrified all the world that he was called "The Scourge of God." His people believed that he gained his victories because he had the sword of Tiew, which a herdsman chanced to find where the god had allowed it to fall. The Huns prayed to Tiew when they went into battle.

Answer 5

Because he was the chosen of the Gods to rule the Huns and expanded the Hun Empire at a tremendously fast rate and crushed everyone and everything in his wake even as far as Rome.

I wonder if his elephants had managed to cross the Alps how history would have been changed?

Answer 6

The church in those days was a very powerful organization, and largely dominated people's lives. One of the ways they did this was to remind everyone of their inherent wickedness and make sure they knew they were doomed without the church.

This practice required a lot of guilt be heaped upon the masses. So, they dubbed Attila the "scourge of God" to imply that God had sent Attila to punish them for their wickedness.

Someone would be scourged, or woul scourge themselves to try to remove whatever sin they had commited. In this context it usually involved being flogged, or sell flagellation.

Answer 7

This name was given by his enemies and presumably it is intended to indicate that he was bloodthirsty, cruel and terrifying . He was of course a very successful war leader.
The name Attila was given by his friends and apparently means Daddy, or Little Father.

This is how war is fought: propaganda is as important as bullets (or arrows).

Answer 8

Bad translation. He was actually known as Attila the Hungry- 'The scrounging dog.'

Answer 9

He was merciless, and so were his people.