|
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part I.
Invasion Of Gaul By Attila.—He Is Repulsed By Aetius And
The Visigoths.—Attila Invades And Evacuates Italy.—The
Deaths Of Attila, Aetius, And Valentinian The Third.
|
Invasion Of Gaul By Attila.—He Is Repulsed By Aetius And
The Visigoths.—Attila Invades And Evacuates Italy.—The
Deaths Of Attila, Aetius, And Valentinian The Third.
It was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided, as long as it is possible to preserve a secure and honorable peace; but it was likewise his opinion, that peace cannot be honorable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war. This temperate courage dictated his reply to the demands of Attila, who insolently pressed the payment of the annual tribute. The emperor signified to the Barbarians, that they must no longer insult the majesty of Rome by the mention of a tribute; that he was disposed to reward, with becoming liberality, the faithful friendship of his allies; but that, if they presumed to violate the public peace, they should feel that he possessed troops, and arms, and resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language, even in the camp of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver the presents, till he had been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a sense of dignity, and a contempt of danger, which Attila was not prepared to expect from the degenerate Romans. 1 He threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius; but he hesitated whether he should first direct his invincible arms against the Eastern or the Western empire. While mankind awaited his decision with awful suspense, he sent an equal defiance to the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople; and his ministers saluted the two emperors with the same haughty declaration. "Attila, my lord, and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate reception." 2 But as the Barbarian despised, or affected to despise, the Romans of the East, whom he had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glorious and important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of those provinces; but the particular motives and provocations of Attila can only be explained by the state of the Western empire under the reign of Valentinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the administration of Aetius. 3
1 (return)
[ See Priscus, p. 39, 72.]
2 (return)
[ The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which introduces this
haughty message, during the lifetime of Theodosius, may have anticipated
the date; but the dull annalist was incapable of inventing the original
and genuine style of Attila.]
3 (return)
[ The second book of the Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement
de la Monarchie Francoise tom. i. p. 189-424, throws great light on the
state of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila; but the ingenious author,
the Abbe Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system and conjecture.]
After the death of his rival Boniface, Aetius had prudently retired to the tents of the Huns; and he was indebted to their alliance for his safety and his restoration. Instead of the suppliant language of a guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at the head of sixty thousand Barbarians; and the empress Placidia confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency, was the effect of weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son Valentinian, and the Western empire, into the hands of an insolent subject; nor could Placidia protect the son-in-law of Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian, 4 from the implacable persecution which urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate Aetius, who was immediately promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested with the honors of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the whole military power of the state; and he is sometimes styled, by contemporary writers, the duke, or general, of the Romans of the West. His prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace and luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and a patriot, who supported near twenty years the ruins of the Western empire. The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses, that Aetius was born for the salvation of the Roman republic; 5 and the following portrait, though it is drawn in the fairest colors, must be allowed to contain a much larger proportion of truth than of flattery. 411 "His mother was a wealthy and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in the province of Scythia, gradually rose from the station of a military domestic, to the dignity of master of the cavalry. Their son, who was enrolled almost in his infancy in the guards, was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and afterwards to the Huns; 412 and he successively obtained the civil and military honors of the palace, for which he was equally qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of Aetius was not above the middle stature; but his manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility; and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food, or of sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine courage that can despise not only dangers, but injuries: and it was impossible either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the firm integrity of his soul." 6 The Barbarians, who had seated themselves in the Western provinces, were insensibly taught to respect the faith and valor of the patrician Aetius. He soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced their interests, and checked their ambition. 611 A seasonable treaty, which he concluded with Genseric, protected Italy from the depredations of the Vandals; the independent Britons implored and acknowledged his salutary aid; the Imperial authority was restored and maintained in Gaul and Spain; and he compelled the Franks and the Suevi, whom he had vanquished in the field, to become the useful confederates of the republic.
4 (return)
[ Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. 6, p. 8, edit.
Ruinart) calls him, acer consilio et strenuus in bello: but his courage,
when he became unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness; and
Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of proeceps, (Sidon.
Apollinar Carmen ix. 181.) His adventures in Constantinople, in Sicily,
Gaul, Spain, and Africa, are faintly marked in the Chronicles of
Marcellinus and Idatius. In his distress he was always followed by a
numerous train; since he could ravage the Hellespont and Propontis, and
seize the city of Barcelona.]
5 (return)
[ Reipublicae Romanae singulariter natus, qui superbiam
Suevorum, Francorumque barbariem immensis caedibus servire Imperio
Romano coegisset. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, p. 660.]
411 (return)
[ Some valuable fragments of a poetical panegyric on Aetius
by Merobaudes, a Spaniard, have been recovered from a palimpsest MS. by
the sagacity and industry of Niebuhr. They have been reprinted in the
new edition of the Byzantine Historians. The poet speaks in glowing
terms of the long (annosa) peace enjoyed under the administration of
Aetius. The verses are very spirited. The poet was rewarded by a statue
publicly dedicated to his honor in Rome.
Danuvii cum pace redit, Tanaimque furore
Exuit, et nigro candentes aethere terras
Marte suo caruisse jubet. Dedit otia ferro
Caucasus, et saevi condemnant praelia reges.
Addidit hiberni famulantia foedera Rhenus
Orbis......
Lustrat Aremoricos jam mitior incola saltus;
Perdidit et mores tellus, adsuetaque saevo
Crimine quaesitas silvis celare rapinas,
Discit inexpertis Cererem committere campis;
Caesareoque diu manus obluctata labori
Sustinet acceptas nostro sub consule leges;
Et quamvis Geticis sulcum confundat aratris,
Barbara vicinae refugit consortia gentis.
—Merobaudes, p. 1]
412 (return)
[—cum Scythicis succumberet ensibus orbis,
Telaque Tarpeias premerent Arctoa secures,
Hostilem fregit rabiem, pignus quesuperbi
Foederis et mundi pretium fuit. Hinc modo voti
Rata fides, validis quod dux premat impiger armis
Edomuit quos pace puer; bellumque repressit
Ignarus quid bella forent. Stupuere feroces
In tenero jam membra Getae. Rex ipse, verendum
Miratus pueri decus et prodentia fatum
Lumina, primaevas dederat gestare faretras,
Laudabatque manus librantem et tela gerentem
Oblitus quod noster erat Pro nescia regis
Corda, feris quanto populis discrimine constet
Quod Latium docet arma ducem.
—Merobaudes, Panegyr. p. 15.—M.]
6 (return)
[ This portrait is drawn by Renetus Profuturus Frigeridus, a
contemporary historian, known only by some extracts, which are preserved
by Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163.) It was probably
the duty, or at least the interest, of Renatus, to magnify the virtues
of Aetius; but he would have shown more dexterity if he had not insisted
on his patient, forgiving disposition.]
611 (return)
[
Insessor Libyes, quamvis, fatalibus armis
Ausus Elisaei solium rescindere regni,
Milibus Arctois Tyrias compleverat arces,
Nunc hostem exutus pactis proprioribus arsit
Romanam vincire fidem, Latiosque parentes
Adnumerare sib, sociamque intexere prolem.
—-Merobaudes, p. 12.—M.]
From a principle of interest, as well as gratitude, Aetius assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns. While he resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appeared to have been connected by a personal and military friendship, which they afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the education of Carpilio, the son of Aetius, in the camp of Attila. By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the Scythian conqueror, who pressed the two empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold, which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military governors of Noricum were immediately despatched to satisfy his complaints: 7 and it is evident, from their conversation with Maximin and Priscus, in the royal village, that the valor and prudence of Aetius had not saved the Western Romans from the common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous policy prolonged the advantages of a salutary peace; and a numerous army of Huns and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in the defence of Gaul. Two colonies of these Barbarians were judiciously fixed in the territories of Valens and Orleans; 8 and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhone and of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of conquest; and the province through which they marched was exposed to all the calamities of a hostile invasion. 9 Strangers to the emperor or the republic, the Alani of Gaul was devoted to the ambition of Aetius, and though he might suspect, that, in a contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of their national king, the patrician labored to restrain, rather than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks.
7 (return)
[ The embassy consisted of Count Romulus; of Promotus,
president of Noricum; and of Romanus, the military duke. They were
accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio, in the same
province, and father of Orestes, who had married the daughter of Count
Romulus. See Priscus, p. 57, 65. Cassiodorus (Variar. i. 4) mentions
another embassy, which was executed by his father and Carpilio, the son
of Aetius; and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their
manly, intrepid behavior in his presence.]
8 (return)
[ Deserta Valentinae urbis rura Alanis partienda traduntur.
Prosper. Tyronis Chron. in Historiens de France, tom. i. p. 639. A few
lines afterwards, Prosper observes, that lands in the ulterior Gaul were
assigned to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of Dubos, (tom.
i. p. 300,) the reasonable supposition of two colonies or garrisons of
Alani will confirm his arguments, and remove his objections.]
9 (return)
[ See Prosper. Tyro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246)
complains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country,
Litorius Scythicos equites tunc forte subacto
Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen
Per terras, Averne, tuas, qui proxima quaedue
Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis,
Delebant; pacis fallentes nomen inane.
another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint:—
Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste.
—-See Dubos, tom. i. p. 330.]
The kingdom established by the Visigoths in the southern provinces of Gaul, had gradually acquired strength and maturity; and the conduct of those ambitious Barbarians, either in peace or war, engaged the perpetual vigilance of Aetius. After the death of Wallia, the Gothic sceptre devolved to Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric; 10 and his prosperous reign of more than thirty years, over a turbulent people, may be allowed to prove, that his prudence was supported by uncommon vigor, both of mind and body. Impatient of his narrow limits, Theodoric aspired to the possession of Arles, the wealthy seat of government and commerce; but the city was saved by the timely approach of Aetius; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy, to divert the martial valor of his subjects in a Spanish war. Yet Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized, the favorable moment of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne, while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians; and the public safety was threatened on every side by the apparent union of the enemies of Rome. On every side, the activity of Aetius, and his Scythian cavalry, opposed a firm and successful resistance. Twenty thousand Burgundians were slain in battle; and the remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent seat in the mountains of Savoy. 11 The walls of Narbonne had been shaken by the battering engines, and the inhabitants had endured the last extremities of famine, when Count Litorius, approaching in silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two sacks of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the besiegers. The siege was immediately raised; and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of Aetius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily summoned to Italy by some public or private interest, Count Litorius succeeded to the command; and his presumption soon discovered that far different talents are required to lead a wing of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war. At the head of an army of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of Thoulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his misfortunes had rendered prudent, and his situation made desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic capital in triumph; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan allies, encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the edifying contrast of Christian piety and moderation; nor did he lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was obstinate; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskilful rashness, was actually led through the streets of Thoulouse, not in his own, but in a hostile triumph; and the misery which he experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the compassion of the Barbarians themselves. 12 Such a loss, in a country whose spirit and finances were long since exhausted, could not easily be repaired; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the sentiments of ambition and revenge, would have planted their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the presence of Aetius had not restored strength and discipline to the Romans. 13 The two armies expected the signal of a decisive action; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's force, and doubtful of their own superiority, prudently sheathed their swords in the field of battle; and their reconciliation was permanent and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, appears to have deserved the love of his subjects, the confidence of his allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne was surrounded by six valiant sons, who were educated with equal care in the exercises of the Barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic schools: from the study of the Roman jurisprudence, they acquired the theory, at least, of law and justice; and the harmonious sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their native manners. 14 The two daughters of the Gothic king were given in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi and of the Vandals, who reigned in Spain and Africa: but these illustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The queen of the Suevi bewailed the death of a husband inhumanly massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the victim of a jealous tyrant, whom she called her father. The cruel Genseric suspected that his son's wife had conspired to poison him; the supposed crime was punished by the amputation of her nose and ears; and the unhappy daughter of Theodoric was ignominiously returned to the court of Thoulouse in that deformed and mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem incredible to a civilized age drew tears from every spectator; but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king, to revenge such irreparable injuries. The Imperial ministers, who always cherished the discord of the Barbarians, would have supplied the Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the African war; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been fatal to himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the formidable power of the Huns. His rich gifts and pressing solicitations inflamed the ambition of Attila; and the designs of Aetius and Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of Gaul. 15
10 (return)
[ Theodoric II., the son of Theodoric I., declares to
Avitus his resolution of repairing, or expiating, the faults which his
grandfather had committed,—
Quae noster peccavit avus, quem fuscat id unum, Quod te, Roma, capit.
Sidon. Panegyric. Avit. 505.
This character, applicable only to the great Alaric, establishes the genealogy of the Gothic kings, which has hitherto been unnoticed.]
11 (return)
[ The name of Sapaudia, the origin of Savoy, is first
mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus; and two military posts are
ascertained by the Notitia, within the limits of that province; a
cohort was stationed at Grenoble in Dauphine; and Ebredunum, or
Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the Lake of
Neufchatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D'Anville, Notice de
l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 284, 579.]
12 (return)
[ Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of
the Deity; a task which may be readily performed by supposing that the
calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous,
trials.]
13 (return)
[
—Capto terrarum damna patebant
Litorio, in Rhodanum proprios producere fines,
Thendoridae fixum; nec erat pugnare necesse,
Sed migrare Getis; rabidam trux asperat iram
Victor; quod sensit Scythicum sub moenibus hostem
Imputat, et nihil estgravius, si forsitan unquam
Vincerecontingat, trepido.
—Panegyr. Avit. 300, &c.
Sitionius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist, to transfer the whole merit from Aetius to his minister Avitus.]
14 (return)
[ Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the
character of his preceptor.
Mihi Romula dudum
Per te jura placent; parvumque ediscere jussit
Ad tua verba pater, docili quo prisca Maronis
Carmine molliret Scythicos mihi pagina mores.
—-Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 495 &c.]
15 (return)
[ Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are,
Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, 36, and the Chronicles of Idatius,
and the two Prospers, inserted in the historians of France, tom. i. p.
612-640. To these we may add Salvian de Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p.
243, 244, 245, and the panegyric of Avitus, by Sidonius.]
The Franks, whose monarchy was still confined to the neighborhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely established the right of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians. 16 These princes were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military command; 17 and the royal fashion of long hair was the ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which they combed and dressed with singular care, hung down in flowing ringlets on their back and shoulders; while the rest of the nation were obliged, either by law or custom, to shave the hinder part of their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to content themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. 18 The lofty stature of the Franks, and their blue eyes, denoted a Germanic origin; their close apparel accurately expressed the figure of their limbs; a weighty sword was suspended from a broad belt; their bodies were protected by a large shield; and these warlike Barbarians were trained, from their earliest youth, to run, to leap, to swim; to dart the javelin, or battle-axe, with unerring aim; to advance, without hesitation, against a superior enemy; and to maintain, either in life or death, the invincible reputation of their ancestors. 19 Clodion, the first of their long-haired kings, whose name and actions are mentioned in authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum, 20 a village or fortress, whose place may be assigned between Louvain and Brussels. From the report of his spies, the king of the Franks was informed, that the defenceless state of the second Belgic must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valor of his subjects. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses of the Carbonarian forest; 21 occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only cities which existed in the fifth century, and extended his conquests as far as the River Somme, over a desolate country, whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of more recent industry. 22 While Clodion lay encamped in the plains of Artois, 23 and celebrated, with vain and ostentatious security, the marriage, perhaps, of his son, the nuptial feast was interrupted by the unexpected and unwelcome presence of Aetius, who had passed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The tables, which had been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the banks of a pleasant stream, were rudely overturned; the Franks were oppressed before they could recover their arms, or their ranks; and their unavailing valor was fatal only to themselves. The loaded wagons, which had followed their march, afforded a rich booty; and the virgin-bride, with her female attendants, submitted to the new lovers, who were imposed on them by the chance of war. This advance, which had been obtained by the skill and activity of Aetius, might reflect some disgrace on the military prudence of Clodion; but the king of the Franks soon regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the possession of his Gallic kingdom from the Rhine to the Somme. 24 Under his reign, and most probably from the thee enterprising spirit of his subjects, his three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice. The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion of the same Barbarians, who evacuated the ruins of Treves; and Treves, which in the space of forty years had been four times besieged and pillaged, was disposed to lose the memory of her afflictions in the vain amusements of the Circus. 25 The death of Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, exposed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his two sons. Meroveus, the younger, 26 was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was received at the Imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian, and the adopted son of the patrician Aetius; and dismissed to his native country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances of friendship and support. During his absence, his elder brother had solicited, with equal ardor, the formidable aid of Attila; and the king of the Huns embraced an alliance, which facilitated the passage of the Rhine, and justified, by a specious and honorable pretence, the invasion of Gaul. 27
16 (return)
[ Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, et ut ita dicam
nobiliori suorum familia, (Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, p. 166, of the
second volume of the Historians of France.) Gregory himself does not
mention the Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the
beginning of the seventh century, as the distinctive appellation of the
royal family, and even of the French monarchy. An ingenious critic has
deduced the Merovingians from the great Maroboduus; and he has clearly
proved, that the prince, who gave his name to the first race, was more
ancient than the father of Childeric. See Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 52-90, tom. xxx. p. 557-587.]
17 (return)
[ This German custom, which may be traced from Tacitus
to Gregory of Tours, was at length adopted by the emperors of
Constantinople. From a MS. of the tenth century, Montfaucon has
delineated the representation of a similar ceremony, which the ignorance
of the age had applied to King David. See Monumens de la Monarchie
Francoise, tom. i. Discours Preliminaire.]
18 (return)
[ Caesaries prolixa... crinium flagellis per terga dimissis,
&c. See the Preface to the third volume of the Historians of France,
and the Abbe Le Boeuf, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 47-79.) This peculiar
fashion of the Merovingians has been remarked by natives and strangers;
by Priscus, (tom. i. p. 608,) by Agathias, (tom. ii. p. 49,) and by
Gregory of Tours, (l. viii. 18, vi. 24, viii. 10, tom. ii. p. 196, 278,
316.)]
19 (return)
[ See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms,
and temper of the ancient Franks, in Sidonius Apollinaris, (Panegyr.
Majorian. 238-254;) and such pictures, though coarsely drawn, have a
real and intrinsic value. Father Daniel (History de la Milice Francoise,
tom. i. p. 2-7) has illustrated the description.]
20 (return)
[ Dubos, Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i. p. 271, 272. Some
geographers have placed Dispargum on the German side of the Rhine. See a
note of the Benedictine Editors, to the Historians of France, tom. ii p.
166.]
21 (return)
[ The Carbonarian wood was that part of the great forest of
the Ardennes which lay between the Escaut, or Scheldt, and the Meuse.
Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 126.]
22 (return)
[ Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in tom. ii. p. 166, 167.
Fredegar. Epitom. c. 9, p. 395. Gesta Reg. Francor. c. 5, in tom. ii. p.
544. Vit St. Remig. ab Hincmar, in tom. iii. p. 373.]
23 (return)
[
—Francus qua Cloio patentes
Atrebatum terras pervaserat.
—Panegyr. Majorian 213
The precise spot was a town or village, called Vicus Helena; and both the name and place are discovered by modern geographers at Lens See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de la France tom. ii. p. 88.]
24 (return)
[ See a vague account of the action in Sidonius. Panegyr.
Majorian 212-230. The French critics, impatient to establish their
monarchy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument from the silence of
Sidonius, who dares not insinuate, that the vanquished Franks were
compelled to repass the Rhine. Dubos, tom. i. p. 322.]
25 (return)
[ Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, l. vi.) has expressed, in vague
and declamatory language, the misfortunes of these three cities, which
are distinctly ascertained by the learned Mascou, Hist. of the Ancient
Germans, ix. 21.]
26 (return)
[ Priscus, in relating the contest, does not name the two
brothers; the second of whom he had seen at Rome, a beardless youth,
with long, flowing hair, (Historians of France, tom. i. p. 607, 608.)
The Benedictine Editors are inclined to believe, that they were the
sons of some unknown king of the Franks, who reigned on the banks of the
Neckar; but the arguments of M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
viii. p. 464) seem to prove that the succession of Clodion was disputed
by his two sons, and that the younger was Meroveus, the father of
Childeric. * Note: The relationship of Meroveus to Clodion is extremely
doubtful.—By some he is called an illegitimate son; by others merely
of his race. Tur ii. c. 9, in Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, i. 177. See
Mezeray.]
27 (return)
[ Under the Merovingian race, the throne was hereditary;
but all the sons of the deceased monarch were equally entitled to their
share of his treasures and territories. See the Dissertations of M.
de Foncemagne, in the sixth and eighth volumes of the Memoires de
l'Academie.]
When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause of his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the same time, and almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch professed himself the lover and the champion of the princess Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace of Ravenna; and as her marriage might be productive of some danger to the state, she was raised, by the title of Augusta, 28 above the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained the sixteenth year of her age, than she detested the importunate greatness which must forever exclude her from the comforts of honorable love; in the midst of vain and unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to the impulse of nature, and threw herself into the arms of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and shame (such is the absurd language of imperious man) were soon betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy; but the disgrace of the royal family was published to the world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia who dismissed her daughter, after a strict and shameful confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The unhappy princess passed twelve or fourteen years in the irksome society of the sisters of Theodosius, and their chosen virgins; to whose crown Honoria could no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, and vigils, she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of long and hopeless celibacy urged her to embrace a strange and desperate resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at Constantinople; and his frequent embassies entertained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and the Imperial palace. In the pursuit of love, or rather of revenge, the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every duty and every prejudice; and offered to deliver her person into the arms of a Barbarian, of whose language she was ignorant, whose figure was scarcely human, and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she transmitted to Attila a ring, the pledge of her affection; and earnestly conjured him to claim her as a lawful spouse, to whom he had been secretly betrothed. These indecent advances were received, however, with coldness and disdain; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply the number of his wives, till his love was awakened by the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion of Gaul was preceded, and justified, by a formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial patrimony. His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in the same hostile and peremptory manner, the daughters of China; and the pretensions of Attila were not less offensive to the majesty of Rome. A firm, but temperate, refusal was communicated to his ambassadors. The right of female succession, though it might derive a specious argument from the recent examples of Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously denied; and the indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to the claims of her Scythian lover. 29 On the discovery of her connection with the king of the Huns, the guilty princess had been sent away, as an object of horror, from Constantinople to Italy: her life was spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was performed with some obscure and nominal husband, before she was immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the daughter of an emperor. 30
28 (return)
[ A medal is still extant, which exhibits the pleasing
countenance of Honoria, with the title of Augusta; and on the reverse,
the improper legend of Salus Reipublicoe round the monogram of Christ.
See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 67, 73.]
29 (return)
[ See Priscus, p, 39, 40. It might be fairly alleged, that
if females could succeed to the throne, Valentinian himself, who had
married the daughter and heiress of the younger Theodosius, would have
asserted her right to the Eastern empire.]
30 (return)
[ The adventures of Honoria are imperfectly related by
Jornandes, de Successione Regn. c. 97, and de Reb. Get. c. 42, p. 674;
and in the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus; but they cannot be
made consistent, or probable, unless we separate, by an interval of time
and place, her intrigue with Eugenius, and her invitation of Attila.]
A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, the learned and eloquent Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had made a promise to one of his friends, that he would compose a regular history of the war of Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting work, 31 the historian would have related, with the simplicity of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in vague and doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded. 32 The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the plains of Hungary his standard moved towards the West; and after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Neckar, where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to his ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in quest of plunder, might choose the winter for the convenience of passing the river on the ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the Huns required such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a milder season; the Hercynian forest supplied materials for a bridge of boats; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless violence, into the Belgic provinces. 33 The consternation of Gaul was universal; and the various fortunes of its cities have been adorned by tradition with martyrdoms and miracles. 34 Troyes was saved by the merits of St. Lupus; St. Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not behold the ruin of Tongres; and the prayers of St. Genevieve diverted the march of Attila from the neighborhood of Paris. But as the greatest part of the Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers, they were besieged and stormed by the Huns; who practised, in the example of Metz, 35 their customary maxims of war. They involved, in a promiscuous massacre, the priests who served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour of danger, had been providently baptized by the bishop; the flourishing city was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel of St. Stephen marked the place where it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. He was desirous of securing his conquests by the possession of an advantageous post, which commanded the passage of the Loire; and he depended on the secret invitation of Sangiban, king of the Alani, who had promised to betray the city, and to revolt from the service of the empire. But this treacherous conspiracy was detected and disappointed: Orleans had been strengthened with recent fortifications; and the assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful valor of the soldiers, or citizens, who defended the place. The pastoral diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and consummate prudence, exhausted every art of religious policy to support their courage, till the arrival of the expected succors. After an obstinate siege, the walls were shaken by the battering rams; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs; and the people, who were incapable of bearing arms, lay prostrate in prayer. Anianus, who anxiously counted the days and hours, despatched a trusty messenger to observe, from the rampari, the face of the distant country. He returned twice, without any intelligence that could inspire hope or comfort; but, in his third report, he mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the extremity of the horizon. "It is the aid of God!" exclaimed the bishop, in a tone of pious confidence; and the whole multitude repeated after him, "It is the aid of God." The remote object, on which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger, and more distinct; the Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived; and a favorable wind blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of Aetius and Theodoric, who pressed forwards to the relief of Orleans.
31 (return)
[ Exegeras mihi, ut promitterem tibi, Attilae bellum stylo
me posteris intimaturum.... coeperam scribere, sed operis arrepti fasce
perspecto, taeduit inchoasse. Sidon. Apoll. l. viii. epist. 15, p. 235]
32 (return)
[
Subito cum rupta tumultu
Barbaries totas in te transfuderat Arctos,
Gallia. Pugnacem Rugum comitante Gelono,
Gepida trux sequitur; Scyrum Burgundio cogit:
Chunus, Bellonotus, Neurus, Basterna, Toringus,
Bructerus, ulvosa vel quem Nicer abluit unda
Prorumpit Francus. Cecidit cito secta bipenni Hercynia in lintres, et Rhenum texuit alno. Et jam terrificis diffuderat Attila turmis In campos se, Belga, tuos. Panegyr. Avit.]
33 (return)
[ The most authentic and circumstantial account of this war
is contained in Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 36-41, p. 662-672,) who
has sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed, the larger history
of Cassiodorus. Jornandes, a quotation which it would be superfluous to
repeat, may be corrected and illustrated by Gregory of Tours, l. ii. c.
5, 6, 7, and the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, and the two Prospers.
All the ancient testimonies are collected and inserted in the Historians
of France; but the reader should be cautioned against a supposed extract
from the Chronicle of Idatius, (among the fragments of Fredegarius, tom.
ii. p. 462,) which often contradicts the genuine text of the Gallician
bishop.]
34 (return)
[ The ancient legendaries deserve some regard, as they
are obliged to connect their fables with the real history of their own
times. See the lives of St. Lupus, St. Anianus, the bishops of Metz,
Ste. Genevieve, &c., in the Historians of France, tom. i. p. 644, 645,
649, tom. iii. p. 369.]
35 (return)
[ The scepticism of the count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples,
tom. vii. p. 539, 540) cannot be reconciled with any principles of
reason or criticism. Is not Gregory of Tours precise and positive in his
account of the destruction of Metz? At the distance of no more than a
hundred years, could he be ignorant, could the people be ignorant of
the fate of a city, the actual residence of his sovereigns, the kings of
Austrasia? The learned count, who seems to have undertaken the apology
of Attila and the Barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, parcens
Germaniae et Galliae, and forgets that the true Idatius had explicitly
affirmed, plurimae civitates effractoe, among which he enumerates Metz.]
The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy, as well as to the terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully mitigated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna and Thoulouse, mutually suspicious of each other's intentions, beheld, with supine indifference, the approach of their common enemy. Aetius was the sole guardian of the public safety; but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction, which, since the death of Placidia, infested the Imperial palace: the youth of Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the Barbarians, who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the cause of Attila, awaited with doubtful and venal faith, the event of the war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name of an army. 36 But on his arrival at Arles, or Lyons, he was confounded by the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of the Praetorian praefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he executed with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric, that an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the earth, could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance of the powers whom he labored to oppress. The lively eloquence of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the description of the injuries which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns; whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of every Christian to save, from sacrilegious violation, the churches of God, and the relics of the saints: that it was the interest of every Barbarian, who had acquired a settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated for his use, against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth; adopted the measure at once the most prudent and the most honorable; and declared, that, as the faithful ally of Aetius and the Romans, he was ready to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul. 37 The Visigoths, who, at that time, were in the mature vigor of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war; prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged king, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric, to command in person his numerous and valiant people. The example of the Goths determined several tribes or nations, that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary service, and the rank of independent allies; the Laeti, the Armoricans, the Breones the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Sarmatians, or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks who followed Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was the various army, which, under the conduct of Aetius and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches to relieve Orleans, and to give battle to the innumerable host of Attila. 38
36 (return)
[
Vix liquerat Alpes
Aetius, tenue, et rarum sine milite ducens
Robur, in auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen
Incassum propriis praesumens adfore castris.
—-Panegyr. Avit. 328, &c.]
37 (return)
[ The policy of Attila, of Aetius, and of the Visigoths, is
imperfectly described in the Panegyric of Avitus, and the thirty-sixth
chapter of Jornandes. The poet and the historian were both biased
by personal or national prejudices. The former exalts the merit and
importance of Avitus; orbis, Avite, salus, &c.! The latter is anxious
to show the Goths in the most favorable light. Yet their agreement when
they are fairly interpreted, is a proof of their veracity.]
38 (return)
[ The review of the army of Aetius is made by Jornandes,
c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23, of the Historians of France,
with the notes of the Benedictine editor. The Loeti were a promiscuous
race of Barbarians, born or naturalized in Gaul; and the Riparii, or
Ripuarii, derived their name from their post on the three rivers,
the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle; the Armoricans possessed the
independent cities between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of Saxons
had been planted in the diocese of Bayeux; the Burgundians were settled
in Savoy; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhaetians, to the east
of the Lake of Constance.]
On their approach the king of the Huns immediately raised the siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his troops from the pillage of a city which they had already entered. 39 The valor of Attila was always guided by his prudence; and as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had posted in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and Gepidae, in which fifteen thousand 40 Barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian fields 41 spread themselves round Chalons, and extend, according to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred miles, over the whole province, which is entitled to the appellation of a champaign country. 42 This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some inequalities of ground; and the importance of a height, which commanded the camp of Attila, was understood and disputed by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns, who labored to ascend from the opposite side: and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was reported, that, after scrutinizing the entrails of victims, and scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own defeat, with the death of his principal adversary; and that the Barbarians, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the superior merit of Aetius. But the unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail among the Huns, engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by a military oration; and his language was that of a king, who had often fought and conquered at their head. 43 He pressed them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future hopes. The same fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so many warlike nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this memorable field for the consummation of their victories. The cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he artfully represented as the effects, not of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns might securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle. The doctrine of predestination, so favorable to martia virtue, was carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his subjects, that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring Fates would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. "I myself," continued Attila, "will throw the first javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the Barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the example of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in person the centre of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over the Ostrogoths, were posted on the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was regulated by a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king of the Alani, was placed in the centre, where his motions might be strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly punished. Aetius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric of the right wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons; but many of these nations had been divided by faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns, which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war.
39 (return)
[ Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio,
nec direptio, l. v. Sidon. Apollin. l. viii. Epist. 15, p. 246. The
preservation of Orleans might easily be turned into a miracle, obtained
and foretold by the holy bishop.]
40 (return)
[ The common editions read xcm but there is some authority
of manuscripts (and almost any authority is sufficient) for the more
reasonable number of xvm.]
41 (return)
[ Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni, had
formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims from whence it is
distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales, Notit. Gall. p. 136.
D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 212, 279.]
42 (return)
[ The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently
mentioned by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which
Rheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales. Notit. p.
120-123.]
43 (return)
[ I am sensible that these military orations are usually
composed by the historian; yet the old Ostrogoths, who had served under
Attila, might repeat his discourse to Cassiodorus; the ideas, and even
the expressions, have an original Scythian cast; and I doubt, whether an
Italian of the sixth century would have thought of the hujus certaminis
gaudia.]
The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic, when they are described by the same genius which conceived and executed them, may tend to improve (if such improvement can be wished) the art of destroying the human species. But the battle of Chalons can only excite our curiosity by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by the blind impetuosity of Barbarians, and has been related by partial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the knowledge of military affairs. Cassiolorus, however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable engagement; "a conflict," as they informed him, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in the present or in past ages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; 44 and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to justify the historian's remark, that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies, separated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole force against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke from the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his horse. The wounded king was oppressed in the general disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry; and this important death served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of victory, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and verified the remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had been thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the Alani, gradually restored their order of battle; and the Huns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He had exposed his person with the rashness of a private soldier; but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed forwards beyond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly supported; their flanks were unguarded; and the conquerors of Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They retired within the circle of wagons that fortified their camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared themselves for a defence, to which neither their arms, nor their temper, were adapted. The event was doubtful: but Attila had secured a last and honorable resource. The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were collected, by his order, into a funeral pile; and the magnanimous Barbarian had resolved, if his intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the flames, and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they might have acquired, by the death or captivity of Attila. 45
44 (return)
[ The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of Cassiodorus,
are extremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, pertinax, cui
simile nulla usquam narrat antiquitas: ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut
nihil esset quod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus
miraculi privaretur aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392,
393) attempts to reconcile the 162,000 of Jornandes with the 300,000 of
Idatius and Isidore, by supposing that the larger number included the
total destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the slaughter of
the unarmed people, &c.]
45 (return)
[ The count de Buat, (Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom. vii. p.
554-573,) still depending on the false, and again rejecting the true,
Idatius, has divided the defeat of Attila into two great battles; the
former near Orleans, the latter in Champagne: in the one, Theodoric was
slain in the other, he was revenged.]
But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons. In the confusion of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the Gothic prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner, but on the left of the line, Aetius himself, separated from his allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious for their fate, encountered and escaped the hostile troops that were scattered over the plains of Chalons; and at length reached the camp of the Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight rampart of shields, till the dawn of day. The Imperial general was soon satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained inactive within his intrenchments; and when he contemplated the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had principally fallen on the Barbarians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the slain: is subjects bewailed the death of their king and father; but their tears were mingled with songs and acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy. The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his eldest son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their success; and the new king accepted the obligation of revenge as a sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of their formidable antagonist; and their historian has compared Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his hunters with redoubled fury. The kings and nations who might have deserted his standard in the hour of distress, were made sensible that the displeasure of their monarch was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All his instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of defiance; and the foremost troops who advanced to the assault were checked or destroyed by showers of arrows from every side of the intrenchments. It was determined, in a general council of war, to besiege the king of the Huns in his camp, to intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But the impatience of the Barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures; and the mature policy of Aetius was apprehensive that, after the extirpation of the Huns, the republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the Gothic nation. The patrician exerted the superior ascendant of authority and reason to calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric considered as a duty; represented, with seeming affection and real truth, the dangers of absence and delay and persuaded Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne and treasures of Thoulouse. 46 After the departure of the Goths, and the separation of the allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast silence that reigned over the plains of Chalons: the suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him several days within the circle of his wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the Western empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent distance, and magnifying the opinion of their strength by the numerous fires which they kindled every night, continued to follow the rear of the Huns till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila: they traversed, both in their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks; and it was perhaps in this war that they exercised the cruelties which, about fourscore years afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis. They massacred their hostages, as well as their captives: two hundred young maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were crushed under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage ancestors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilized ages. 47
46 (return)
[ Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 41, p. 671. The policy of
Aetius, and the behavior of Torismond, are extremely natural; and
the patrician, according to Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 7, p. 163,)
dismissed the prince of the Franks, by suggesting to him a similar
apprehension. The false Idatius ridiculously pretends, that Aetius
paid a clandestine nocturnal visit to the kings of the Huns and of the
Visigoths; from each of whom he obtained a bribe of ten thousand pieces
of gold, as the price of an undisturbed retreat.]
47 (return)
[ These cruelties, which are passionately deplored by
Theodoric, the son of Clovis, (Gregory of Tours, l. iii. c. 10, p. 190,)
suit the time and circumstances of the invasion of Attila. His residence
in Thuringia was long attested by popular tradition; and he is supposed
to have assembled a couroultai, or diet, in the territory of Eisenach.
See Mascou, ix. 30, who settles with nice accuracy the extent of ancient
Thuringia, and derives its name from the Gothic tribe of the Therungi]
Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation, of Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition In the ensuing spring he repeated his demand of the princess Honoria, and her patrimonial treasures. The demand was again rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those Barbarians were unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which, even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labor of many thousand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work. The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, movable turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; 48 and the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime cities of the Adriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries, who appeared to have served under their native princes, Alaric and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful resistance which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian, who disgraced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three months were consumed without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the want of provisions, and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his orders, that the troops should strike their tents the next morning, and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which chance had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats, unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and solitude. 49 The favorable omen inspired an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. 50 After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from the flames the public, as well as private, buildings, and spared the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin, or Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine. 51 When he took possession of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised and offended at the sight of a picture which represented the Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet. The revenge which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman vanity, was harmless and ingenious. He commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and the emperors were delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before the throne of the Scythian monarch. 52 The spectators must have confessed the truth and propriety of the alteration; and were perhaps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and the man. 53
48 (return)
[ Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum generibus
adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the thirteenth century, the
Moguls battered the cities of China with large engines, constructed by
the Mahometans or Christians in their service, which threw stones from
150 to 300 pounds weight. In the defence of their country, the Chinese
used gunpowder, and even bombs, above a hundred years before they
were known in Europe; yet even those celestial, or infernal, arms were
insufficient to protect a pusillanimous nation. See Gaubil. Hist. des
Mongous, p. 70, 71, 155, 157, &c.]
49 (return)
[ The same story is told by Jornandes, and by Procopius, (de
Bell Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 187, 188:) nor is it easy to decide which
is the original. But the Greek historian is guilty of an inexcusable
mistake, in placing the siege of Aquileia after the death of Aetius.]
50 (return)
[ Jornandes, about a hundred years afterwards, affirms,
that Aquileia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus vestigia, ut
appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 42, p. 673.
Paul. Diacon. l. ii. c. 14, p. 785. Liutprand, Hist. l. iii. c. 2. The
name of Aquileia was sometimes applied to Forum Julii, (Cividad del
Friuli,) the more recent capital of the Venetian province. * Note:
Compare the curious Latin poems on the destruction of Aquileia,
published by M. Endlicher in his valuable catalogue of Latin Mss. in the
library of Vienna, p. 298, &c.
Repleta quondam domibus sublimibus, ornatis mire, niveis, marmorels, Nune ferax frugum metiris funiculo ruricolarum.
The monkish poet has his consolation in Attila's sufferings in soul and body.
Vindictam tamen non evasit impius destructor tuus Attila sevissimus, Nunc igni simul gehennae et vermibus excruciatur—P. 290.—M.]
51 (return)
[ In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous, but so
imperfectly known, I have taken for my guides two learned Italians,
who considered the subject with some peculiar advantages; Sigonius,
de Imperio Occidentali, l. xiii. in his works, tom. i. p. 495-502; and
Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 229-236, 8vo. edition.]
52 (return)
[ This anecdote may be found under two different articles of
the miscellaneous compilation of Suidas.]
53 (return)
[
Leo respondit, humana, hoc pictum manu:
Videres hominem dejectum, si pingere
Leones scirent.
—Appendix ad Phaedrum, Fab. xxv.
The lion in Phaedrus very foolishly appeals from pictures to the amphitheatre; and I am glad to observe, that the native taste of La Fontaine (l. iii. fable x.) has omitted this most lame and impotent conclusion.]
It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a republic, which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, 54 was formerly diffused over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the River Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the Barbarians, fifty Venetian cities flourished in peace and prosperity: Aquileia was placed in the most conspicuous station: but the ancient dignity of Padua was supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of five hundred citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank, must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns, found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighboring islands. 55 At the extremity of the Gulf, where the Adriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from the waves by several long slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels through some secret and narrow channels. 56 Till the middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, 57 which describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. 571 The minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of the waves; and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, that they were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt, which they extracted from the sea: and the exchange of that commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the neighboring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people, whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or water, soon became alike familiar with the two elements; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size and number, visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage which Venice annually celebrates with the Adriatic, was contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the Praetorian praefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal of their countrymen for the public service, which required their assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition, that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attested by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual independence. 58
54 (return)
[ Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 14,
p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about the end of the eighth
century Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc Venetias dicimus,
constat; sed ejus terminus a Pannoniae finibus usque Adduam fluvium
protelatur. The history of that province till the age of Charlemagne
forms the first and most interesting part of the Verona (Illustrata, p.
1-388,) in which the marquis Scipio Maffei has shown himself equally
capable of enlarged views and minute disquisitions.]
55 (return)
[ This emigration is not attested by any contemporary
evidence; but the fact is proved by the event, and the circumstances
might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of Aquileia retired to the
Isle of Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus Altus, or Rialto, where the city
of Venice was afterwards built, &c.]
56 (return)
[ The topography and antiquities of the Venetian islands,
from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately stated in the
Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi. p. 151-155.]
57 (return)
[ Cassiodor. Variar. l. xii. epist. 24. Maffei (Verona
Illustrata, part i. p. 240-254) has translated and explained this
curious letter, in the spirit of a learned antiquarian and a faithful
subject, who considered Venice as the only legitimate offspring of the
Roman republic. He fixes the date of the epistle, and consequently the
praefecture, of Cassiodorus, A.D. 523; and the marquis's authority has
the more weight, as he prepared an edition of his works, and actually
published a dissertation on the true orthography of his name. See
Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii. p. 290-339.]
571 (return)
[ The learned count Figliasi has proved, in his memoirs
upon the Veneti (Memorie de' Veneti primi e secondi del conte Figliasi,
t. vi. Veneziai, 796,) that from the most remote period, this nation,
which occupied the country which has since been called the Venetian
States or Terra Firma, likewise inhabited the islands scattered upon
the coast, and that from thence arose the names of Venetia prima and
secunda, of which the first applied to the main land and the second
to the islands and lagunes. From the time of the Pelasgi and of the
Etrurians, the first Veneti, inhabiting a fertile and pleasant country,
devoted themselves to agriculture: the second, placed in the midst
of canals, at the mouth of several rivers, conveniently situated with
regard to the islands of Greece, as well as the fertile plains of Italy,
applied themselves to navigation and commerce. Both submitted to the
Romans a short time before the second Punic war; yet it was not till
after the victory of Marius over the Cimbri, that their country was
reduced to a Roman province. Under the emperors, Venetia Prima obtained
more than once, by its calamities, a place in history. * * But the
maritime province was occupied in salt works, fisheries, and commerce.
The Romans have considered the inhabitants of this part as beneath the
dignity of history, and have left them in obscurity. * * * They dwelt
there until the period when their islands afforded a retreat to their
ruined and fugitive compatriots. Sismondi. Hist. des Rep. Italiens,
v. i. p. 313.—G. ——Compare, on the origin of Venice, Daru, Hist. de
Venise, vol. i. c. l.—M.]
58 (return)
[ See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie,
Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, a translation of the famous
Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its merits, is
stained, in every line, with the disingenuous malevolence of party: but
the principal evidence, genuine and apocryphal, is brought together and
the reader will easily choose the fair medium.]
The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their religion, as well as of their republic. Amidst the general consternation, Aetius alone was incapable of fear; but it was impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians who had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy; and the succors promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and doubtful. Since Aetius, at the head of his domestic troops, still maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of Attila, he never showed himself more truly great, than at the time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful people. 59 If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius, instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war; and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an impregnable fortress to an open capital, betrayed his secret intention of abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his Imperial person. This shameful abdication was suspended, however, by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious tendency. The Western emperor, with the senate and people of Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients, and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the Roman senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus 60 was admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public or private interest: his colleague Trigetius had exercised the Praetorian praefecture of Italy; and Leo, bishop of Rome, consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The genius of Leo 61 was exercised and displayed in the public misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation of Great, by the successful zeal with which he labored to establish his opinions and his authority, under the venerable names of orthodox faith and ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman ambassadors were introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of the Lake Benacus, 62 and trampled, with his Scythian cavalry, the farms of Catullus and Virgil. 63 The Barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even respectful, attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army might facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth and idolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the North, whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, indulged themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine, and of meat, prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the injuries of the Italians. 64 When Attila declared his resolution of carrying his victorious arms to the gates of Rome, he was admonished by his friends, as well as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long survived the conquest of the eternal city. His mind, superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors; nor could he escape the influence of superstition, which had so often been subservient to his designs. 65 The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the Barbarian with instant death, if he rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome might deserve the interposition of celestial beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable, which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael, and the chisel of Algardi. 66
59 (return)
[ Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 19) has published a
curious passage from the Chronicle of Prosper. Attila, redintegratis
viribus, quas in Gallia amiserat, Italiam ingredi per Pannonias
intendit; nihil duce nostro Aetio secundum prioris belli opera
prospiciente, &c. He reproaches Aetius with neglecting to guard the
Alps, and with a design to abandon Italy; but this rash censure may at
least be counterbalanced by the favorable testimonies of Idatius and
Isidore.]
60 (return)
[ See the original portraits of Avienus and his rival
Basilius, delineated and contrasted in the epistles (i. 9. p. 22) of
Sidonius. He had studied the characters of the two chiefs of the senate;
but he attached himself to Basilius, as the more solid and disinterested
friend.]
61 (return)
[ The character and principles of Leo may be traced in
one hundred and forty-one original epistles, which illustrate the
ecclesiastical history of his long and busy pontificate, from A.D. 440
to 461. See Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. part ii p.
120-165.]
62 (return)
[
Tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat
Mincius, et tenera praetexit arundine ripas
———-
Anne lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque
Fluctibus, et fremitu assurgens Benace marino.]
63 (return)
[ The marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 95,
129, 221, part ii. p. 2, 6) has illustrated with taste and learning this
interesting topography. He places the interview of Attila and St. Leo
near Ariolica, or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at the conflux of the lake
and river; ascertains the villa of Catullus, in the delightful peninsula
of Sirmio, and discovers the Andes of Virgil, in the village of Bandes,
precisely situate, qua se subducere colles incipiunt, where the Veronese
hills imperceptibly slope down into the plain of Mantua. * Note: Gibbon
has made a singular mistake: the Mincius flows out of the Bonacus
at Peschiera, not into it. The interview is likewise placed at Ponte
Molino. and at Governolo, at the conflux of the Mincio and the Gonzaga.
bishop of Mantua, erected a tablet in the year 1616, in the church of
the latter place, commemorative of the event. Descrizione di Verona a de
la sua provincia. C. 11, p. 126.—M.]
64 (return)
[ Si statim infesto agmine urbem petiissent, grande
discrimen esset: sed in Venetia quo fere tractu Italia mollissima est,
ipsa soli coelique clementia robur elanquit. Ad hoc panis usu carnisque
coctae, et dulcedine vini mitigatos, &c. This passage of Florus (iii.
3) is still more applicable to the Huns than to the Cimbri, and it may
serve as a commentary on the celestial plague, with which Idatius and
Isidore have afflicted the troops of Attila.]
65 (return)
[ The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the effect
which this example produced on the mind of Attila. Jornandes, c. 42, p.
673]
66 (return)
[ The picture of Raphael is in the Vatican; the basso (or
perhaps the alto) relievo of Algardi, on one of the altars of St. Peter,
(see Dubos, Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i. p. 519,
520.) Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 452, No. 57, 58) bravely sustains
the truth of the apparition; which is rejected, however, by the most
learned and pious Catholics.]
Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to return more dreadful, and more implacable, if his bride, the princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the mean while, Attila relieved his tender anxiety, by adding a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. 67 Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at his wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures, or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing day, till the unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and, after attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at length broke into the royal apartment. They found the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger, as well as the death of the king, who had expired during the night. 68 An artery had suddenly burst: and as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the midst of the plain, under a silken pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his death, the father of his people, the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the world. According to their national custom, the Barbarians cut off a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains of Attila were enclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in the night: the spoils of nations were thrown into his grave; the captives who had opened the ground were inhumanly massacred; and the same Huns, who had indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dissolute and intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of their king. It was reported at Constantinople, that on the fortunate night on which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila broken asunder: and the report may be allowed to prove, how seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was absent from the mind of a Roman emperor. 69
67 (return)
[ Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suae
tempore, puellam Ildico nomine, decoram, valde, sibi matrimonium post
innumerabiles uxores... socians. Jornandes, c. 49, p. 683, 684.
He afterwards adds, (c. 50, p. 686,) Filii Attilae, quorum per licentiam libidinis poene populus fuit. Polygamy has been established among the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian wives is regulated only by their personal charms; and the faded matron prepares, without a murmur, the bed which is destined for her blooming rival. But in royal families, the daughters of Khans communicate to their sons a prior right. See Genealogical History, p. 406, 407, 408.]
68 (return)
[ The report of her guilt reached Constantinople, where
it obtained a very different name; and Marcellinus observes, that the
tyrant of Europe was slain in the night by the hand, and the knife, of
a woman Corneille, who has adapted the genuine account to his tragedy,
describes the irruption of blood in forty bombast lines, and Attila
exclaims, with ridiculous fury,
S'il ne veut s'arreter, (his blood.)
(Dit-il) on me payera ce qui m'en va couter.]
69 (return)
[ The curious circumstances of the death and funeral of
Attila are related by Jornandes, (c. 49, p. 683, 684, 685,) and were
probably transcribed from Priscus.]
The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns, established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; the most powerful kings refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so many various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of the nations of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and represented the disgrace of this servile partition; and his subjects, the warlike Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia, the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of the Goths, the arrows of the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and the heavy weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of Netad: his early valor had raised him to the throne of the Acatzires, a Scythian people, whom he subdued; and his father, who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of Ellac. 70 His brother, Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila, with the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae. The Pannonian conquests from Vienna to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the settlements of the tribes, who had so bravely asserted their native freedom, were irregularly distributed, according to the measure of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude of his father's slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich was confined to the circle of his wagons; his desperate courage urged him to invade the Eastern empire: he fell in battle; and his head ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or superstitiously believed, that Irnac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to perpetuate the glories of his race. The character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness of his brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining condition of the Huns; and Irnac, with his subject hordes, retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon overwhelmed by a torrent of new Barbarians, who followed the same road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The Geougen, or Avares, whose residence is assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean, impelled the adjacent tribes; till at length the Igours of the North, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the most valuable furs, spread themselves over the desert, as far as the Borysthenes and the Caspian gates; and finally extinguished the empire of the Huns. 71
70 (return)
[ See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50, p. 685, 686, 687,
688. His distinction of the national arms is curious and important.
Nan ibi admirandum reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi cernere erat cunctis,
pugnantem Gothum ense furentem, Gepidam in vulnere suorum cuncta tela
frangentem, Suevum pede, Hunnum sagitta praesumere, Alanum gravi Herulum
levi, armatura, aciem instruere. I am not precisely informed of the
situation of the River Netad.]
71 (return)
[ Two modern historians have thrown much new light on the
ruin and division of the empire of Attila; M. de Buat, by his laborious
and minute diligence, (tom. viii. p. 3-31, 68-94,) and M. de Guignes,
by his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese language and writers. See
Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 315-319.]
Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern empire, under the reign of a prince who conciliated the friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians. But the emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, who had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of the patrician Aetius. From the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally celebrated as the terror of the Barbarians, and the support of the republic; 711 and his new favorite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of Placidia, 72 by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Aetius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of Barbarian followers, his powerful dependants, who filled the civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius, who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter, had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Aetius himself, supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet behavior. The patrician offended his sovereign by a hostile declaration; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety; and from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate vehemence, the marriage of his son; Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the breast of a general who had saved his empire: his courtiers and eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master; and Aetius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence. Boethius, the Praetorian praefect, was killed at the same moment, and before the event could be divulged, the principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace, and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the specious names of justice and necessity, was immediately communicated by the emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to Aetius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero: the Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled their grief and resentment: and the public contempt, which had been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at once converted into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom pervade the walls of a palace; yet the emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a Roman, whose approbation he had not disdained to solicit. "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know, that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his left." 73
711 (return)
[ The praises awarded by Gibbon to the character of Aetius
have been animadverted upon with great severity. (See Mr. Herbert's
Attila. p. 321.) I am not aware that Gibbon has dissembled or palliated
any of the crimes or treasons of Aetius: but his position at the time
of his murder was certainly that of the preserver of the empire, the
conqueror of the most dangerous of the barbarians: it is by no means
clear that he was not "innocent" of any treasonable designs against
Valentinian. If the early acts of his life, the introduction of the Huns
into Italy, and of the Vandals into Africa, were among the proximate
causes of the ruin of the empire, his murder was the signal for its
almost immediate downfall.—M.]
72 (return)
[ Placidia died at Rome, November 27, A.D. 450. She was
buried at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, and even her corpse, seated in
a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The empress received
many compliments from the orthodox clergy; and St. Peter Chrysologus
assured her, that her zeal for the Trinity had been recompensed by an
august trinity of children. See Tillemont, Uist. Jer Emp. tom. vi. p.
240.]
73 (return)
[ Aetium Placidus mactavit semivir amens, is the expression
of Sidonius, (Panegyr. Avit. 359.) The poet knew the world, and was not
inclined to flatter a minister who had injured or disgraced Avitus and
Majorian, the successive heroes of his song.]
The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and frequent visits of Valentinian; who was consequently more despised at Rome than in any other part of his dominions. A republican spirit was insensibly revived in the senate, as their authority, and even their supplies, became necessary for the support of his feeble government. The stately demeano of an hereditary monarch offended their pride; and the pleasures of Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honor of noble families. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own, and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of love which her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a chaste and beautiful wife: her obstinate resistance served only to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to accomplish them, either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the court: the emperor, who, by chance or contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the debt; and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in her husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her litter to the Imperial palace; the emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her to a remote and silent bed-chamber; and Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospitality. Her tears, when she returned home, her deep affliction, and her bitter reproaches against a husband whom she considered as the accomplice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge; the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition; and he might reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage of the Roman senate, to the throne of a detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had imprudently admitted among his guards several domestics and followers of Aetius. Two of these, of Barbarian race were persuaded to execute a sacred and honorable duty, by punishing with death the assassin of their patron; and their intrepid courage did not long expect a favorable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused himself, in the field of Mars, with the spectacle of some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon him with drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor to the heart, without the least opposition from his numerous train, who seemed to rejoice in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate of Valentinian the Third, 74 the last Roman emperor of the family of Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the innocence, which alleviate, in their characters, the want of spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable, since he had passions, without virtues: even his religion was questionable; and though he never deviated into the paths of heresy, he scandalized the pious Christians by his attachment to the profane arts of magic and divination.
74 (return)
[ With regard to the cause and circumstances of the deaths
of Aetius and Valentinian, our information is dark and imperfect.
Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186, 187, 188) is a fabulous
writer for the events which precede his own memory. His narrative must
therefore be supplied and corrected by five or six Chronicles, none of
which were composed in Rome or Italy; and which can only express, in
broken sentences, the popular rumors, as they were conveyed to Gaul,
Spain, Africa, Constantinople, or Alexandria.]
As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city. 75 This prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; 76 and even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. 77 The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people, whom they defrauded of the indulgences that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition which confiscated their goods, and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were-thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the Imperial ministers pursued with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made. 78 If all the Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor.
75 (return)
[ This interpretation of Vettius, a celebrated augur, was
quoted by Varro, in the xviiith book of his Antiquities. Censorinus, de
Die Natali, c. 17, p. 90, 91, edit. Havercamp.]
76 (return)
[ According to Varro, the twelfth century would expire
A.D. 447, but the uncertainty of the true aera of Rome might allow some
latitude of anticipation or delay. The poets of the age, Claudian (de
Bell Getico, 265) and Sidonius, (in Panegyr. Avit. 357,) may be admitted
as fair witnesses of the popular opinion.
Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volatu
Vulturis, incidunt properatis saecula metis.
.......
Jam prope fata tui bissenas Vulturis alas
Implebant; seis namque tuos, scis, Roma, labores.
—See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 340-346.]
77 (return)
[ The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic
lamentations and vehement invectives. His immoderate freedom serves to
prove the weakness, as well as the corruption, of the Roman government.
His book was published after the loss of Africa, (A.D. 439,) and before
Attila's war, (A.D. 451.)]
78 (return)
[ The Bagaudae of Spain, who fought pitched battles with
the Roman troops, are repeatedly mentioned in the Chronicle of Idatius.
Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in very forcible
language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum... nunc ultro repudiatur ac
fugitur, nec vile tamen sed etiam abominabile poene habetur... Et hinc
est ut etiam hi quid ad Barbaros non confugiunt, Barbari tamen
esse coguntur, scilicet ut est pars magna Hispanorum, et non minima
Gallorum.... De Bagaudis nunc mihi sermo est, qui per malos judices
et cruentos spoliati, afflicti, necati postquam jus Romanae libertatis
amiserant, etiam honorem Romani nominis perdiderunt.... Vocamus
rabelles, vocamus perditos quos esse compulimua criminosos. De Gubernat.
Dei, l. v. p. 158, 159.]