350
ATTILA.
A new tempest now broke forth in another quarter ; this
was the Huns, who had formerly expelled the Goths. We
have no distinct traces of their abodes in the time of Theodo-
sius and his sons, but they probably lived in the country from
the Don to Wallachia. In the early part of the reign of
Theodosius we find them on the Danube, and they even
advanced across the Theiss into Pannonia. Our accounts of all
these occurrences are too miserable to enable us to see our way
clearly. Desguigne’s hypothesis that they came from China is
wrong, as I have already remarked, and has been justly aban-
doned. The Huns now appear in Pannonia, the boundary of
which must have been lost by the Romans. Bledas and Attila
(Bledel and Etzel), the two sons4 of Rugilas, appeared with a
formidable power as kings of the Huns. Gibbon’s description
of Attila’s power, however, is one of the weak parts of his
work, for he believes that Attila’s empire extended as far as
China. Itrnay have extended beyond the Don to the Volga.
The German tribes did homage to him, as we see from our
ancient poems ; hence he spared them, and the poems do not
speak ill of him. The main strength of his empire, as Frederik
Schlegel has justly observed, consisted in the German tribes ;
though he himself, as Jornandes describes him, was a Mongol,
and surrounded by Mongols ; but that Mongolie tribe was
comparatively weak, whence the Germans became free imme-
diately after his death. Until the middle of the fifth century,
Attila had directed his arms against the Eastern empire only,
which he fearfully harassed by devastation, disgraceful peaces,
and tribute. Servia, and the greater part of Bulgaria, were
changed by him into a complete wilderness. The Huns were
literally destroyers, fierce and blood-thirsty, and very different
from the Goths. The Western empire was not in a condition
to send assistance to the distressed East, being itself hard
pressed by the Vandals. There existed at that time, even a
kind of friendly relation between the Western empire and the
Huns, manifested by the interchange of presents. Aetius was
exiled and had gone to the Huns; but he afterwards returned,
and under their protection, established his power in the empire,
until it was so firm that he no longer required them. Hc had
restored the authority of Rome beyond all expectation. In
Gaul, he had subdued the distant countries on the sea coast
4 It should rather he n<pheus.
BATTLE OE CHALONS.
351
wlιich had made themselves independent. The frontier of
the Rhine was also destroyed, but only in such a manner
that the Franks occupied the country from Belgium to the
Saone; and that the Burgundians, though they were governed
by kings of their own, had to pay tribute to Rome. But Pro-
vence, a part of Dauphiné, Lower Languedoc, the country about
the Lower Loire, Auvergne, and the north-west of Gaul, and
also Spain on the Mediterranean, with the exception of Cata-
lonia, were subject to Rome. TheVisigoths Occupiedthe south
of Spain. No European country is so divided as the western
empire then was; those countries were for the most part heaps
of ruins, and reduced to the greatest misery ; of which we may
form some conception if we read the poems of Logau5 referring
to the period at the end of the Thirty-Years’ war.
Attila was induced to march into Gaul, by a dispute with a
Frankish dynasty. Aetius there united against him the troops
of the Visigoths, the ruling party of the Franks in Gaul, under
Merovaeus and the Burgundians, with the feeble power of the
empire. Nearly all his troops were barbarians, but they were
guided by his spirit. Attila was besieging Orleans, which was
on the point of falling into his hands, and would have been
destroyed like the cities on the Rhine5 when Aetius and Theo-
doric, king of the Visigoths, came to its relief. Attila retreated
into Champagne (Campi CataJaunici). The decisive battle, in
the year A.τ>. 451, is incorrectly called the battle of Chalons.
I consider this by no means accurate; for the Campi CataJau-
nici is Champagne, and it is, therefore, unnecessary to place the
scene of the battle in the neighbourhood of Chalons. In that
fearful battle, Attila led the barbarians of the East against the
barbarians of the West, the Germans preponderating among
the latter. Aetius, however, had to fight, not only against
greater numbers, but also against treachery: the Alani, sta-
tioned in the centre of the army, gave way, and the IIuns broke
into it. The Visigoths were on the point of being routed, and
Theodoric was killed ; but Thorismund, his heir, led the deci-
sive attack; and Aetius, too, in the end, conqueιed. The
Huns were not defeated, but withdrew to their fortress of wag-
gons ; and as Aetius did not venture to pursue them any farther,
both belligerent parties retreated. The reported number of the
slain and captured in that battle are quite incredible.
After the winter had passed away, Attila appeared in Italy,