THEIR LAST SUPPERS II: Legends of History and Their Final Meals

By Caldwell Andrew

Andrew Caldwell trained and worked firstly as a classically trained chef, then resort manager, in some fourteen countries around the World from Bermuda to Africa. Using his travels to avidly visit sixty other countries and their historical sites along the way, Andrew has walked Hadrian's wall,Machu Picchu, King Tut's tomb, pirate haunts in the C

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885902168

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Attila the Hun

453A • TISZA VALLEY • HUNGARY

Flagellum Dei

The Scourge of God

W

ith the Roman Empire beginning to weaken and lose much of the fighting strength that had sustained it for almost 800 years, a series of attacks by barbarian nations began to stress the Romans even more. The Visigoths, Ostragoths, Vandals and other tribes were driven into conflict with the West by the emergence of an even more terrifying barbarian race that emerged from the east called the Huns. This group of nomadic tribes emerged from the vastness of the Eastern plains and very quickly built up a large empire in Europe because of their huge numbers of mounted archers that could ride for days on end, and warriors who had three or four horses allowing them to strike quickly and unexpectedly and take many of their foes by complete surprise. The Hun Empire quickly stretched from the plains of Central Asia into Germany and from the River Danube to the Baltic States. In the beginning, they were only a loose confederation of tribes but under the leader, Rugila, they had been united into a real threat to the Romans. According to the Hunnish custom, upon the death of Rugila in 434, his nephews Attila and Bleda took control and seemed to rule well together. As a child, Attila had spent time in the Roman court as a hostage and was well aware of the Roman strengths and weaknesses, and he was confident they were becoming weaker because they had split their huge Empire. Later that year, they met with a Roman delegation from the Eastern empire in Constantinople to negotiate a fee to prevent them marching on the Roman Empire itself. Surprisingly, the Romans paid immediately. Satisfied with the 350 pounds of solid gold they received, the Huns returned to their new home in the Great Plains of what later would become Hungary. The Roman Emperor Theodosius, ruler of the Eastern Empire, used this valuable breathing space that he had bought to strengthen his capital of Constantinople and the border defenses along the river Danube in Germany.

All was quiet for a few years as the Huns expanded elsewhere, but a rare defeat in Armenia made them turn their attentions back to Europe, and in 440 A.D., they reappeared on the borders of the Roman Empire, once again crossing the Danube and laying waste to all before them. It was the worst possible timing for Rome, as the Vandal nation was at the same time attacking them in Carthage, Africa, a province that produced most of the Empires precious grain, something the Romans could not afford to lose. The Romans took troops from Europe to protect Carthage, which further encouraged the Huns toward a now seriously weakened Empire. This time Theodosius was rash enough to confront the Huns but saw his weakened Roman legions destroyed outside the walls of Constantinople. Only the double walls of the capital and the Huns’ lack of siege equipment prevented the complete destruction of the Romans, and once again a desperate Emperor was forced to buy off the Hun Kings, this time with 6000 pounds of gold and a tripling of the yearly tariff. The Huns again retreated to their base, where Attila, who had grown tired of sharing the throne, arranged a ‘hunting accident’ for his fellow king and brother and Bleda disappeared from the pages of history in 445 AD.

Attila now turned his attention back to Rome and rampaged through to Thermopylae in Southern Greece. Along the way, over 100 cities and towns were sacked, and so many people were killed that the dead could not be counted according to Roman historians. In 450, Attila changed his tact and decided to attack the powerful Visigoth nation, making a partnership with the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Valentinian the Third, to do so. However, this arrangement was further complicated as the Emperor's sister Honoria had sent Attila an engagement ring in order to escape an arranged marriage to a Roman Senator. Attila demanded half the Western Empire as his future dowry, using it as a pretext for any potential further attacks on Rome; this demand enraged Valentinian and broke up their brief alliance. And so, in 451, leading an army reputed to be over half a million strong, Attila began a march through France and Belgium, sacking Visigoth cities along the way. The last great Roman general Aetius, who had also been a child hostage of the Huns when Attila was, knew their ways and formed an alliance with the Visigoth king, Theodoric, and reached Orleans before Attila. Aetius brought Attila to battle around the region of Chalons. In one of the greatest battles of ancient times, Attila was defeated, though the Visigoth king was slain on the battlefield. Retreating back to his camp, Attila had a massive funeral pyre built of wooden saddles and climbed upon it, determined not to be taken alive by the Romans. He was amazed as the anticipated Roman onslaught never came. The wily Aetius was happy to have seen both the Huns and his previous enemy, the Visigoths, severely weakened and elected to withdraw declaring a Roman victory.

Attila was nothing if not determined and quickly recovered from the setback. Within a year, Attila marched on Italy, once again claiming the hand of Honoria as a pretext for his advances. He rampaged through much of northern Italy, razing many cities to the ground including leveling the city of Aquileia so completely that many of its survivors fled to a group of small marshy islands where they could never again be attacked by the fearsome Hunnish cavalry [And so the modern city of Venice was founded]. Without the Visigoth army, Aetius did not have the strength to do anything other than harass and slow down the Huns, but he was about to receive help from an unexpected source. As Attila made camp by the River Po, a virulent disease, probably malaria, broke out among his troops. At the wish of the Emperor, Pope Leo the First met with Attila and convinced him to withdraw from Italy, promising him that his successors would receive a holy crown. With his army weakened by fever, Attila surprisingly agreed and returned to his palace across the Danube, where he immediately began to plan to attack Constantinople because they had once again defaulted on their tribute to him. Before the attack in the early months of 453 he took a young German bride, a beautiful young girl called Ildico as his wife and the next morning the distraught young girl rushed from their bedroom to announce his death. The Roman historians later wrote that he had choked on his own vomit after the wedding feast, but many others have written that Attila rarely drank wine and ate very frugally. It is more likely that his blushing bride was actually a paid Roman assassin. His grieving warriors rode around his tent slashing their faces in grief; then, in Hunnish tradition, they threw a great feast to celebrate his life. Legend says that he was buried in a triple coffin of gold, silver and iron and placed in an underground tomb in the river Tisza, which thousands of slaves had diverted to provide him a resting place that would never be discovered. The slaves were killed to ensure the secret burial place, and as the troops that killed the slaves returned to camp, they too were ambushed and massacred to a man. Attila's sons fought over the succession, further weakening the Hun Empire, and the Huns were later scattered by the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Nedao. In Hungary today, there are fewer than 5000 remaining descendants of a once great empire.

Although records show that Attila regularly entertained his guests with lavish meals served on gold and silver platters, he only drank sparingly from a wooden bowl and ate his meals from a square wooden platter.

The Huns covered large distances with each warrior rotating upon the three or four horses they had with them. They often drank the mare's milk and ate only raw meat that they tenderized underneath the wooden saddles as they rode. Eventually, the people of the West, wanting to be more like the robust barbarians, began to copy their foods. One such food was Steak Tartar.

Although the original meal was tenderized raw horse meat mixed with any berries the Huns could get, the Western version became a little more delicate.

The Hun attack was preceded by the sound of thousands of hoof beats, which people described as t-rrrrr, t-rrrrr, which eventually became tartar. The tartars are coming!

MENUS

Steak Tartar

8 oz finely chopped filet steak (preferably from the tail)

½ finely chopped onion

1 raw egg yolk

½ lemon juice

Salt and black pepper

2 tsp chopped capers

1 tsp fresh chopped parsley

Mix together all ingredients (minus the egg yolk), and chill for 2 hours. Form well in center of meat and serve with egg yolk in center of the portion. Serve with toasted bread slices or crackers.

Hungarian Goulash

The original Huns used horse meat for this recipe but as it is not so available in the west, we will use beef instead.

2 lb. chuck beef cut in one inch squares

1 tsp sea salt

2 chopped yellow onions

2 tsp lard (or shortening)

2 tsp Hungarian paprika (it's much stronger than traditional paprika)

2 pints of

4 peels and dices fresh tomatoes

1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Brown onions in lard in a deep skillet. Add beef and paprika, stirring constantly so that the beef absorbs the paprika. Let the mixture simmer in its own juices for about an hour over low heat. Add the water and the rest of the ingredients. Cover and simmer until the meat is tender (about 45 minutes).

Egg Dumplings

1 unbeaten egg

6 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt

Add flour to the unbeaten egg and salt. Mix well, and let stand for about one hour. Drop the batter using a teaspoon into the goulash. When the dumplings rise to the surface, cover the pot and cook gently for about five more minutes. Serve the dish with dollops of sour cream.

Amelia Earhart

DISAPPEARED JULY 2ND, 1937

Adventure is worthwhile in itself

A

melia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas on July the 24th 1897,and though having a fairly unremarkable background and childhood, seared herself into the worlds psyche by disappearing while attempting to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. She was actually only declared ‘dead in absentia’ on January the 5th 1939,by her husband who petitioned the courts to forego their normal ‘missing for seven years rule’ so he could access her money to continue the search for her. Though the United States searched for her remains for years afterwards spending over four million dollars on the hunt.

As a child of German ancestry she was named, as was the custom, after her two grandmothers, along with her younger sister Grace. Both girls grew up as tomboys and embraced a spirit of adventure, climbing trees and hunting rats with rifles, things that ‘young girls shouldn’t be doing’ as their grandparents constantly moaned. One of Amelia's main interests was riding her sled down steep hills, even fixing a ramp to her grandfather's toolshed so she could get a brief experience of flight, though at the cost of several injuries.

While her father sought to establish himself, his daughters spent their formative years mainly in the grandparents’ home, with their mother creating a homeschooling environment for them and emphasizing the practice of reading as many books as possible. Earhart was particularly interested in the histories of strong pioneer women, who had survived and thrived in the male dominated business world of the time. She kept all the relevant newspaper