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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
The Battle of Chalons
    2019-09-30  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet

The locus of this battle goes by many names: the Roman “Campus Mauriacus”; French “Chalons” (now Chalons-en-Champagne); or the “Catalaunian Plains,” an anglicized form of “Catalauni,” the Roman name for a Celtic tribe that once lived in the area (to the east of Paris).

Whatever you call it — and we shall call it the “Battle of Chalons,” to locate it squarely on the modern map of France — the battle was fought on June 20, 451, pitting a coalition of Romans and Visigoths against Attila and his Huns. The Visigoths were the tribe which had sacked Rome in 410. They had now settled down and become foederati — in modern terms, perhaps “confederates” — of Rome, a relationship which called for limited types of co-operation.

The Battle of Chalons, though inconclusive, was one of the last major battles in the western portion of the Roman Empire. It may have prevented the Huns from establishing their own brand of confederates in the Roman province of Gaul (now France); on the other hand, the Huns had taken military advantage, including the looting of towns in Gaul. However, the Huns’ empire was dismantled by their Germanic vassals just three years later.

Several ancient histories purport to give the origin of the conflict. Some say the Huns were baited into challenging the Visigoths, who called on Roman aid. It may also be that when the Frankish king died in 449, it left a power vacuum that encouraged the Huns’ intervention.

A more romantic story is that Roman Emperor Valentinian III’s sister, Justa Grata Honoria, had been engaged for political reasons — and apparently against her will — to a formal Roman Consul named Herculanus. Looking for a way out, Honoria sent a eunuch with a letter and her ring to Attila to ask him to rescue her. Attila chose to see this as a proposal of marriage, and demanded a dowry of half the empire; when Valentinian refused, Attila took it as an excuse to make war on Roman Gaul.

By convention, the Western Roman Empire is said to have fallen in 476, just two-and-a-half decades after Chalons.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. took apart, destroyed

2. lured, trapped (into)

3. by agreement of scholars

4. without a clear result

5. placing against each other

6. site, location

7. people who cooperate

8. required “gift” from a bride’s family to her new husband

9. made to sound like English

10. servant who has been castrated

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