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PRIMARY SOURCE Dinner with Attila the Hun from Historici Graeci Minores by PriscusSection 4

In about A.D. 450, representatives from the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire met with Attila, the king of the Huns, on a special diplomatic mis­sion. Priscus, a representative of the eastern Roman Empire, wrote an account of having dinner with Attila. What do you learn about Attila from this account?

Attila invited both partie~ of us to dine with him about three o'c1ock that afte rnoon. vVe waited

for the time of the invitation , and then all of us , the envoys [rom the \Veste rn Romans as well, present­ed ourselves in the doorwav faci ng Attiia. ] 11 accor­dance with the national cu;tom th~ cupbearers gave us a cup for us to make our libations before we took our seats. When that had been done and we had sipped the wine, we went to the chairs where we would sit to have dinner. All the seats were ranged down either side of the room, up agai nst the walls. In the middle Attila was Sitting on a couch with a second couch behind him. Behind that a few steps leel up to his bed, which for decorative pUlposes was covered in omate drapes made of nne Jinen, like those which Greeks and Homans prepare for marriage ceremonic~s. I thi nk that the more distin­guished gnests were on Attila 's right, and the second rank on his left, where we were with Berichos, a man of some re nown among the Scythians, who was sitting in front of us. Onegesios was to the right of Attila's couch , and opposite him were two of the

king's sons on chairs. The eldest son was si tting on Attila's own couch , ri ght on th e very edge, \vith his eyes fixed on the ground in fear of his father....

After everyone had been toasted, the cupbear­ers left, and a table was put in front of Attila and other tables for groups of three or four men each. This enabled each guest to he lp himself to the things put on the table v"ithout leaving h is proper seat. Attila's servant entered first with plates full of ment. and thosco, waiting on aU the others put bread and cooked food on the tabJes. A 1<1\·i sh mea l, served on silver tre nchers, was prepared for us and the other harbarians , but Attila just had some meat on a wooden platter, for this was one aspect of his self­discipline. For instance , gold or silver cups were presented to the other diners , but his own goblet was made of wood. His cloth es, too , were simple,

30 UNIT 2, CHAPTER G

and no trouble was taken except to have them clean. The sword that hung by his side , the clasps of hi s harharian shoes and the hridle of his horse were all free from gold, precious stones or other valuahle decorations clffected bv the other Scvthians . v\Then the food in the first pl :ltes wasfinisb~d we all got up , and no one, once on his fee t, returned to his seat until he had, in the same order as before, drunk the full cup of wine that he was handed, with a toast for Attila's health. After this honour had been paid him, we sat down again and second plates were put on each tabJl' with other food on them. This also finished, everyone rose once more, drank another toast and resumed his seat.

As tWilight came on torches were lit, and two barbarians entered before Attila to sing some songs they had composed, te lling of his victories and his valour in war. The guests paid close attention to them , and some were de ligh ted with the songs , others excited at be ing re minded of the wars , hut othe rs hroke down and wep t if their hodies were Wt " kl')li'" ' .v :tg~' 1I 1d thpir wanio r spirits forced to

remai n inactive.

lrollL B. K. \Vorkrnan , t1'll rls., 'fhnJ Smc It Happeil ill Classical Tillles (B'ISiJ Bl.lCkwell Ltcl., 1964). Replintetl iT! Jol\ll Caney, ed., EIJeWil'1L!!ss in Historlj (New York: Avon Books, 1987), '23-'24.

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EXPLAIN QU ECHUA

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Clues Across 4. location numerous Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Aztecs 7. an indigenous religion of Japan that holds that everything in nature has a spi6t 9. to make observations about something using facts , reasoning, and argument; to present in some detail 12. Pax Romana 13. Ancient, classical Mexican city ca 200 BeE - 800 CE 14. Roman emperor from 284 to 305; he divided the Roman Empire into the eastern and western halves. 15 . knotted strings used by Inca officials for record-keeping 16. picture made from chips of colored stone or glass 19. a farming method in which fields are cleared for fanning by cutting down and buming trees and brush 20. Angles, Saxons, Visigoths , Ostrogoths, Vandals , 21. bridge like stone stnlctures that carried water from the bills to Roman cities 22. the spoken language of the Incas 23. trade routes stretching from China to the Mediterranean, which allowed for the exchange of goods and ideas from China to the Roman Empire 24. a political unit in which a number of peoples or countries are controlled by a single ruler 25. fanning in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families 26. the process by which an area becomes a desert 27 . Kingdom in northeast Africa that had close relations with Egypt for several centmies in the pre-Christian epoch 28. capital of the Roman Empire after 3 12 33. present day nations of Europe and the Western hemisphere Down 1. King of the Huns fi'om 434 to 453; he invaded parts of the Roman Empire, devastating the Balkan countlies and

northern Greece when promised tribute was not paid. 2. Incan city in the high Andes Mountains 3. foreign soldiers serving for pay 5. to make plain or understandable; to give reasons for or causes of; to show the logical development or relationships of 6. the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces until its fall to the Muslim Turks in 1453 8. the earliest civilization in the Mesoamerica 10. a land mass in the region of the Bering Strait over which Native Amelicans migrated to the western Hemisphere 11. Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565; he reunited parts of the Roman Empire, simplified Roman laws with Justinian ' s

Code, and order Hagia Sophia built 16. region of North America in which civilizations with common cultmal features developed before Europeans entered

the continent 17. the semiarid belt extending across Africa south of the Sahara 18. Greek for "incomprehensible speaker"; uncivilized 28 . Roman emperor from 306 to 337; he moved the capital to Byzantium 29. staying or living in one place instead of moving to different places 30. payment that conquered peoples may be forced to pay to their conquerors 31. people who move from place to place in search of food and water 32. Aksumite ruler; he destroyed the Kush capital of Meroe and took over the kingdom of Kush around AD 320

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