The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to WaterlooCreasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir
History
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo
Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir
Battles
Recent events have thrown such a strong interest over everything
connected with the Hungarian name, that even the terrible name of Attila
now impresses us the more vividly through our sympathising admiration of
the exploits of those who claim to be descended from his warriors, and
"ambitiously insert the name of Attila among their native kings." The
authenticity of this martial genealogy is denied by some writers, and
questioned by more. But it is at least certain that the Magyars of
Arpad, who are the immediate ancestors of the bulk of the modern
Hungarians, and who conquered the country which bears the name of
Hungary in A.D. 889, were of the same stock of mankind as were the Huns
of Attila, even if they did not belong to the same subdivision of that
stock. Nor is there any improbability in the tradition, that after
Attila's death many of his warriors remained in Hungary, and that their
descendants afterwards joined the Huns of Arpad in their career of
conquest. It is certain that Attila made Hungary the seat of his empire.
It seems also susceptible of clear proof that the territory was then
called Hungvar, and Attila's soldiers Hungvari. Both the Huns of Attila
and those of Arpad came from the family of nomadic nations, whose
primitive regions were those vast wildernesses of High Asia which are
included between the Altaic and the Himalayan mountain-chains. The
inroads of these tribes upon the lower regions of Asia and into Europe,
have caused many of the most remarkable revolutions in the history of
the world. There is every reason to believe that swarms of these nations
made their way into distant parts of the earth, at periods long before
the date of the Scythian invasion of Asia, which is the earliest inroad
of the nomadic race that history records. The first, as far as we can
conjecture, in respect to the time of their descent were the Finnish and
Ugrian tribes, who appear to have come down from the Asiatic border of
High Asia towards the north-west, in which direction they advanced
to the Uralian mountains. There they established themselves: and that
mountain chain, with its valleys and pasture-lands, became to them a
new country, whence they sent out colonies on every side; but the Ugrian
colony, which under Arpad occupied Hungary, and became the ancestors of
the bulk of the present Hungarian nation, did not quit their settlements
on the Uralian mountains till a very late period, not until four
centuries after the time when Attila led from the primary seats of the
nomadic races in High Asia the host with which he advanced into the
heart of France. [See Prichard's Researches into the Physical History of
Mankind.] That host was Turkish; but closely allied in origin, language,
and habits, with the Finno-Ugrian settlers on the Ural.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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