Attila, resuming his attacks in 443, begins by taking and destroying towns on the Danube, defeats the main Eastern Roman forces in a succession of battles, and so reaches the sea both north and south of Constantinople.

Although Aspar had fought the Persians successfully in 441, the Huns under Attila triumph over him outside Constantinople in 443.

As it is hopeless for the Hun archers to attack the great walls of the capital; Attila then drives into the interior of the empire toward Naissus (Nis) and …

…Serdica (Sofia), both of which he destroys.

The Burgundians sign a peace treaty with Rome, agreeing to serve as foederati in the Roman army.

They begin to move from the Upper Rhine and Aetius gives them land in the Geneva area (Maxima Sequanorum).

Attila establishes his residence along the Tisza River (modern Hungary) and plans the coming campaign in the Balkans.

Attila next turns toward Constantinople.

He takes Philippopolis, then …

…turns on the remnants of the empire's forces, which have withdrawn into the peninsula of Gallipoli, and destroys them.

In the peace treaty that follows, he obliges the Eastern Empire to pay the arrears of tribute, which he calculates at six thousand pounds of gold, and he trebles the annual tribute, henceforth extorting twenty-one hundred pounds of gold each year.

Chrysaphius had become chamberlain (praepositus sacri cubiculi) in 443, which in practice makes him the chief minister of the weak Theodosius II.

Chroniclers record that he was all-powerful in the Palace (Theoph. 150; Priscus 227); the later Patria (II 182; Codinus 47) names him anachronistically as a parakoimomenos, after the all-powerful eunuch officials of the ninth and tenth centuries.

He schemes against the emperor's sister Pulcheria by exalting the influence of the empress Eudocia, and succeeds in arranging her withdrawal from the court for her policy to exile the Jews and destroy their synagogues.

She leaves for the seaport Hebdomon (Turkey) and becomes a nun to support Nestorianism in the Holy Land (Palestine).

Having accomplished this, Chrysaphius next intrigues against the empress, accusing her of adultery with Paulinus, a boyhood friend of the emperor.

She is then banished in 444.

Having removed both the emperor's wife and sister from the court, Chrysaphius is effectively ruler of the empire, and it is said that the emperor signed papers without reading them (Theophanes, A.M. 5942).

Aetius also establishes some of the Alans in Valence, although most of the Alani had gone to North Africa with the Vandals.

Valentinian had readily accepted the Theodosian Code.

Little is known of Valentinian in the years after his marriage, other than that he has spent his life in the pursuit of pleasure.

Acting in conjunction with Pope Leo, who had succeeded Sixtus III in 440, Valentinian issues the famous Novel 17 in 444, which assigns to the bishop of Rome supremacy over the provincial churches.

Valentinian III’s recognition of Genseric as ruler of the independent Vandal kingdom brings a temporary cessation to raids on Roman territory.

Although the Vandals are ardent Arian Christians, they allow the Jews in North Africa to live peacefully.