Attila:The Scourge of God

by Ross Laidlaw

  76 ‘the Altar of Victory removed from the Senate’. This was bitterly opposed by Symmachus, city prefect of Rome, consul, orator, man of letters, and distinguished member of one of the great influential Roman families, the Symmachi.

  76 ‘the pursuit of otium’. Leisured scholarship was the preserve of the senatorial aristocracy and country gentlemen in Rome and the Latin provinces, as well as in the Eastern Empire. This created a remarkably uniform, if sterile, classical culture which survived in the Western Empire right up to the end in 476, and even beyond.

  77 ‘Many of their leaders copy Roman dress and manners’. Sidonius Apollinaris, who visited the Visigoth court of Theoderic II, draws a flattering pen-portrait of the monarch, and describes Gallo-Roman aristocrats being sumptuously entertained by Visigoth courtiers displaying the courteous manners and wit of Roman gentlemen.

  Chapter 11

  81 ‘like a latter-day Cincinnatus’. In Rome’s early days, the exconsul Cincinnatus was summoned from the plough to lead Rome against the Aequians; that tribe defeated, he returned to ploughing his farm.

  Chapter 13

  91 ‘Ariminum’s five-spanned bridge. . triumphal arch’. The bridge is still in use today, and the arch spans a main road into Rimini.

  Chapter 14

  101 ‘Ad Kalendas Graecas’. The Roman Kalends was the usual day for paying rents, accounts, etc. But as the Greeks used a different mode of reckoning, a postponement of payment ‘to the Greek Kalends’ simply meant a refusal to pay altogether. Popularized by Emperor Augustus, the expression became a synonym for ‘never’.

  Chapter 15

  107 ‘his son-in-law Sebastian’. ‘the virtuous and faithful Sebastian’ (Gibbon) was subsequently hounded implacably by the agents of Aetius, ‘from one kingdom to another, till he perished miserably in the service of the Vandals’, a Catholic martyr of Arian persecution.

  109 ‘he will be outlawed’. After the Battle of the Fifth Milestone, Aetius and the remnants of his force managed to retreat to Gaul. Defeated, disgraced, declared a rebel by Placidia, he then withdrew to a fortified estate inherited from his father, where he attempted to hold out. However, besieged by imperial troops and nearly falling victim to a murder attempt by Sebastian, Aetius soon realized that his position was untenable. Accompanied by a few loyal followers, he slipped away in secret and escaped to Pannonia, to be granted sanctuary by his faithful friends the Huns.

  Chapter 17

  119 ‘the sword had been gifted to him by a herdsman’. The full story is recounted by Priscus of Panium in his Byzantine History, which contains a graphic account of his visit to the court of Attila.

  123 ‘both an Aristotle and an Arrian to Attila’s Alexander’. Aristotle was tutor to the young Alexander, Arrian (second century AD) his biographer.

  124 ‘even copied by the imperial cavalry of China’. This seems to have occurred c. 300 BC. Gradually tunic and trousers spread among the Chinese population, displacing traditional flowing robes and tight shoes to become the Chinese national dress. Today, this ubiquitous costume is giving ground to Western clothing, itself a throwback to Persian dress, introduced into Britain by Charles II: a long, open-fronted jacket worn over waistcoat and breeches — the embryonic three-piece suit.

  125 ‘if Ptolemy is correct’. The foremost of classical geographers, Ptolemy flourished in the mid-second century AD. His Geographia, a standard work of reference up to the Great Discoveries of the fifteenth century, shows on its great world map lines of latitude and longitude (calculated from Ferro in the Canaries), Europe and the Near East reasonably accurately, and — distorted though recognizable — the main features of Asia and Africa as they were known in his day.

  127 ‘a drink called chai’. Tea is thought to have been introduced to China from India before 500. ‘Brick tea’, steamed and compressed tea dust, is only one-sixth the bulk of loose tea, making it an ideal article of trade.

  127 ‘rhinoceros and elephant’. That is, woolly rhinoceros and mammoth. John Ledyard in his 1787-8 journal, A Journey through Russia and Siberia, noted seeing large quantities of such bones in the vicinity of Irkutsk. Significant amounts of commercial ivory have been recovered from mammoth tusks.

  128 ‘still permitted to discuss all matters freely’. But not for much longer. Within a few generations they were to be closed by order of Justinian, one symbol of the winding up of classical culture.

  Chapter 18

  138 ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’. In Homeric legend, these were two sea-monsters who dwelt on either side of a narrow strait, constituting a deadly peril to passing seafarers. In modern parlance, ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’ would translate as ‘between a rock and a hard place’.

  Chapter 22

  165 ‘one of those German legends’. The Burgundian campaign, of which this was the prelude, was in fact to become the subject of one such saga, the Nibelungenlied, which conflates several separate events, and even features Attila.

  Chapter 23

  169 ‘an Aurelian to wipe out the Alamanni sweeping into Italia’. Aurelian, huge in character as well as physique, was instrumental, along with his predecessor Claudius II and his successor Diocletian, in rehabilitating (in a bleak and totalitarian fashion) the Roman Empire after its near-eclipse in the third century. Rome is still (mostly) surrounded by the defensive walls he built against incursions by the Alamanni.

  Chapter 25

  194 ‘a race of uncivilized allies’. At the time Sidonius was writing, the Visigoths were attacking Arvernum (Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne) of which Sidonius, son-in-law of Avitus, had become bishop.

  196 ‘the milestone marking the centre of Gaul’. It has since been moved a few miles to the town of Bruere-Allichamps, south of Bourges, to mark the supposed geographical centre of France.

  197 ‘Revessium’. Also known as Ruessio or Ruessium, it was the capital of the Vellavi tribe, allies of Vercingetorix against Julius Caesar.

  197 ‘the fierce and volatile Arverni’. Under their famous leader Vercingetorix, they inflicted on Julius Caesar his single reverse at Gergovia in 52 BC.

  197 ‘Avitacum, the estate of Senator Avitus’. Sidonius Apollinaris, son-in-law of Avitus, has left us a description of the place. There are views of the hills and across Lac d’Aydat, heated baths, outhouses, women’s quarters, and a summerhouse. Sidonius talks of drinking snow-cooled wine while watching fishermen on the lake; and he describes the rural sounds of frogs, chickens, swans, geese, wild birds, cattle, cowbells, and shepherd’s pipes. A scene straight out of Virgil’s Georgics — ironically, painted as the Western Empire tottered towards its final collapse.

  Chapter 26

  202 ‘the recently enacted Law of Citations’. This was compiled under Valentinian III in 426, in an attempt to clarify the rather ramshackle mass of sometimes conflicting Roman legislation; a further improvement, the Theodosian Code (compiled in the Eastern Empire) followed in 438. The stately fabric of Roman law which we know today and which forms the basis of Scots law and the legal systems of other nations, is the great Digest of Justinian, a selective condensation of Roman laws from Hadrian to 533, the year of the Digest’s publication.

  202 ‘Papinian was to have the casting vote’. Aemilius Papinianus was the most celebrated Roman jurist before the time of Justinian. He was put to death by Caracalla in 212 AD.

  203 ‘But this could happen only once’. Penance would obviously incur prior admission of the sins to be expunged. But that was very different from the present practice of Confession followed by Absolution, on a regular basis. This only became formalized in the fourth Lateran Council of 1215, and received final confirmation in the Council of Trent, 1545-63.

  Chapter 28

  214 ‘another Zama’. Zama was the decisive battle in North Africa, in which Scipio the Younger inflicted a crushing defeat on Hannibal in 201 BC. The long and bitter struggle against Carthage brought out the best in the Roman character, creating a patriotic resolve akin to the ‘Dunkirk spirit’, or the sentimen
ts expressed in Robert Burns’ poem, ‘Bruce’s Address at Bannockburn’.

  219 ‘sowing dragon’s teeth’. A reference to an incident recounted in the Greek legend of the Golden Fleece, where warriors sprang up from land sown with dragon’s teeth.

  220 ‘Orestes, his young Roman secretary’. A brave and talented man who, after the death of Attila rose to become Master of Soldiers in Italia, Orestes was the father of the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus — those names a chilling echo of Rome’s founder, and of her first Emperor.

  Chapter 29

  223 ‘Sirmium, the mighty Illyrian city’. Mitrovica, in Kosovo, along with Belgrade, is by a macabre coincidence once more associated with a policy of genocide and ‘ethnic cleansing’. For Huns read Serbs. Illyria, comprising the East’s Balkan provinces, should not be confused with Illyricum, the West’s most easterly diocese.

  226 ‘the city was. . systematically demolished’. The capture and destruction of great cities like Sirmium, hitherto thought impregnable, especially to barbarians, must have dealt the Romans a terrible psychological blow, creating panic and hopelessness.

  227 ‘the circus faction of the Greens’. The Greens and the Blues were the opposing supporters of the rival chariot-racing teams in Constantinople, distinguished by those colours. They could wield enormous influence, as in the ‘Nika’ riots of 532, which almost toppled the emperor Justinian. Shades of Celtic v. Rangers! The Blues tended to identify with the emperor and the Establishment.

  Chapter 30

  237 ‘in extending their conquests so far westward’. Recent discoveries have confirmed the vast distance the Huns migrated from their original homeland, which was probably to the north of Korea. In north-west Hungary, the last area to fall to them, a Hunnic hoard has been found, containing small gold horses, identical to others discovered in a huge arc extending across eastern Europe, and Asia as far as eastern Siberia.

  239 ‘a grotesquely inflated nose’. Europe’s only antelope, the saiga formerly existed in enormous herds across the steppelands of Asia and eastern Europe. Almost wiped out in the severe winter of 1829, it is making a comeback and is now protected. Its salient feature, a hugely enlarged nose, contains structures to warm the air and filter dust from it.

  241 ‘a mighty aqueduct’. Built by Emperor Valens in 375, much of it is still standing, having been in use until the late nineteenth century. A classic Roman structure, it dramatically spans a valley in a double series of superimposed arches.

  242 ‘four mighty horses in bronze’. They were looted by the Venetians after their capture of the city in 1204, and are now to be seen adorning St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.

  Chapter 31

  245 ‘King Chlodio’. Chlodio was the great-grandfather of Clovis (Chlodovec), whose reign was of seminal importance for two reasons: (i) under Clovis, the Franks became the dominant power in Gaul, henceforth to be known as Francia — France; (ii) Clovis’ marriage to a Catholic princess led to his, and his people’s, conversion from Arianism, which helped to unite Gallo-Romans and Germans in his kingdom.

  246 ‘a mighty comitatus’. The warrior society of the early Germans shows remarkable parallels to that of the Highland clans or Border reivers in Scotland, where a successful war-leader would attract a retinue of armed followers who adopted his surname. (The word ‘surname’ was coined in the Borders.)

  Chapter 32

  256 ‘Eratosthenes. . was said to be able. . to measure its circumference’. His method was brilliantly simple. By comparison of the sun’s relative position at two separate points on the earth’s surface (north-south), the angle subtended by the measured distance between these points was calculated. 360 degrees was then divided by this angle and the result multiplied by the distance. This gave a measurement astonishingly close to the modern estimate of 24,000 miles. Pure geometry — pure genius.

  Chapter 36

  272 ‘To Aegidius, consul for the third time’. Perhaps from the similarity of the names, Gildas is confusing Aegidius with Aetius, to whom the appeal was actually sent. Aegidius at the time was serving under Aetius in Gaul, as was Majorian, the future emperor. Aegidius was destined to become ‘Master of Soldiers throughout the Gauls’.

  277 ‘as the patrol neared Anderida’. Pevensey — Anderida to the Romans — held out until 491. The entry for that year in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: ‘In this year Aelle and Cissa besieged Andredesceaster and slew all the inhabitants; there was not even one Briton left alive.’

  Chapter 37

  281 ‘Constantine rose to the occasion’. As did the emperor — in the only way he knew how. Theodosius led a penitential procession of ten thousand, barefoot, with hymns, icons and relics, to the Hebdomon palace for a great service of supplication.

  282 ‘a massively solid, finished piece of work’. And still standing: a tribute to Roman engineering genius — and the terror inspired by Attila. They held firm against all attacks for another thousand years, until finally falling to the Turks in 1453. A contemporary inscription on the Walls commemorates Constantine: ‘Constantinus ovans haec moenia firma locavit [Triumphantly, Constantine raised these stout ramparts].’ An ambitious reconstruction scheme has recently restored part of the Walls to their original glory.

  Chapter 38

  287 ‘Attila must surely hesitate before again taking on a Roman army’. The Battle of the Utus was in fact the last occasion when the Huns defeated a Roman army.

  Chapter 39

  292 ‘a strip of territory south of the Danubius. . to be ceded to the Huns’. Probably Attila’s aim was not to occupy this strip but to create a ‘cleared zone’ to facilitate any future re-invasion of Roman territory.

  Chapter 40

  301 ‘Constantius was bribed to kill me’. For full details of the conspiracy masterminded by Chrysaphius, see Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 34.

  Chapter 42

  307 ‘regiment of Scholae’. Based in Constantinople, the imperial bodyguard consisted of seven elite cavalry regiments known as scholae. A select group of forty chosen from their number and known as candidati, formed the Emperor’s personal retinue. Individuals from the scholae often served as imperial agents, carrying out missions in the provinces.

  307 ‘a mountainous plateau between the Pontus Euxinus and the Mare Caspium’. Armenia was the interface for the Roman world’s equivalent of ‘the Great Game’. For Afghanistan, read Armenia; for Britain, Rome; for Russia, Persia. After being occupied by other powers for nearly two millennia, from Rome and Persia to Turkey and the Soviet Union, Armenia has at last regained its autonomy.

  308 ‘Take your pick’. In the fifth century, it was dawning on the Roman world, especially Constantinople, that theirs was but one state among many: a perception which contrasted with the fourth-century view that Rome comprised the entire civilized world. The weakening of West Rome and its growing divergence from its Eastern partner, the re-emergence of Persia as a formidable power under the Sassanids, the sudden rise of Attila’s vast empire: all contributed to the shattering of this comfortable illusion. The new reality is illustrated by the diplomatic missions, in the mid-fifth century, of Olympiodorus of Thebes (in Egypt) to Rome, to Nubia, to the Dnieper — accompanied by a parrot speaking pure Attic Greek.

  309 ‘before the conference takes place’. As the Council of Chalcedon, it duly did take place the following year, 451, when the Persian invasion of Armenia also occurred.

  315 ‘In the tradition of your Regulus’. Regulus was a Roman consul who, despite knowing the likely consequences to himself, conveyed to the Carthaginians (during the First Punic War) the Senate’s rejection of their offers of peace. According to legend, he was then executed after being hideously tortured.

  317 ‘Perhaps the time had come for a final trial of strength’. That time did come, though not for many years. The ‘final solution’ of the centuries-old conflict between Rome and Persia was to be as cataclysmic as it was unexpected. Early in the seventh century, a ferocious P
ersian general, Shahrvaraz, overran the southern provinces of the East Roman Empire; but in a series of brilliant campaigns the territory was all recovered by the heroic Emperor Heraclius. Then, without warning, fanatical Arab armies inspired by the teachings of Muhammad, swarmed out of the south in the 630s, and in a few short years had swallowed up Persia and reduced the East Roman Empire to an Anatolian rump.1 Roman Christianity in Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria was permanently replaced by Islam.

  Chapter 49

  359 ‘On the left flank, the Romans waited’. This was the last great field battle fought by the Roman army in the West. (The Roman troops of Majorian, by the time he became emperor, and — after the collapse of the Western Empire in 476 — those of Syagrius, were virtually private armies.) But even after the end of empire, vestiges of Rome’s army lingered on. In 482 a Danubian unit sent to Italy for its final pay instalment; and Procopius writes of soldiers in Frankish service clinging nostalgically to their old legionary structure, complete with standards and traditional Roman uniform. This in the 550s, a century after the Catalaunian Plains. Even in Britain, abandoned by the legions c. 407, units of the limitanei struggled on, until the last of them was wiped out by the Saxon invaders in 491.