Attila, king of the Huns, reigned from 433 until his death 453 A.D. He
is noted for the barbaric ferocity of his campaigns against the Eastern
and Western Roman Empires and the Germanic kingdoms of the West. In 447
he ravaged seventy cities in Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, and all but
captured Constantinople. In 451 he crossed the Rhine and sacked the
cities of Belgic Gaul. He was decisively defeated at Troyes by the
Gothic leader Theodoric in league with the Roman general Aëtius. He then
entered northern Italy, where he continued his depredations and advanced
upon Rome. The Emperor Valentinianus II saved the city by paying
tribute. Legend has it that while in Gaul a hermit called Attila to his
face the "scourge of God." Attila accepted the designation and replied
with the remark quoted in the text. This story is not found in Jordanes,
Priscus, or any of the contemporary historians. Gibbon says: "It is a
saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila that the grass never grew
on the spot where his horse had trod" ("Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," London, 1897, III, p. 469). This poem is a magnificent
expression of barbaric battle-lust. Espronceda felt as a youth that
wholesale destruction must precede the new order of things in Spain and
Europe.
=50.= The poet hopelessly confuses the exploits of the Huns, the Goths,
and the Cossacks. Neither the Cossacks nor the Huns ever captured Rome.
Alaric the Goth took Rome in 410 A.D.
=65.= The principal Cossack invasion of Poland was in the first half of
the seventeenth century, when Chmielnicki, hetman of the Cossacks, with
the aid of his Tartar allies ruthlessly devastated the Polish provinces.
This war has been vividly described by Sienkiewicz in his novel "With
Fire and Sword."
=79.= The Huns are said to have carried raw meat beneath their saddles
as they rode. At the end of the day's ride they would eat it.