Attila called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns and Alans among others, in Central and Eastern Europe. During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Eastern Roman Empires, he plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West, he attempted to conquer Roman Gaul, crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. He subsequently was unable to take Rome, he planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453. After Attila's death, his close adviser, Ardaric of the Gepids, led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire collapsed. There is no surviving first-hand account of Attila's appearance, but there is a possible second-hand source provided by Jordanes, who cites a description given by Priscus.

He was a man born into the world to shake the nations, the scourge of all lands, who in some way terrified all mankind by the dreadful rumors noised abroad concerning him. He was haughty in his walk, rolling his eyes hither and thither, so that the power of his proud spirit appeared in the movement of his body, he was indeed a lover of war, yet restrained in action, mighty in counsel, gracious to suppliants and lenient to those who were once received into his protection. Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head. Many scholars have argued. Omeljan Pritsak considered Ἀττίλα a composite title-name which derived from Turkic *es, *til, the suffix /a/.:444 The stressed back syllabic til assimilated the front member es, so it became *as.:444 It is a nominative, in form of attíl- with the meaning "the oceanic, universal ruler".:444 J. J. Mikkola connected it with Turkic āt.:216 As another Turkic possibility, H. Althof considered it was related to Turkish atli, or Turkish at and dil.:216 Maenchen-Helfen argues that Pritsak's derivation is "ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable",:387 while dismissing Mikkola's as "too farfetched to be taken seriously".:390 M. Snædal notes that none of these proposals has achieved wide acceptance.:215–216 Criticizing the proposals of finding Turkic or other etymologies for Attila, Doerfer notes that King George VI of England had a name of Greek origin, Süleyman the Magnificent had a name of Arabic origin, yet that does not make them Greeks or Arabs: it is therefore plausible that Attila would have a name not of Hunnic origin.:31-32 Historian Hyun Jin Kim, has argued that the Turkic etymology is "more probable".:30M.

Snædal, in a paper that rejects the Germanic derivation but notes the problems with the existing proposed Turkic etymologies, argues that Attila's name could have originated from Turkic-Mongolian at, adyy/agta and Turkish atli, meaning "possessor of geldings, provider of warhorses".:216–217 The historiography of Attila is faced with a major challenge, in that the only complete sources are written in Greek and Latin by the enemies of the Huns. Attila's contemporaries left many testimonials of his life, but only fragments of these remain.:25 Priscus was a Byzantine diplomat and historian who wrote in Greek, he was both a witness to and an actor in the story of Attila, as a member of the embassy of Theodosius II at the Hunnic court in 449. He was biased by his political position, but his writing is a major source for information on the life of Attila, he is the only person known to have recorded a physical description of him, he wrote a history of the late Roman Empire in eight books covering the period from 430 to 476.

Today we have only fragments of Priscus' work, but it was cited extensively by 6th-century historians Procopius and Jordanes,:413 in Jordanes' The Origin and Deeds of the Goths. It contains numerous references to Priscus's history, it is an important source of information about the Hunnic empire and its neighbors, he describes the Hunnic people for a century after Attila's death. Marcellinus Comes, a chancellor of Justinian during the same era describes the relations between the Huns and the Eastern Roman Empire.:30Numerous ecclesiastical writings contain useful but scattered information, sometimes difficult to authenticate or dist

Djedeida Airfield is an airfield in Tunisia, located 10 km east-northeast of El Battan, 30 km west of Tunis. The airfield was used by the German Luftwaffe, it was raided by elements of the US 1st battalion of the 1st Armored Regiment on 25 November 1942, but the US forces were forced to withdraw due to lack of infantry support. It continued operations under the Germans until seized by the American II Corps on 8 May 1943. After being repaired by Army engineers, it was used by the United States Army Air Force Twelfth Air Force during the North African Campaign. Known units assigned were: 17th Bombardment Group, 23 June-1 November 1943, B-26 Marauder 319th Bombardment Group, 26 June-1 November 1943, B-26 Marauder 27th Fighter Squadron, 1–29 November 1943, P-38 Lightning 71st Fighter Squadron, 31 October-29 November 1943, P-38 Lightning 94th Fighter Squadron, 1–29 November 1943, P-38 LightningWhen the fighters moved out at the end of November, the airfield became a servicing depot of Air Technical Service Command until the end of January 1944 when the Americans left the area.

Today in aerial imagery, the airfield looks like it did in 1943. The runway, although deteriorated, along with all of the taxiways and aircraft hardstands are much in evidence, it is unclear. This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/. Maurer, Air Force Combat Units of World War II, Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Zenger Publishing & Office of Air Force History, ISBN 978-0-89201-092-9 Maurer, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force in World War II: History and Insignia, Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Zenger Publishing & Air Force Historical Studies Office, ISBN 978-0-89201-097-4

Byzantine units of measurement were a combination and modification of the ancient Greek and Roman units of measurement used in the Byzantine Empire. Until the reign of Justinian I, no universal system of units of measurement existed in the Byzantine world, each region used its traditional measures. Justinian began the process of standardization that resulted in a Byzantine system, chiefly due to the need of such a system for the fiscal administration. Official measurement and weighing was performed subject to an array of charges including the mestikon, zygastikon, kambaniatikon and samariatikon. Despite the central government's insistence on the use of official measures, other systems continued to be used in parallel, whether due to local traditions or foreign influences, or in order to cover the necessities of specific trades or crafts. In addition, from the 12th century, foreign merchants such as the Venetians and Genovese operating within the Empire received the right to use their own systems.

The Byzantine Empire continued to employ the anthropometric units used by the Romans. Weights and measures acts were sometimes undertaken by the emperors as forms of tax reform. An 11th-century guide to Byzantine tax collection contains emendations concerning the Emperor Michael's addition of a palm to the fathom used in computing the schoinion, an act which reduced the holders' taxable area by about 5%; the ordinary units used for land measurement were Greek. The ordinary units used for liquid measurement were Roman: The ordinary units used for measurement of weight or mass were Roman, based on the late Roman pound; this has been reconstructed on the basis of known legislation of Constantine the Great in AD 309 establishing 72 gold solidi to the pound. As the early solidi weighed 4.55 g, the pound was therefore 0.3276 kg at the time. The solidus was debased, implying average pounds of 0.324 kg, 0.322 kg, 0.320 kg, 0.319 kg, less thereafter. Model weights were made in lead and glass and from gold and silver.

They came in various styles. Presently, archaeologists believe the bronze spheres sliced flat at top and bottom and marked with an omicron/upsilon date from the early 3rd to late 5th centuries being replaced by cubes marked with a gamma/omicron over the course of the 4th century. In the second half of the 6th century, these were replaced by discs until at least the early 9th century and the 12th; the glass weights had numerous advantages in manufacture and use but seem to have disappeared following the loss of the empire's Syrian and Egyptian provinces in the 7th century. Analysis of the thousands of surviving model weights suggest multiple local weight standards in the Byzantine Empire before the Arab conquests. Under Justinian, the weights of currency were administered by the comes sacrarum largitionum and commodity weights by the praetorian prefect and eparch of the city. By the 9th century, the eparch nominally controlled all official weights in Constantinople, although archaeology has shown others issued their own weights, including proconsuls, viri laudabiles, viri clarissimi in the west and anthypatoi and ephors in the east.

Greek units Roman units Davis, Siriol, "Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Part VI: Administration and Settlement in Venetian Navarino", Hesperia. Entwistle, Christopher, "Byzantine Weights", The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed.. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. Krumbacher, Karl, ed. Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Vol. XCI, De Gruyter, p. 176. Loizos, Demetris I. "Byzantine Measures", Digital Humanities: Diophant Ancient Measures Converter, retrieved 6 April 2015. Morrisson, Cécile. "Prices and Wages in the Byzantine World", The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 815–878. Nicole, J. ed. The Book of the Eparch, London. Oikonomides, Nicolas, "The Role of the Byzantine State in the Economy", The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Translated for publication by John Solman, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 973–1058.

Porter, H. "Sabbath Day's Journey", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, William B. Eerdmans Publishing. Pryce, Frederick Norman. Schilbach, Erich, "Pletron", The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195046526. Smith, William, "Uncia", A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 1213