Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part III

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 Ætius.]

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
Prætorian præfect, 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 præfecture, 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, Ætius 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 Ætius, 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
Prætorian præfecture 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 Ætius 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, Bibliothèque 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 Attilæ, 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
Ætius. 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 Ætius,
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. Ætius 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
Ætius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal
presence. Boethius, the Prætorian præfect, 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 Ætius,
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
Ætius 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 Ætius:
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 demeanor 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
Ætius. 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 Ætius 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 era 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.]