29 Sept 03

Adrianople, 9 Aug 378AD, "The End of All Humanity, the End of the World"

As the Millennium turned, the stormy Hsiung-nu tribe in China, like so many others, found itself progressively marginalized. By the year "Zero," they were fleeing in the only direction they could- west. "White" was the term Chinese used for westerners, and the Hsiung-nu were so dubbed. Eventually, the "White Hsiung-nu" lost contact with their relatives in China as they fled further west. Ultimately, they ran into the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Finding "Hsiung-nu" difficult to pronounce, the Romans shortened it to "Huns." The Huns had no "infantry." All were mounted, and their horsemanship was astonishing. They had no heavy metal armor, so their mounted formations were swift and light, and their horse archers and stirrup-equipped lancers were second to none.

The Huns shared a great strength with the Romans: ingrained military organization. Roman legions had easily defeated fractured tribes in Germanica (Goth), Gaul (France), Iberia (Spain), Africa, etc. So intense was their internal squabbling, Barbarians (the "outer ones") just couldn't unite in any meaningful way to opposed unambiguously ordered Roman Legions. As a result, they were, with a few notable exceptions, "defeated in detail," and all eventually became Roman vassal states. Many of their warriors were subsequently incorporated into Roman Legions.

That eventually became a fatal weakness, in both camps. Both Hunnish and Roman armies gradually became swollen with mercenaries of dubious loyalty. In both camps, what began as an "army of conviction" evolved into an "army of convenience." At the same time, there was an important philosophic difference between the Huns and the Romans: Romans were interested in real estate. They wanted to conquer, colonize, and then form a permeant tax base- in that order. Huns, nomads by nature, were interested only in expanding their warrior hoards. They wanted to conquer, strip the locals of valuables, increase their numbers, and move on- in that order. Neither national philosophy was destined to weather the storms of history.

When the Huns encountered the nimble Alans on the eastern Roman frontier, they defeated them easily. The Huns were organized; the Alans weren't. As they pushed further west, Huns next encountered the Ostrogoths ("Eastern" Germans). They went down to defeat in exactly the same way, as did the Visigoths ("Western" Germans). Many Alan and Gothic warriors subsequently joined the Huns. That was all just fine with Rugila and his nephew, Attila, the Hunnish leaders.

In 330AD, Roman Emperor Constantine, in an effort to ecumenize the Empire, moved the imperial capital from the City of Rome on the Italian Peninsula southeast to Byzantium on the south shore of the Black Sea. Not surprisingly, Byzantium was subsequently renamed "Constantinople" after him, and also not surprisingly, the Empire permanently split into Eastern and Western Segments in 395AD, each with its own emperor, each claiming to be the "legitimate inheritor" of the first Roman emperor, Octavian Augustus', throne. The Western Roman Empire would not survive the following century.

Up until 375AD, Roman Emperors had all been generals, with mud on their shoes, and they thus had the respect of the legions. Many, of course, were also world-class lechers, but they were still considered qualified to be emperors by virtue of their personal experiences and accomplishments. That all ended with the succession of Gratian in 375. Barely more than a teenager, Gratian was neither respected nor feared. The loyalty of the legions and the unity of the Western Empire simultaneously began to crumble, as citizens looked to religious clerics, instead of civil leaders, for national affirmation. Unfortunately, religious leaders proved themselves no more worthy of respect that had secular ones.

The winter of 406 had been particularly cold, so cold in fact that, on the last day of that year, the Rhine (which was then the western border of the Western Roman Empire) froze solid, something that had happened only a few times in recorded history. Goths, Vandals, Alans, Franks, all fleeing the Huns, pored across. Roman legionaries on the opposite shore were unable to stop the hoard of "illegal aliens." With its once famous Legions now made up almost entirely of mercenaries, the City of Rome was considered too vulnerable, so the capitol was moved to the compact, walled city of Ravenna. Just in time as it turned out, as Aleric, King of the Visigoths, sacked the City of Rome in 410. With that, the entire Western Roman Empire descended into anarchy. During the year 410 alone, there were six, separate western emperors. Installed via bribes and political intrigue and removed via murder, they monotonously came and went. The record was set by Emperor Sinerich, who, in 415 held the throne for all of seven days, only long enough to murder his rival's children before he himself was murdered.

By 475, the Empire's holdings had shrunk to the Italian Peninsula itself and several regions in southern Gaul that were still "Roman" only because Goths and Huns regarded them as insignificant and hadn't gotten around to invading them yet. The dubious title of "The Last Emperor" was claimed by Romulus Augustulus ("Little Augustus," actually an insult). Ruling briefly from Ravenna, he was knocked off the throne by invading Ostrogoths in 476 (who considered him so impotent, they didn't even bother to murder him). Imperial succession had finally come to a merciful end. In 487AD the surviving vestiges of the once-mighty Western Empire dissolved completely. From that point forward, squabbling Ostrogothic warlords held sway on the Italian Peninsula, but none displayed interest in the (now meaningless) title of "Emperor." The Dark Ages had begun.

The Eastern Roman Empire continued (in name, at least) until Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, renaming it "Istanbul". Ottomans had interbred with Huns (and others) to create "Turks." Turks then assumed the role of the military arm of the Islamic religion.

It was the Western Roman Empire that Charlemagne (Charles the Great) in Gaul (France) attempted to resurrect with his "Holy Roman Empire" in 800AD.

During the existence of the Roman Empire, there were four notable defeats of the Legions, among many victories:

>An unprepared City of Rome was sacked by Celtic tribesmen in 387BC >With his famous "amoebic defense," Hannibal deceived and decisively defeated Rome's best at Cannae in 216BC, during the Second Punic War >Rome's entire 13th Legion was wiped out by Goths at heavily forested Teutoburger Wald in Germanica in 9AD >Rome's best are again defeated decisively, this time by Huns at Adrianople on 9 August 378AD (present-day Edirne, Turkey)

The Battle of Adrianople is considered the "beginning of the end" for Western Romans. Roman infantry attacked a circle of wagons occupied by Huns (with their Alanic and Gothic mercenaries). Roman formations were then counterattacked by Hun "heavy cavalry" (stirrup-equipped lancers) which left Roman infantry formations in disarray. The defeat convinced Roman war planners, who had for years depended on infantry tactics they had learned from the Greeks, that heavy cavalry had displaced infantry as the "Queen of Battle." As a result, reliance on heavy cavalry would dominate the thinking of war planners throughout Europe for the next thousand years, and, in fact, would come back to haunt Christian Crusaders at Hattin eight hundred years later.

Roman general Aetius returned and defeated Attila and his Huns at Chalons in western Gaul (France) in 451, using his Franks as infantry (the French didn't like horses) and his own Gothic heavy cavalry. However Aetius, fearing another Cannae, made the same mistake that would be made by Meade centuries later at Gettysburg, PA. He didn't finish the fight, and Attila's army was allowed to escape. Aetius would live to regret it, as Attila and his hoards, unpredictable as ever, invaded the Italian Peninsula in 452. Nothing less than a personal conference with Pope Leo persuaded him not to sack the City of Rome.

Attila had an astounding military origination, but only he could make it work. He died (or was murdered) right after marrying a beautiful German woman in 453. Shortly thereafter, his fearsome army began to disintegrate. What remained was crushed at the Battle of Nedao in present-day Hungary (454AD), not by Roman legions, but by Germans. The Hun era in Europe came to an abrupt and permeant end. Most native Huns remained in Europe but never formed a cohesive force again.

Lessons: An army of mercenaries can never substitute for an army of patriots, and sleazy, faint-hearted, and corrupt national "leaders," who do not command respect, can never "stand in" for honorable and fearless heroes. During human history, civilizations come and go, no matter how strong, no matter how advanced. There are no guarantees and no "Divine Protection."

Personal honor, decency, and courage are the basis of any successful civilization. Moral and virtuous citizens for the rock of any successful society. Toleration of, and eventual encouragement of, corruption, iniquity, and sleaziness unfailingly mark the decline of a civilization.

Unfinished battles and unfinished wars will invariably come back to haunt the "victors." Leaving an enemy in tact is a virtual guarantee that you will be compelled to face him again.

We ignore the forgoing at our peril!

/John