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 Claudianus and Ammianus 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 Claudianus, commonly regarded as the last of the Latin
classic 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 Ammianus
Marcellinus see p. 34.
Sources--(a) Claudius Claudianus, _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) Ammianus Marcellinus, _Rerum Gestarum Libri qui
Supersunt_, Bk. XXXI., 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 sturdy 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] surpasses
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 fashioned 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
fashion. 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.
[Sidenote: Their nomadic character]
Not one among them cultivates the ground, or ever touches a
plow-handle. All wander abroad without fixed abodes, without home,
or law, or settled customs, like perpetual fugitives, with their
wagons for their only habitations. If you ask them, not one can
tell you what is his place of origin. They are ruthless
truce-breakers, fickle, always ready to be swayed by the first
breath of a new desire, abandoning themselves without restraint to
the most ungovernable rage.
Finally, like animals devoid of reason, they are utterly ignorant
of what is proper and what is not. They are tricksters with words
and full of dark sayings. They are never moved by either religious
or superstitious awe. They burn with unquenchable thirst for gold,
and they are so changeable and so easily moved to wrath that many
times in the day they will quarrel with their comrades on no
provocation, and be reconciled, having received no satisfaction.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] A somewhat indefinite region north and east of the Caspian Sea.
[34] The modern Don, flowing into the Sea of Azof.
[35] One of two constellations in the northern hemisphere, called
respectively the Great Bear and the Lesser Bear, or _Ursa Major_ and
_Ursa Minor_. The Great Bear is commonly known as the Dipper.
[36] That is, agriculture. The Huns were even less settled in their
mode of life than were the early Germans described by Tacitus.
[37] A strange creature of classical mythology, represented as half
man and half horse.
[38] The White Sea. It is hardly to be believed that the Huns dwelt so
far north. This was, of course, a matter of sheer speculation with the
Romans.