saw the fields were piled high with bodies and that
the Huns did not venture forth, they thought the victory
was theirs, but knew that Attila would not flee from
the battle unless overwhelmed by a great disaster. Yet
he did nothing cowardly, like one that is overcome, but
with clash of arms sounded the trumpets and threatened
an attack. He was like a lion pierced by hunting
spears, who paces to and fro before the mouth of his
den and dares not spring, but ceases not to terrify the
neighborhood by his roaring. Even so this warlike king
at bay terrified his conquerors. Therefore the Goths and 213
Romans assembled and considered what to do with the
vanquished Attila. They determined to wear him out by
a siege, because he had no supply of provisions and was
hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows from
the bowmen placed within the confines of the Roman
camp. But it was said that the king remained supremely
brave even in this extremity and had heaped up a funeral
pyre of horse trappings, so that if the enemy should attack
him, he was determined to cast himself into the
flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him
and that the lord of so many races might not fall into
the hands of his foes.
[Sidenote: RESULTS OF THE BATTLE]
XLI Now during these delays in the siege, the Visigoths 214
sought their king and the king's sons their father,
wondering at his absence when success had been attained.
When, after a long search, they found him where the
dead lay thickest, as happens with brave men, they honored
him with songs and bore him away in the sight of
the enemy. You might have seen bands of Goths shouting
with dissonant cries and paying the honors of death
while the battle still raged. Tears were shed, but such
as they were accustomed to devote to brave men. It was
death indeed, but the Huns are witness that it was a
glorious one. It was a death whereby one might well
suppose the pride of the enemy would be lowered, when
they beheld the body of so great a king borne forth with
fitting honors. And so the Goths, still continuing the 215
rites due to Theodorid, bore forth the royal majesty with
sounding arms, and valiant Thorismud, as befitted a son,
honored the glorious spirit of his dear father by following
his remains.
When this was done, Thorismud was eager to take
vengeance for his father's death on the remaining Huns,
being moved to this both by the pain of bereavement and
the impulse of that valor for which he was noted. Yet
he consulted with the Patrician Aëtius (for he was an
older man and of more mature wisdom) with regard to
what he ought to do next. But Aëtius feared that if the 216
Huns were totally destroyed by the Goths, the Roman
Empire would be overwhelmed, and urgently advised him
to return to his own dominions to take up the rule which
his father had left. Otherwise his brothers might seize
their father's possessions and obtain the power over the
Visigoths. In this case Thorismud would have to fight
fiercely and, what is worse, disastrously with his own
countrymen. Thorismud accepted the advice without
perceiving its double meaning, but followed it with an
eye toward his own advantage. So he left the Huns and
returned to Gaul. Thus while human frailty rushes into 217
suspicion, it often loses an opportunity of doing great
things.
In this most famous war of the bravest tribes, one hundred
and sixty five thousand are said to have been slain on
both sides, leaving out of account fifteen thousand of the
Gepidae and Franks, who met each other the night before
the general engagement and fell by wounds mutually received,
the Franks fighting for the Romans and the Gepidae
for the Huns.
Now when Attila learned of the retreat of the Goths, 218
he thought it a ruse of the enemy,--for so men are wont
to believe when the unexpected happens--and remained
for some time in his camp. But when a long silence followed
the absence of the foe, the spirit of the mighty
king was aroused to the thought of victory and the anticipation
of pleasure, and his mind turned to the old oracles
of his destiny.
[Sidenote: THORISMUD 451-453]
Thorismud, however, after the death of his father on
the Catalaunian Plains where he had fought, advanced in
royal state and entered Tolosa. Here although the throng
of his brothers and brave companions were still rejoicing
over the victory he yet began to rule so mildly that no one
strove with him for the succession to the kingdom.
[Sidenote: THE SIEGE AND FALL OF AQUILEIA 452]
XLII But Attila took occasion from the withdrawal 219
of the Visigoths, observing what he had often desired
that his enemies were divided. At length feeling secure,
he moved forward his array to attack the Romans. As
his first move he besieged the city of Aquileia, the metropolis
of Venetia, which is situated on a point or tongue
of land by the Adriatic Sea. On the eastern side its walls
are washed by the river Natissa, flowing from Mount
Piccis. The siege was long and fierce, but of no avail, 220
since the bravest soldiers of the Romans withstood him
from within. At last his army was discontented and
eager to withdraw. Attila chanced to be walking around
the walls, considering whether to break camp or delay
longer, and noticed that the white birds, namely, the
storks, who build their nests in the gables of houses, were
bearing their young from the city and, contrary to their
custom, were carrying them out into the country. Being 221
a shrewd observer of events, he understood this and said
to his soldiers: "You see the birds foresee the future.
They are leaving the city sure to perish and are forsaking
strongholds doomed to fall by reason of imminent peril.
Do not think this a meaningless or uncertain sign; fear,
arising from the things they foresee, has changed their
custom." Why say more? He inflamed the hearts of
his soldiers to attack Aquileia again. Constructing battering
rams and bringing to bear all manner of engines
of war, they quickly forced their way into the city, laid it
waste, divided the spoil and so cruelly devastated it as
scarcely to leave a trace to be seen. Then growing bolder 222
and still thirsting for Roman blood, the Huns raged
madly through the remaining cities of the Veneti. They
also laid waste Mediolanum, the metropolis of Liguria,
once an imperial city, and gave over Ticinum to a like
fate. Then they destroyed the neighboring country in
their frenzy and demolished almost the whole of Italy.
[Sidenote: POPE LEO INTERVENES TO SAVE ROME 452]
Attila's mind had been bent on going to Rome. But
his followers, as the historian Priscus relates, took him
away, not out of regard for the city to which they were
hostile, but because they remembered the case of Alaric,
the former king of the Visigoths. They distrusted the
good fortune of their own king, inasmuch as Alaric did
not live long after the sack of Rome, but straightway
departed this life. Therefore while Attila's spirit was 223
wavering in doubt between going and not going, and he
still lingered to ponder the matter, an embassy came to
him from Rome to seek peace. Pope Leo himself came
to meet him in the Ambuleian district of the Veneti at the
well-travelled ford of the river Mincius. Then Attila
quickly put aside his usual fury, turned back on the way
he had advanced from beyond the Danube and departed
with the promise of peace. But above all he declared and
avowed with threats that he would bring worse things
upon Italy, unless they sent him Honoria, the sister of the
Emperor Valentinian and daughter of Augusta Placidia,
with her due share of the royal wealth. For it was said 224
that Honoria, although bound to chastity for the honor
of the imperial court and kept in constraint by command
of her brother, had secretly despatched a eunuch to summon
Attila that she might have his protection against he
brother's power;--a shameful thing, indeed, to get license
for her passion at the cost of the public weal.
[Sidenote: MARCIAN 450-457]
[Sidenote: ATTILA DEFEATED BY THORISMUD]
XLIII So Attila returned to his own country, seeming 225
to regret the peace and to be vexed at the cessation of
war. For he sent ambassadors to Marcian, Emperor of
the East, threatening to devastate the provinces, because
that which had been promised him by Theodosius, a former
emperor, was in no wise performed, and saying that
he would show himself more cruel to his foes than ever.
But as he was shrewd and crafty, he threatened in one
direction and moved his army in another; for in the
midst of these preparations he turned his face toward the
Visigoths who had yet to feel his vengeance. But here 226
he had not the same success as against the Romans.
Hastening back by a different way than before, he decided
to reduce to his sway that part of the Alani which
was settled across the river Loire, in order that by attacking
them, and thus changing the aspect of the war, he
might become a more terrible menace to the Visigoths.
Accordingly he started from the provinces of Dacia and
Pannonia, where the Huns were then dwelling with various
subject peoples, and moved his array against the
Alani. But Thorismud, king of the Visigoths, with like 227
quickness of thought perceived Attila's trick. By forced
marches he came to the Alani before him, and was well
prepared to check the advance of Attila when he came
after him. They joined battle in almost the same way as
before at the Catalaunian Plains, and Thorismud dashed
his hopes of victory, for he routed him and drove him
from the land without a triumph, compelling him to flee
to his own country. Thus while Attila, the famous leader
and lord of many victories, sought to blot out the fame
of his destroyer and in this way to annul what he had
suffered at the hands of the Visigoths, he met a second
defeat and retreated ingloriously. Now after the bands 228
of the Huns had been repulsed by the Alani, without any
hurt to his own men, Thorismud departed for Tolosa.
There he established a settled peace for his people and in
the third year of his reign fell sick. While letting blood
from a vein, he was betrayed to his death by Ascalc, a
client, who told his foes that his weapons were out of
reach. Yet grasping a foot-stool in the one hand he had
free, he became the avenger of his own blood by slaying
several of those that were lying in wait for him.
[Sidenote: THE REIGN OF KING THEODORID II 453-466]
[Sidenote: Battle near the Ulbius 456]
XLIV After his death, his brother Theodorid succeeded 229
to the kingdom of the Visigoths and soon found
that Riciarius his kinsman, the king of the Suavi, was
hostile to him. For Riciarius, presuming on his relationship
to Theodorid, believed that he might seize almost the
whole of Spain, thinking the disturbed beginning of
Theodorid's reign made the time opportune for his trick.
The Suavi formerly occupied as their country Galicia and 230
Lusitania, which extend on the right side of Spain along
the shore of Ocean. To the east is Austrogonia, to the
west, on a promontory, is the sacred Monument of the
Roman general Scipio, to the north Ocean, and to the
south Lusitania and the Tagus river, which mingles
golden grains in its sands and thus carries wealth in its
worthless mud. So then Riciarius, king of the Suavi, set
forth and strove to seize the whole of Spain. Theodorid, 231
his kinsman, a man of moderation, sent ambassadors to
him and told him quietly that he must not only withdraw
from the territories that were not his own, but furthermore
that he should not presume to make such an attempt,
as he was becoming hated for his ambition. But with
arrogant spirit he replied: "If you murmur here and
find fault with my coming, I shall come to Tolosa where
you dwell. Resist me there, if you can." When he heard
this, Theodorid was angry and, making a compact with
all the other tribes, moved his array against the Suavi.
He had as his close allies Gundiuch and Hilperic, kings
of the Burgundians. They came to battle near the river 232
Ulbius, which flows between Asturica and Hiberia, and
in the engagement Theodorid with the Visigoths, who
fought for the right, came off victorious, overthrowing
the entire tribe of the Suavi and almost exterminating
them. Their king Riciarius fled from the dread foe and
embarked upon a ship. But he was beaten back by another
foe, the adverse wind of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and
so fell into the hands of the Visigoths. Thus though
he changed from sea to land, the wretched man did not
avert his death.
When Theodorid had become the victor, he spared the 233
conquered and did not suffer the rage of conflict to continue,
but placed over the Suavi whom he had conquered
one of his own retainers, named Agrivulf. But Agrivulf
soon treacherously changed his mind, through the persuasion
of the Suavi, and failed to fulfil his duty. For
he was quite puffed up with tyrannical pride, believing
he had obtained the province as a reward for the valor
by which he and his lord had recently subjugated it. Now
he was a man born of the stock of the Varni, far below
the nobility of Gothic blood, and so was neither zealous
for liberty nor faithful toward his patron. As soon as 234
Theodorid heard of this, he gathered a force to cast him
out from the kingdom he had usurped. They came
quickly and conquered him in the first battle, inflicting a
punishment befitting his deeds. For he was captured,
taken from his friends and beheaded. Thus at last he
was made aware of the wrath of the master he thought
might be despised because he was kind. Now when the
Suavi beheld the death of their leader, they sent priests
of their country to Theodorid as suppliants. He received
them with the reverence due their office and not only
granted the Suavi exemption from punishment, but was
moved by compassion and allowed them to choose a ruler
of their own race for themselves. The Suavi did so,
taking Rimismund as their prince. When this was done
and peace was everywhere assured, Theodorid died in
the thirteenth year of his reign.
[Sidenote: KING EURICH 66-485]
[Sidenote: THE WESTERN EMPIRE FROM THE DEATH OF VALENTINIAN III TO
ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS]
[Sidenote: Maximus 455]
[Sidenote: GAISERIC SACKS ROME 455]
[Sidenote: Majorian 457-461]
[Sidenote: Livius Severus 461-465]
[Sidenote: Leo I 457-474]
[Sidenote: Anthemius 467-472]
XLV His brother Eurich succeeded him with such 235
eager haste that he fell under dark suspicion. Now while
these and various other matters were happening among
the people of the Visigoths, the Emperor Valentinian was
slain by the treachery of Maximus, and Maximus himself,
like a tyrant, usurped the rule. Gaiseric, king of the
Vandals, heard of this and came from Africa to Italy
with ships of war, entered Rome and laid it waste.
Maximus fled and was slain by a certain Ursus, a Roman
soldier. After him Majorian undertook the government 236
of the Western Empire at the bidding of Marcian, Emperor
of the East. But he too ruled but a short time.
For when he had moved his forces against the Alani who
were harassing Gaul, he was killed at Dertona near the
river named Ira. Severus succeeded him and died at
Rome in the third year of his reign. When the Emperor
Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the Eastern Empire,
learned of this, he chose as emperor his Patrician Anthemius
and sent him to Rome. Upon his arrival he sent
against the Alani his son-in-law Ricimer, who was an
excellent man and almost the only one in Italy at that
time fit to command the army. In the very first engagement
he conquered and destroyed the host of the Alani,
together with their king, Beorg.
[Sidenote: Olybrius 472]
Now Eurich, king of the Visigoths, perceived the frequent 237
change of Roman Emperors and strove to hold
Gaul by his own right. The Emperor Anthemius heard
of it and asked the Brittones for aid. Their King
Riotimus came with twelve thousand men into the state
of the Bituriges by the way of Ocean, and was received
as he disembarked from his ships. Eurich, king of the 238
Visigoths, came against them with an innumerable army,
and after a long fight he routed Riotimus, king of the
Brittones, before the Romans could join him. So when
he had lost a great part of his army, he fled with all the
men he could gather together, and came to the Burgundians,
a neighboring tribe then allied to the Romans. But
Eurich, king of the Visigoths, seized the Gallic city of
Arverna; for the Emperor Anthemius was now dead.
Engaged in fierce war with his son-in-law Ricimer, he 239
had worn out Rome and was himself finally slain by his
son-in-law and yielded the rule to Olybrius.
[Sidenote: Glycerius 473]
[Sidenote: Nepos 474]
At that time Aspar, first of the Patricians and a famous
man of the Gothic race was wounded by the swords of
the eunuchs in his palace at Constantinople and died.
With him were slain his sons Ardabures and Patriciolus,
the one long a Patrician, and the other styled a Caesar
and son-in-law of the Emperor Leo. Now Olybrius died
barely eight months after he had entered upon his reign,
and Glycerius was made Caesar at Ravenna, rather by
usurpation than by election. Hardly had a year been
ended when Nepos, the son of the sister of Marcellinus,
once a Patrician, deposed him from his office and ordained
him bishop at the Port of Rome.
[Sidenote: Romulus Augustulus 476]
When Eurich, as we have already said, beheld these 240
great and various changes, he seized the city of Arverna,
where the Roman general Ecdicius was at that time in
command. He was a senator of most renowned family
and the son of Avitus, a recent emperor who had usurped
the reign for a few days--for Avitus held the rule for a
few days before Olybrius, and then withdrew of his own
accord to Placentia, where he was ordained bishop. His
son Ecdicius strove for a long time with the Visigoths,
but had not the power to prevail. So he left the country
and (what was more important) the city of Arverna to
the enemy and betook himself to safer regions. When 241
the Emperor Nepos heard of this, he ordered Ecdicius
to leave Gaul and come to him, appointing Orestes in his
stead as Master of the Soldiery. This Orestes thereupon
received the army, set out from Rome against the
enemy and came to Ravenna. Here he tarried while he
made his son Romulus Augustulus emperor. When
Nepos learned of this, he fled to Dalmatia and died there,
deprived of his throne, in the very place where Glycerius,
who was formerly emperor, held at that time the bishopric
of Salona.
[Sidenote: THE RULE OF ODOACER 476-493]
[Sidenote: Death of Bracila 477]
XLVI Now when Augustulus had been appointed 242
Emperor by his father Orestes in Ravenna, it was not
long before Odoacer, king of the Torcilingi, invaded
Italy, as leader of the Sciri, the Heruli and allies of
various races. He put Orestes to death, drove his son
Augustulus from the throne and condemned him to the
punishment of exile in the Castle of Lucullus in Campania.
Thus the Western Empire of the Roman race, which 243
Octavianus Augustus, the first of the Augusti, began to
govern in the seven hundred and ninth year from the
founding of the city, perished with this Augustulus in the
five hundred and twenty second year from the beginning
of the rule of his predecessors and those before them,
and from this time onward kings of the Goths held Rome
and Italy. Meanwhile Odoacer, king of nations, subdued
all Italy and then at the very outset of his reign slew
Count Bracila at Ravenna that he might inspire a fear
of himself among the Romans. He strengthened his
kingdom and held it for almost thirteen years, even until
the appearance of Theodoric, of whom we shall speak
hereafter.
[Sidenote: Leo II 473-474]
[Sidenote: Zeno 474-491]
[Sidenote: Eurich killed 485]
[Sidenote: ALARIC II LAST KING OF THE VISIGOTHS 485-507]
XLVII But first let us return to that order from 244
which we have digressed and tell how Eurich, king of the
Visigoths, beheld the tottering of the Roman Empire and
reduced Arelate and Massilia to his own sway. Gaiseric,
king of the Vandals, enticed him by gifts to do these
things, to the end that he himself might forestall the plots
which Leo and Zeno had contrived against him. Therefore
he stirred the Ostrogoths to lay waste the Eastern
Empire and the Visigoths the Western, so that while his
foes were battling in both empires, he might himself
reign peacefully in Africa. Eurich perceived this with
gladness and, as he already held all of Spain and Gaul
by his own right, proceeded to subdue the Burgundians
also. In the nineteenth year of his reign he was deprived
of his life at Arelate, where he then dwelt. He was succeeded 245
by his own son Alaric, the ninth in succession
from the famous Alaric the Great to receive the kingdom
of the Visigoths. For even as it happened to the line of
the Augusti, as we have stated above, so too it appears in
the line of the Alarici, that kingdoms often come to an
end in kings who bear the same name as those at the
beginning. Meanwhile let us leave this subject, and
weave together the whole story of the origin of the Goths,
as we promised.
(The Divided Goths: Ostrogoths)
[Sidenote: THE OSTROGOTHS AND THEIR SUBJECTION TO THE HUNS]
[Sidenote: Death of Hermanaric 375 or 376]
XLVIII Since I have followed the stories of my 246
ancestors and retold to the best of my ability the tale of
the period when both tribes, Ostrogoths and Visigoths,
were united, and then clearly treated of the Visigoths
apart from the Ostrogoths, I must now return to those
ancient Scythian abodes and set forth in like manner the
ancestry and deeds of the Ostrogoths. It appears that at
the death of their king, Hermanaric, they were made a
separate people by the departure of the Visigoths, and
remained in their country subject to the sway of the
Huns; yet Vinitharius of the Amali retained the insignia
of his rule. He rivalled the valor of his grandfather 247
Vultuulf, although he had not the good fortune of Hermanaric.
But disliking to remain under the rule of the
Huns, he withdrew a little from them and strove to show
his courage by moving his forces against the country of
the Antes. When he attacked them, he was beaten in the
first encounter. Thereafter he did valiantly and, as a
terrible example, crucified their king, named Boz, together
with his sons and seventy nobles, and left their bodies
hanging there to double the fear of those who had surrendered.
When he had ruled with such license for 248
barely a year, Balamber, king of the Huns, would no
longer endure it, but sent for Gesimund, son of Hunimund
the Great. Now Gesimund, together with a great
part of the Goths, remained under the rule of the Huns,
being mindful of his oath of fidelity. Balamber renewed
his alliance with him and led his army up against Vinitharius.
After a long contest, Vinitharius prevailed in
the first and in the second conflict, nor can any say how
great a slaughter he made of the army of the Huns. But 249
in the third battle, when they met each other unexpectedly
at the river named Erac, Balamber shot an arrow and
wounded Vinitharius in the head, so that he died. Then
Balamber took to himself in marriage Vadamerca, the
grand-daughter of Vinitharius, and finally ruled all the
people of the Goths as his peaceful subjects, but in such
a way that one ruler of their own number always held the
power over the Gothic race, though subject to the Huns.
[Sidenote: KING HUNIMUND]
[Sidenote: KING THORISMUD KILLED 404]