Chapter XXXIV: Attila.—Part III

I must acknowledge myself unable to form any satisfactory theory
as to the connection of these poems with the history of the time,
or the period, from which they may date their origin;
notwithstanding the laborious investigations and critical
sagacity of the Schlegels, the Grimms, of P. E. Muller and
Lachman, and a whole host of German critics and antiquaries; not
to omit our own countryman, Mr. Herbert, whose theory concerning
Attila is certainly neither deficient in boldness nor
originality. I conceive the only way to obtain any thing like a
clear conception on this point would be what Lachman has begun,
(see above,) patiently to collect and compare the various forms
which the traditions have assumed, without any preconceived,
either mythical or poetical, theory, and, if possible, to
discover the original basis of the whole rich and fantastic
legend. One point, which to me is strongly in favor of the
antiquity of this poetic cycle, is, that the manners are so
clearly anterior to chivalry, and to the influence exercised on
the poetic literature of Europe by the chivalrous poems and
romances. I think I find some traces of that influence in the
Latin poem, though strained through the imagination of a monk.
The English reader will find an amusing account of the German
Nibelungen and Heldenbuch, and of some of the Scandinavian Sagas,
in the volume of Northern Antiquities published by Weber, the
friend of Sir Walter Scott. Scott himself contributed a
considerable, no doubt far the most valuable, part to the work.
4612 4712

See also the various German editions of the Nibelungen, to which
Lachman, with true German perseverance, has compiled a thick
volume of various readings; the Heldenbuch, the old Danish poems
by Grimm, the Eddas, &c. Herbert’s Attila, p. 510, et seq.—M.]

46 (return) [ If we may believe Plutarch, (in Demetrio, tom. v.
p. 24,) it was the custom of the Scythians, when they indulged in
the pleasures of the table, to awaken their languid courage by
the martial harmony of twanging their bow-strings.]

4612 (return) [ The Scythian was an idiot or lunatic; the Moor a
regular buffoon—M.]

4712 (return) [ The curious narrative of this embassy, which
required few observations, and was not susceptible of any
collateral evidence, may be found in Priscus, p. 49-70. But I
have not confined myself to the same order; and I had previously
extracted the historical circumstances, which were less
intimately connected with the journey, and business, of the Roman
ambassadors.]

But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous design,
which had been concealed under the mask of the public faith. The
surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he contemplated the
splendor of Constantinople, had encouraged the interpreter
Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with the eunuch
Chrysaphius, 48 who governed the emperor and the empire. After
some previous conversation, and a mutual oath of secrecy, the
eunuch, who had not, from his own feelings or experience, imbibed
any exalted notions of ministerial virtue, ventured to propose
the death of Attila, as an important service, by which Edecon
might deserve a liberal share of the wealth and luxury which he
admired. The ambassador of the Huns listened to the tempting
offer; and professed, with apparent zeal, his ability, as well as
readiness, to execute the bloody deed; the design was
communicated to the master of the offices, and the devout
Theodosius consented to the assassination of his invincible
enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated by the
dissimulation, or the repentance, of Edecon; and though he might
exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he seemed
to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit of an early and
voluntary confession. If we now review the embassy of Maximin,
and the behavior of Attila, we must applaud the Barbarian, who
respected the laws of hospitality, and generously entertained and
dismissed the minister of a prince who had conspired against his
life. But the rashness of Vigilius will appear still more
extraordinary, since he returned, conscious of his guilt and
danger, to the royal camp, accompanied by his son, and carrying
with him a weighty purse of gold, which the favorite eunuch had
furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and to corrupt the
fidelity of the guards. The interpreter was instantly seized, and
dragged before the tribunal of Attila, where he asserted his
innocence with specious firmness, till the threat of inflicting
instant death on his son extorted from him a sincere discovery of
the criminal transaction. Under the name of ransom, or
confiscation, the rapacious king of the Huns accepted two hundred
pounds of gold for the life of a traitor, whom he disdained to
punish. He pointed his just indignation against a nobler object.
His ambassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were immediately despatched
to Constantinople, with a peremptory instruction, which it was
much safer for them to execute than to disobey. They boldly
entered the Imperial presence, with the fatal purse hanging down
from the neck of Orestes; who interrogated the eunuch
Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the throne, whether he recognized
the evidence of his guilt. But the office of reproof was reserved
for the superior dignity of his colleague Eslaw, who gravely
addressed the emperor of the East in the following words:
“Theodosius is the son of an illustrious and respectable parent:
Attila likewise is descended from a noble race; and he has
supported, by his actions, the dignity which he inherited from
his father Mundzuk. But Theodosius has forfeited his paternal
honors, and, by consenting to pay tribute has degraded himself to
the condition of a slave. It is therefore just, that he should
reverence the man whom fortune and merit have placed above him;
instead of attempting, like a wicked slave, clandestinely to
conspire against his master.” The son of Arcadius, who was
accustomed only to the voice of flattery, heard with astonishment
the severe language of truth: he blushed and trembled; nor did he
presume directly to refuse the head of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw
and Orestes were instructed to demand. A solemn embassy, armed
with full powers and magnificent gifts, was hastily sent to
deprecate the wrath of Attila; and his pride was gratified by the
choice of Nomius and Anatolius, two ministers of consular or
patrician rank, of whom the one was great treasurer, and the
other was master-general of the armies of the East. He
condescended to meet these ambassadors on the banks of the River
Drenco; and though he at first affected a stern and haughty
demeanor, his anger was insensibly mollified by their eloquence
and liberality. He condescended to pardon the emperor, the
eunuch, and the interpreter; bound himself by an oath to observe
the conditions of peace; released a great number of captives;
abandoned the fugitives and deserters to their fate; and resigned
a large territory, to the south of the Danube, which he had
already exhausted of its wealth and inhabitants. But this treaty
was purchased at an expense which might have supported a vigorous
and successful war; and the subjects of Theodosius were compelled
to redeem the safety of a worthless favorite by oppressive taxes,
which they would more cheerfully have paid for his destruction.
49

48 (return) [ M. de Tillemont has very properly given the
succession of chamberlains, who reigned in the name of
Theodosius. Chrysaphius was the last, and, according to the
unanimous evidence of history, the worst of these favorites, (see
Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 117-119. Mem. Eccles. tom. xv.
p. 438.) His partiality for his godfather the heresiarch
Eutyches, engaged him to persecute the orthodox party]

49 (return) [ This secret conspiracy and its important
consequences, may be traced in the fragments of Priscus, p. 37,
38, 39, 54, 70, 71, 72. The chronology of that historian is not
fixed by any precise date; but the series of negotiations between
Attila and the Eastern empire must be included within the three
or four years which are terminated, A.D. 450. by the death of
Theodosius.]

The emperor Theodosius did not long survive the most humiliating
circumstance of an inglorious life. As he was riding, or hunting,
in the neighborhood of Constantinople, he was thrown from his
horse into the River Lycus: the spine of the back was injured by
the fall; and he expired some days afterwards, in the fiftieth
year of his age, and the forty-third of his reign. 50 His sister
Pulcheria, whose authority had been controlled both in civil and
ecclesiastical affairs by the pernicious influence of the
eunuchs, was unanimously proclaimed Empress of the East; and the
Romans, for the first time, submitted to a female reign. No
sooner had Pulcheria ascended the throne, than she indulged her
own and the public resentment, by an act of popular justice.
Without any legal trial, the eunuch Chrysaphius was executed
before the gates of the city; and the immense riches which had
been accumulated by the rapacious favorite, served only to hasten
and to justify his punishment. 51 Amidst the general acclamations
of the clergy and people, the empress did not forget the
prejudice and disadvantage to which her sex was exposed; and she
wisely resolved to prevent their murmurs by the choice of a
colleague, who would always respect the superior rank and virgin
chastity of his wife. She gave her hand to Marcian, a senator,
about sixty years of age; and the nominal husband of Pulcheria
was solemnly invested with the Imperial purple. The zeal which he
displayed for the orthodox creed, as it was established by the
council of Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the grateful
eloquence of the Catholics. But the behavior of Marcian in a
private life, and afterwards on the throne, may support a more
rational belief, that he was qualified to restore and invigorate
an empire, which had been almost dissolved by the successive
weakness of two hereditary monarchs. He was born in Thrace, and
educated to the profession of arms; but Marcian’s youth had been
severely exercised by poverty and misfortune, since his only
resource, when he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in
two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed of a friend. He
passed nineteen years in the domestic and military service of
Aspar, and his son Ardaburius; followed those powerful generals
to the Persian and African wars; and obtained, by their
influence, the honorable rank of tribune and senator. His mild
disposition, and useful talents, without alarming the jealousy,
recommended Marcian to the esteem and favor of his patrons; he
had seen, perhaps he had felt, the abuses of a venal and
oppressive administration; and his own example gave weight and
energy to the laws, which he promulgated for the reformation of
manners. 52

50 (return) [ Theodorus the Reader, (see Vales. Hist. Eccles.
tom. iii. p. 563,) and the Paschal Chronicle, mention the fall,
without specifying the injury: but the consequence was so likely
to happen, and so unlikely to be invented, that we may safely
give credit to Nicephorus Callistus, a Greek of the fourteenth
century.]

51 (return) [ Pulcheriae nutu (says Count Marcellinus) sua cum
avaritia interemptus est. She abandoned the eunuch to the pious
revenge of a son, whose father had suffered at his instigation.
Note: Might not the execution of Chrysaphius have been a
sacrifice to avert the anger of Attila, whose assassination the
eunuch had attempted to contrive?—M.]

52 (return) [ de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4. Evagrius, l. ii. c. 1.
Theophanes, p. 90, 91. Novell. ad Calcem. Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p.
30. The praises which St. Leo and the Catholics have bestowed on
Marcian, are diligently transcribed by Baronius, as an
encouragement for future princes.]