The terrific honours which these ferocious nations paid to their
deceased monarchs are recorded in history, by the interment of Attila,
king of the Huns, and Alaric, king of the Goths.
Attila died in 453, and was buried in the midst of a vast champaign in a
coffin which was inclosed in one of gold, another of silver, and a third
of iron. With the body were interred all the spoils of the enemy,
harnesses embroidered with gold and studded with jewels, rich silks, and
whatever they had taken most precious in the palaces of the kings they
had pillaged; and that the place of his interment might for ever remain
concealed, the Huns deprived of life all who assisted at his burial!
The Goths had done nearly the same for Alaric in 410, at Cosença, a town
in Calabria. They turned aside the river Vasento; and having formed a
grave in the midst of its bed where its course was most rapid, they
interred this king with prodigious accumulations of riches. After having
caused the river to reassume its usual course, they murdered, without
exception, all those who had been concerned in digging this singular
grave.