Part 3 (1/2)

[31] Signs of the zodiac, sometimes employed by the Romans to give figurative expression to the time of day.

[32] The number of Romans killed at Cannae (216 B.C.) is variously estimated, but it can hardly have been under 50,000.

CHAPTER III.

THE HUNS

5. Descriptions by a Graeco-Roman Poet and a Roman Historian

The Huns, a people of Turanian stock, were closely related to the ancestors of the Magyars, or the modern Hungarians. Their original home was in central Asia, beyond the great wall of China, and they were in every sense a people of the plains rather than of the forest or of the sea. From the region of modern Siberia they swept westward in successive waves, beginning about the middle of the fourth century, traversed the ”gateway of the nations” between the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains, and fell with fury upon the German tribes (mainly the Goths) settled in eastern and southern Europe. The descriptions of them given by Claudius Claudia.n.u.s and Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus set forth their characteristics as understood by the Romans a half-century or more before the invasion of the Empire by Attila. There is no reason to suppose that either of these authors had ever seen a Hun, or had his information at first hand. When both wrote the Huns were yet far outside the Empire's bounds. Tales of soldiers and travelers, which doubtless grew as they were told, must have supplied both the poet and the historian with all that they knew regarding the strange Turanian invaders. This being the case, we are not to accept all that they say as the literal truth. Nevertheless the general impressions which one gets from their pictures cannot be far wrong.

Claudius Claudia.n.u.s, commonly regarded as the last of the Latin cla.s.sic poets, was a native of Alexandria who settled at Rome about 395. For ten years after that date he occupied a position at the court of the Emperor Honorius somewhat akin to that of poet-laureate. Much of his writing was of a very poor quality, but his descriptions were sometimes striking, as in the stanza given below. On Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus see p. 34.

Sources--(a) Claudius Claudia.n.u.s, _In Rufinum_ [”Against Rufinus”], Bk. I., 323-331. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi_, Vol. X., pp. 30-31.

Translated in Thomas Hodgkin, _Italy and Her Invaders_ (Oxford, 1880), Vol. II., p. 2.

(b) Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus, _Rerum Gestarum Libri qui Supersunt_, Bk. x.x.xI., Chaps. 2-4 [see p. 34]. Translated in Hodgkin, _ibid._, pp. 34-38.

(a)

There is a race on Scythia's[33] verge extreme Eastward, beyond the Tanais'[34] chilly stream.

The Northern Bear[35] looks on no uglier crew: Base is their garb, their bodies foul to view; Their souls are ne'er subdued to st.u.r.dy toil Or Ceres' arts:[36] their sustenance is spoil.

With horrid wounds they gash their brutal brows, And o'er their murdered parents bind their vows.

Not e'en the Centaur-offspring of the Cloud[37]

Were horsed more firmly than this savage crowd.

Brisk, lithe, in loose array they first come on, Fly, turn, attack the foe who deems them gone.

[Sidenote: Physical appearance of the Huns]

(b)

The nation of the Huns, little known to ancient records, but spreading from the marshes of Azof to the Icy Sea,[38] surpa.s.ses all other barbarians in wildness of life. In the first days of infancy, deep incisions are made in the cheeks of their boys, in order that when the time comes for whiskers to grow there, the sprouting hairs may be kept back by the furrowed scars; and hence they grow to maturity and to old age beardless. They all, however, have strong, well-knit limbs and fine necks. Yet they are of portentous ugliness and so crook-backed that you would take them for some sort of two-footed beasts, or for the roughly-chipped stakes which are used for the railings of a bridge. And though they do just bear the likeness of men (of a very ugly type), they are so little advanced in civilization that they make no use of fire, nor of any kind of relish, in the preparation of their food, but feed upon the roots which they find in the fields, and the half-raw flesh of any sort of animal. I say half-raw, because they give it a kind of cooking by placing it between their own thighs and the backs of their horses. They never seek the shelter of houses, which they look upon as little better than tombs, and will enter only upon the direst necessity; nor would one be able to find among them even a cottage of wattled rushes; but, wandering at large over mountain and through forest, they are trained to endure from infancy all the extremes of cold, of hunger, and of thirst.

[Sidenote: Their dress]

They are clad in linen raiment, or in the skins of field-mice sewed together, and the same suit serves them for use in-doors and out.

However dingy the color of it may become, the tunic which has once been hung around their necks is never laid aside nor changed until through long decay the rags of it will no longer hold together.

Their heads are covered with bent caps, their hairy legs with the skins of goats; their shoes, never having been fas.h.i.+oned on a last, are so clumsy that they cannot walk comfortably. On this account they are not well adapted to encounters on foot; but on the other hand they are almost welded to their horses, which are hardy, though of ugly shape, and on which they sometimes ride woman's fas.h.i.+on. On horseback every man of that nation lives night and day; on horseback he buys and sells; on horseback he takes his meat and drink, and when night comes on he leans forward upon the narrow neck of his horse and there falls into a deep sleep, or wanders into the varied fantasies of dreams.

[Sidenote: Their mode of fighting]

When a discussion arises upon any matter of importance they come on horseback to the place of meeting. No kingly sternness overawes their deliberations, but being, on the whole, well-contented with the disorderly guidance of their chiefs, they do not scruple to interrupt the debates with anything that comes into their heads.

When attacked, they will sometimes engage in regular battle. Then, going into the fight in order of columns, they fill the air with varied and discordant cries. More often, however, they fight in no regular order of battle, but being extremely swift and sudden in their movements, they disperse, and then rapidly come together again in loose array, spread havoc over vast plains and, flying over the rampart, pillage the camp of their enemy almost before he has become aware of their approach. It must be granted that they are the nimblest of warriors. The missile weapons which they use at a distance are pointed with sharpened bones admirably fastened to the shaft. When in close combat they fight without regard to their own safety, and while the enemy is intent upon parrying the thrusts of their swords they throw a net over him and so entangle his limbs that he loses all power of walking or riding.