by shostakovich » Sat Feb 03, 2001 2:05 am
I just watched the USA network's Attila. My wife and I chuckled through most of it. I was reminded me of your question. The names Roas, Bleda, Theodosius, Aetius, Theodoric the Visigoth are all correct. Nomadic horsemen of the steppes are generally thought to have had simple, round, portable tents, but after Bleda's death (not likely in single combat with Attila), the Huns really did have riches from the eastern ( centered in Constantinople) and western (centered in Rome) empires. So the more elaborate living quarters may have been the case. I can't swear to it, but I think the locales were wrong for Attila's early years. Nomadic steppe horsemen were at home on level, unforested land. The clothing and weapons I'm suspicious of, too. Little is known of Attila's early years, as the Huns could not write. They probably looked much more Asiatic, although European tribes had been absorbed into the Hunnish empire. The friendship between Aetius and Attila, and the invitation to Rome were fanciful inventions. Attila was not tall, dark, handsome, and wise. He was described as short, wide, beady-eyed, and plenty mean. The final battle of the movie did take place with an alliance of the Visigoths with the Romans and the Ostrogoths with the Huns in 451. Attila did die on his wedding night some 2 years later, but not of poison. He was dead drunk after feasting and whatever else, and he had a nosebleed (not his first). He choked on the blood in his throat at the age of 47. But that's no way for a movie to end.<P>Luckily there IS a music tie-in. Franz Liszt's Battle of the Huns is based on a mural commemorating the battle of 451. <BR>Shos
