Meeting of Attila and Pope Leo I Among the “barbarian” invaders of the Roman Empire, none were more feared than the Huns, led by the infamous Attila. In a celebrated meeting in 452 C.E., Pope Leo I persuaded Attila to spare the city of Rome and to withdraw from Italy. This seventeenth-century Spanish painting records one view of that remarkable meeting. (Mural in church, El Hospital de Los Venerables, Seville, Spain/© Islandstock/Alamy)