Attila the Hun
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Attila the Hun BIOGRAPHY WORKBOOK Attila the Hun ATTILA THE HUN: THE “SCOURGE OF GOD” (LIVED CIRCA 400-453 C.E.; REIGNED 434-453 C.E.) The Goths were considered by This terrific and brutal little the Romans to be "improvable Kalmuck, with his bead-like eyes, this barbarians." But the Huns whom skin-clad devourer of raw flesh, Attila led to ravage the fair peninsula delighted to lay waste whole empires were, to the people of ancient Rome, with fire and sword, and to terrify the mere Tartar savages of the lowest world. In 434, Attila became king of stamp. the Huns with his brother Bleda. In All the other invaders of Italy 445, Bleda died, possibly by murder. were of Teutonic (Germanic) origin. In 445, Attila, now sole king of the But the Huns were Mongols from Huns, invaded the Eastern Roman Asia—of such perfect hideousness to Empire, and ravaged it even to the European sensibilities of the time that gates of Constantinople. He was only Jornandes regarded them as the bought off from destroying it by an offspring of witches and demons. enormous tribute. Attila, son of Mundzuk, "the scourge of God," resembled his soldiers in his 2. Who was Attila’s brother and co- flat, tan features, deep-set, fierce, ruler? rolling black eyes, and short figure. a. Bleda Historically, Westerners viewed the b. Genghis Huns as uncivilizable savages, who c. Mundzuk might harry a continent, but neither d. Tamerlane under Attila, nor Genghis, nor Tamerlane, could ever found a The infamous plot to assassinate centrally organized kingdom. him by the treachery of Edecon, who was one of his counselors, was 1. Why did the Romans scorn the discovered and foiled, and Attila sent Huns more than other barbarians, message after message filled with such as the Goths? insults to Eastern Roman (Byzantine) ____________________________________ Emperor Theodosius II. ____________________________________ In 451, Attila’s vast army moved ____________________________________ westward, and devastated Gaul. It ____________________________________ was met in the Mauriac plain and www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 2 Attila the Hun defeated by Ætius in the tremendous 3. Who defeated Attila at the Battle of battle of Chalons, after a carnage Chalons (451)? among the most frightful that the ____________________________________ world has ever seen. ____________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Word Search Puzzle T H E O D O S I U S I I P Y C W O C A D E L B G B S A R A H Y N I O N K I O A R N A E A A R O N M O J C T A N G T X V L Q R E L D I T T O N I B A S O L I V H D L R N U U Z U H U N S A E L E A I H S C B T P I S A L I T T A F Terms Aetius Huns Attila Ildico battle Leo I Bleda Pannonia Chalons Tartars Honoria Theodosius II Hungary Venice The Huns were only saved from saddles and other spoils erected, and final destruction by the heroic declared his determination to burn boldness of Attila. He had a vast hill of himself alive rather than be taken www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 3 Attila the Hun captive. He led back his shattered host 5. Why do you suppose that Attila to Pannonia, and there in his wooden used a scorched earth strategy palace meditated revenge. In the one (destroying anything that his authentic glimpse which we get of his enemies might find useful) when mode of life, we see him at a banquet, fighting the Romans? while his nobles and warriors ____________________________________ caroused and burst into peals of ____________________________________ laughter at the buffooneries of an idiot ____________________________________ and a jester. But the Hunnish king sat ____________________________________ grave and silent, caressing the cheeks ____________________________________ of the boy Ernak, his favorite son, ____________________________________ whom the augur pointed out as the ____________________________________ heir of his destinies. ____________________________________ 4. How did Attila save himself and his Rome awaited with trembling a remaining troops? fate which seemed to threaten ____________________________________ unprecedented catastrophe. But in ____________________________________ this awful crisis the Pope, Leo I, ____________________________________ showed himself the true Defensor ____________________________________ civitatis. Leo I headed a splendid ____________________________________ embassy to the camp of Attila. ____________________________________ Already Leo had helped to trace with ____________________________________ firm hand the deep lines of Christian ____________________________________ orthodoxy which were accepted by the Church at the fourth great In 452, Attila once more put his Œcumenical Council of Chalcedon in myriads in motion and invaded Italy. 451 C.E. Now Leo showed what Everywhere, the land was as the miracle could be achieved by the garden of Eden before him; behind irresistible might of weakness. him it was a desolate wilderness. Encouraged by the omen of some 6. Devise an English translation for storks leaving their nest, he stormed the Latin term Defensor civitatis. and destroyed Aquileia. Razing city ____________________________________ after city into heaps of blackened ____________________________________ ruins, he advanced to Milan, boasting ____________________________________ that "where his horses' hoofs trod, the ____________________________________ grass never grew." ____________________________________ www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 4 Attila the Hun Attila's god was a naked iron the Emperor Valentinian had been sword of gigantic size, which had been ready to fly, the Pope Leo was not accidentally found by a herdsman and afraid to advance, and that "when the presented to him, but which Attila successor of Cæsar had been proved palmed off on his nation as the useless, the successor of St. Peter had authentic sword of the Scythian war- been a very present help." Indirectly god. Yet he was easily overawed by Attila was the strengthener of the the majesty of religion. Attila scorned Papacy, and the founder of Venice. the guilty, corrupt courtiers of That stately and gorgeous city owes its Constantinople, but he almost origin to the Italians who fled in terror trembled before a holy man. Already, before the brutal Huns from ruined in 451, he had spared the defenseless Padua to the islands and lagoons at city of Troyes at the entreaty of its the mouth of the Piave. bishop, St. Lupus, and had asked the benefit of his prayers. And when he 8. How was Attila indirectly gazed on the calm countenance, noble responsible for the founding of presence, and dauntless demeanor of Venice, Italy? Pope Leo, an awful dread fell upon ____________________________________ him. Alaric had conquered Rome, but ____________________________________ Alaric had died immediately ____________________________________ afterward. How if it would be so with ____________________________________ Attila? He yielded, he retired; he said—or perhaps he said—that he In retiring, Attila had demanded could conquer men, but that the wolf once more the hand and dower of (Lupus) and the lion (Leo) had learnt Honoria, the disgraced sister of how to conquer him. Theodosius II, who had offered herself to Attila in order to avoid a forced 7. Why was Attila in awe of Pope Leo marriage. But in 453, Attila added a I? beautiful maiden, Ildico, to his ____________________________________ innumerable wives. Attila retired from ____________________________________ the marriage banquet after a deep ____________________________________ carouse, and in the morning was found ____________________________________ dead amid a flood of gore by which he had been suffocated, while Ildico sat The tide of brutal and barbarous weeping beneath her veil by the dead invasion was rolled back again, and king's bedside. Attila died as a fool the world and the city saw that while dieth. His warriors gashed their www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 5 Attila the Hun cheeks and wept tears of blood, and Heruli reasserted their independence gave him a splendid burial. And his in the great victory of Netad in name passed into legend as the King Pannonia in 454. And though the Etzel of the Niebelungen Lied, and Huns left their name in Hungary, Alti of the Saga. henceforth the empire of Attila became mere "driftwood, on its way to 9. How did Attila die? inevitable oblivion." ____________________________________ ____________________________________ 10. The term “loutish sons” refers to ____________________________________ whom? ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ But Attila’s "loutish sons" ____________________________________ quarreled among themselves. The ____________________________________ Teutons, Goths, Gepidæ, Alani, and ____________________________________ 11. Imagine that you are Attila. Select and describe events and decisions from Attila’s life that you would have handled or decided differently. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________