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$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part II.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{attila
footnote
huns
might
king
aetius
gaul
theodoric
barbarians
troops}
$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part II.

     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

[Footnote 28: 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.]

[Footnote 29: 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.]

[Footnote 30: 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.

[Footnote 31: 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]

[Footnote 32: - 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.]

[Footnote 33: 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.]

[Footnote 34: 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.]

[Footnote 35: 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

[Footnote 36: -     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.]

[Footnote 37: 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.]

[Footnote 38: 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.

[Footnote 39: 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.]

[Footnote 40: 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.]

[Footnote 41: 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.]

[Footnote 42: 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.]

[Footnote 43: 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

[Footnote 44: 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.]

[Footnote 45: 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

[Footnote 46: 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.]

[Footnote 47: 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]