Wittenberg History Journal Spring 2015 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER, FAITH AND THE OTHER Wittenberg History Journal Contents SPRIng 2015 | VOLUME XLIV Hartje Award Winner New Perspectives on Gender, Faith and the Other 1 Never Mind the Romans, Here’s Attila: The Brief and Wittenberg University Bloody Reign of the Great Hunnic Leader Springfield, Ohio Scott Neall 2015 Editorial Board Senior Editors I. RELIGION AND THE OTHER Ashleigh Pierce ‘15 5 The Christianization of the Germanic Tribes Hannah Sanders ‘15 Hannah Sanders Junior Editors Keri Heath ‘16 13 Monstrous Races on the Central Tympanum at Vézelay: Kaitlyn Vazquez ‘16 Constructing “the Other” in Medieval Society Caitlin Green Faculty Advisor Joshua Paddison 23 The Formation of Al Qaeda The Hartje Paper Nicole Waers The Martha and Robert G. Hartje Award is presented annually to a senior in the spring semester. The History Department determines the three or four finalists who then write a 600 to 800 word narrative II. PREMODERN FEMININITIES essay on an historical event or figure. The finalists must have at least a 2.7 grade point average and 33 Inanna-Ishtar: Recognizing the Personality and have completed at least six history courses. The winner is awarded $500 at a spring semester History Department colloquium and the winner paper is included in the History Journal. This year’s Hartje Purpose of a Goddess Award was presented to Scott Neall. Ashleigh Pierce On the Cover 49 Influential Women of the Mongol Empire Burney Relief, ca. 1750 BCE, British Museum, London Terri Paulsen Address Correspondence to: III. REVIEW ESSAY Editor The Wittenberg History Journal 59 The Evolution of Childhood’s History Department of History Keri Heath Wittenberg University P. O. Box 720 Springfield, OH 45501-0720 Dedication Never Mind the Romans, Here’s Attila: The Brief and The staff of the History Journal dedicates Bloody Reign of the Great Hunnic Leader this issue to Dr. Amy Livingstone, whose Scott Neall dedication to Wittenberg’s history students and passion for education has inspired us Despite his reputation for being a merciless killer and the Roman forces in the east and march as far as Thermopylae.2 credit many give him for truly starting the demise of the He eventually withdrew and engaged in peace negotiations to push our limits of though, research, and Roman Empire, it can be hard to take Attila seriously. One with Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, but scholarship. Through her tireless work and can scarcely imagine him as anything other than a screaming Theodosius died before they were completed. Rather than barbarian wreaking havoc on a scale of Hollywood take advantage of that death or retaliate when Theodosius’s caring advising, she encourages students to proportions. His tenure as sole ruler of the Huns, which son, Marcian, ceased paying tribute to the Huns, Attila meet their fullest potential. involved his famous, devastating attack into Italy that may decided to engage with the western Romans after this have garnered approval from Michael Bay or Mel Gibson, campaign.3 was predicated on political maneuvering that was in fact The events that sparked Attila’s eventual invasion of the more deft than brutish. Like many good stories, the tale of Western Roman Empire defy the commonly held view of this invasion starts with a death. him as the mindless, bloodthirsty destroyer of civilization. According to Roman historians such as Marcellinus, After his return from the invasion in the east Attila received who had spent time in Attila’s court, Attila assassinated his an envoy from the Honoria, the sister of Western Roman elder brother and co-ruler Bleda on or around 445 CE.1 Emperor Valentinian III. Valentinian had arranged her The Huns had for many years enjoyed success against engagement with a man but she was against the marriage a variety of sedentary empires under their combined so she asked Attila for assistance in the matter. She had sent leadership. Nevertheless, Attila appears to have desired for with the envoy treasure and promises of more and, most more power and autonomy over the Hunnic empire and the importantly, a ring.4 Attila took this as an invitation to removal of his brother would have been a straightforward marriage and responded that he would help Honoria if she method of accomplishing this. The intrigue involved with would become his wife.5 This was a savvy political move, an assassination is a far cry from the mounted invasions for as it gave Attila a position to bargain with the Romans which Attila is famous; one might expect pitched combat for and justification for war. He did just that, and demanded control of the forces rather than a quiet death about which Valentinian give to him Honoria and half of the Western little is known. Without firsthand accounts of Bleda’s death Roman Empire.6 With neither of these forthcoming, Attila there has been some debate over its exact nature, but it is launched an attack. certain that after he gained control over the entirety of the Attila first attacked into Gaul, rather than Italy, and was Hunnic forces his focus was on Rome. met there by Roman general Aetius. Aetius had been a Attila’s invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 447 captor of the Huns earlier in his life and was familiar with took advantage of the lack of cohesion among the Romans. their tactics, and so when they met in battle on June 20, 451, At this point in its history the Roman empire was not wholly at the Catalaunian Fields, both sides received heavy losses united but instead had relatively autonomous emperors and Attila was forced to withdraw.7 In 452 Attila finally ruling from Constantinople in the east and Ravenna in the began the invasion that made him the most famous and west. This arrangement would have worked better in the mid crossed the Alps into Italy. In northern Italy he sacked cities to late fifth century if not for a variety of nomadic groups, such as Aquileia, Pavia, and Milan.8 When he finally reached notably the Huns at this point, occupying the space between Rome, however, he was famously persuaded to spare the the two. When Attila invaded he was able to defeat the city and cease his offensive by Pope Leo. Whether because of Vol. XLIV, Spring 2015 • 1 fear of divine retribution, lack of supplies stemming from a drought in Italy, or a plague that had ravaged his soldiers, or any combination thereof, Attila was persuaded and withdrew from Italy.9 Just a year later, in 253, eight years after he assumed total control of the Huns, Attila died of a blood hemorrhage on his wedding night with a new bride. Attila is infamous in western history as the man that brought about the end of the Roman Empire through a Section I. bloody invasion of Italy. In some ways, this is exactly what he did: in a few short years he attacked several parts of the Religion and The Other Roman Empire, destabilizing an already declining civilization. However, this was only possible because of successful statecraft both internally and externally, in addition to his military success. Attila may have been an uncommon leader, but the conditions that lead to Rome’s downfall were already in place when Attila decided to take Honoria as his wife and threaten the heart of the Roman Empire. Rather than a crazed lunatic who plunged Europe into the Dark Ages, Attila is perhaps better remembered as a savvy leader who dominated his neighbors through negotiation as well as military force. Endnotes 1 Christopher Kelly, The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009), 129. 2 Christopher Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 97. 3 Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road, 97. 4 E. A. Thompson, The Huns (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1999), 145. 5 Kelly, The End of Empire, 225-26. 6 Ibid., 236. 7 Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road, 98. 8 Kelly, The End of Empire, 259. 9 Ibid., 262. Bibliography Kelly, Christopher. The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Vézelay Abbey, northern Burgundy, France. Beckwith, Christopher. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. Thompson, E. A. The Huns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1999. 2 • The Wittenberg History Journal The Christianization of the Germanic Tribes Hannah Sanders Whether Rome fell due to the barbarian invasions or the in this essay: Glory of the Confessors and History of the Franks. spirit of Rome was transformed into the new Germanic Glory is a collection of stories on Christian miracles and kingdoms, the role of Christianity was instrumental in the the people, confessors, responsible for them. History is a progression of European civilization. Christianity has a chronological account of the Franks, from creation to turbulent history; from its very beginnings, followers of this Gregory’s own time. It is mostly used here for its sections obscure religion faced persecution from the Roman Empire on Clovis and the Frankish kingdom. Another primary under almost every emperor for a few hundred years. Things source is The Origins and Deeds of the Goths, or Getica, by changed in the fourth century, however, with Constantine Jordanes. This chronological account of the Gothic people issuing edicts of toleration towards Christians and Theodosius is used here mainly as a reference for their spiritual customs.