Marcian also personally launched expeditions across the Danube into the hunnic heartland, winning significant victories against them. The actions of Marcian, combined with famine in Italy, forced Attila to retreat back to the Hungarian plains where he would die in 453. After the death of Attila, Marcian would settle many formerly hunnic vassal tribes within Eastern Roman lands as foederati, taking advantage of the fall of the Hunnic empire.