Attila the Hun .. The trilogy

[^HUN^]

Three books by William Napier.
Ok, ok, not historical accuracy but a damn good read. Very enjoyable.

[^Marcus Cornelius^]

Thanks Hun.
Aetius

[^Marcus Cornelius^]

Think that I am listenning a Attila biography at the Radio just in these days.
When you say coincidences ...

Marcus

[^HUN^]

Yes it's strange isn't it? It's almost as if you will the subject to appear. I finished the first, which depicted Attila as a boy. I had to wait a while for release of the second, where he unites the Huns. I had a long wait after that for the final book, his campaigns against the east and west.
Napier could have done a better job (it's my subject so I would say that) but nevertheless, they are an enjoyable read. Far fetched at times but only to be expected when fiction is interlaced with historical fact.
You mention Gaius Flavious Aetius. The third book tends to revolve around him and I think his character comes across quite well.

Is there an anniversary of an important date that inspired the radio programme or is it simply a coincidence?

[^Marcus Cornelius^]

Only a coincidence.
At 8 p.m every day there is programme that treast historical subjects. It is an historian speaking about the subject. The speech is mixed with rock music. Every subject last about 20 transmissions, a month.
Now they are broadcasting Attila.

For example in several years I could hear about: napoleon, napoleon III, 1914, Carlo Magno, Alexander the Great, Silla, Money History, De Bello gallico, De Bello Civilis, Francesco Giuseppe (Franz Joseph) , Tamerlano (Timurid), etc.
Very enjoyable.
I couldnt heard them all at radio, cause it is at a fixed time, and not always i am iat radio at that hour. But I found the way to download mp3 from the net.
Surely more interesting than news. You can learn more of present days from those speech than listening at radio or tv news...
Oh well surely you learned nothing from news broadcasted ...


Marcus

[^Marcus Cornelius^]

Yesterday They spoke about Priscus at the court of Attila.
So I searched.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/priscus.html

This is a relevant extract ...

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/priscus.html

"The next morning, at dawn of day, Maximin sent me to Onegesius, with presents offered by himself as well as those which the Emperor had sent, and I was to find out whether he would have an interview with Maximin and at what time. When I arrived at the house, along with the attendants who carried the gifts, I found the doors closed, and had to wait until some one should come out and announce our arrival. As I waited and walked up and down in front of the enclosure which surrounded the house, a man, whom from his Scythian dress I took for a barbarian, came up and addressed me in Greek, with the word Xaire, "Hail!" I was surprised at a Scythian speaking Greek. For the subjects of the Huns, swept together from various lands, speak, besides their own barbarous tongues, either Hunnic or Gothic, or--as many as have commercial dealings with the western Romans--Latin; but none of them easily speak Greek, except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian sea-coast; and these last are easily known to any stranger by their torn garments and the squalor of their heads, as men who have met with a reverse. This man, on the contrary, resembled a well-to-do Scythian, being well dressed, and having his hair cut in a circle after Scythian fashion. Having returned his salutation, I asked him who he was and whence he had come into a foreign land and adopted Scythian life. When he asked me why I wanted to know, I told him that his Hellenic speech had prompted my curiosity. Then he smiled and said that he was born a Greek and had gone as a merchant to Viminacium, on the Danube, where he had stayed a long time, and married a very rich wife. But the city fell a prey to the barbarians, and he was stript of his prosperity, and on account of his riches was allotted to Onegesius in the division of the spoil, as it was the custom among the Scythians for the chiefs to reserve for themselves the rich prisoners. Having fought bravely against the Romans and the Acatiri, he had paid the spoils he won to his master, and so obtained freedom. He then married a barbarian wife and had children, and had the privilege of eating at the table of Onegesius.

He considered his new life among the Scythians better than his old life among the Romans, and the reasons he gave were as follows: "After war the Scythians live in inactivity, enjoying what they have got, and not at all, or very little, harassed. The Romans, on the other hand, are in the first place very liable to perish in war, as they have to rest their hopes of safety on others, and are not allowed, on account of their tyrants to use arms. And those who use them are injured by the cowardice of their generals, who cannot support the conduct of war. But the condition of the subjects in time of peace is far more grievous than the evils of war, for the exaction of the taxes is very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others, because the laws are practically not valid against all classes. A transgressor who belongs to the wealthy classes is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man, who does not understand business, undergoes the legal penalty, that is if he does not depart this life before the trial, so long is the course of lawsuits protracted, and so much money is expended on them. The climax of the misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice. For no one will give a court to the injured man unless he pay a sum of money to the judge and the judge's clerks."

In reply to this attack on the Empire, I asked him to be good enough to listen with patience to the other side of the question. "The creators of the Roman republic," I said, "who were wise and good men, in order to prevent things from being done at haphazard made one class of men guardians of the laws, and appointed another class to the profession of arms, who were to have no other object than to be always ready for battle, and to go forth to war without dread, as though to their ordinary exercise having by practice exhausted all their fear beforehand. Others again were assigned to attend to the cultivation of the ground, to support both themselves and those who fight in their defence, by contributing the military corn-supply.... To those who protect the interests of the litigants a sum of money is paid by the latter, just as a payment is made by the farmers to the soldiers. Is it not fair to support him who assists and requite him for his kindness? The support of the horse benefits the horseman.... Those who spend money on a suit and lose it in the end cannot fairly put it down to anything but the injustice of their case. And as to the long time spent on lawsuits, that is due to concern for justice, that judges may not fail in passing correct judgments, by having to give sentence offhand; it is better that they should reflect, and conclude the case more tardily, than that by judging in a hurry they should both injure man and transgress against the Deity, the institutor of justice.... The Romans treat their servants better than the king of the Scythians treats his subjects. They deal with them as fathers or teachers, admonishing them to abstain from evil and follow the lines of conduct whey they have esteemed honourable; they reprove them for their errors like their own children. They are not allowed, like the Scythians, to inflict death on them. They have numerous ways of conferring freedom; they can manumit not only during life, but also by their wills, and the testamentary wishes of a Roman in regard to his property are law."

My interlocutor shed tears, and confessed that the laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generations, were ruining the State. "

Are we at the "Fall of Roman Empire"?

Marcus

[^HUN^]

LOL!!!
Yes we have come a long way, haven't we? Wherever there is power, there is corruption. Always has been, always will be.

The account by Priscus is wonderful, where Attila allows the ambassadors to dig themselves ever larger holes, his show of disgust at underhanded, foul plotting. "Who now is the barbarian?" It makes you cringe to read it.
It was a strange time though, when you consider the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus was the son of Attila's companion, Orestes.

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