Pope Leo I's Meeting with Attila (452)

In 452 Attila invaded Italy, took the city of Aquileia and entered Milan and Pavia. The Western Roman emperor Valentinian III could not raise enough troops to defend Rome and sent an embassy to Attila.

The embassy was led by Pope Leo I, accompanied by the senators Gennadius Avienus and Trygetius. The meeting took place near Mantua, on the banks of the Mincio. The contemporary chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine writes that Attila received the envoys respectfully, promised peace and withdrew beyond the Danube.

Historians differ on why Attila turned back: famine in Italy, disease spreading in the Hun army, or an Eastern Roman attack on Hun lands. In later centuries church tradition described the meeting as a miracle. Attila died a year later, in 453.