ATTILA THE HUN
435-457.
The terrible enemy who was coming against the unhappy Roman Empire was
the nation of Huns, a wild, savage race, who were of the same stock as
the Tartars, and dwelt as they do in the northern parts of Asia, keeping
huge herds of horses, spending their life on horseback, and using mares'
milk as food. They were an ugly, small, but active race, and used to cut
their children's faces that the scars might make them look more terrible
to their enemies. Just at this time a great spirit of conquest had come
upon them, and they had, as said before, driven the Goths over the
Danube fifty years ago, and seized the lands we still call Hungary. A
most mighty and warlike chief called Attila had become their head,
and wherever he went his track was marked by blood and flame, so that he
was called "The Scourge of God." His home was on the banks of the
Theiss, in a camp enclosed with trunks of trees, for he did not care to
dwell in cities or establish a kingdom, though the wild tribes of Huns
from the furthest parts of Asia followed his standard--a sword fastened
to a pole, which was said to be also his idol.
[Illustration: HUNNISH CAMP.]
He threatened to fall upon the two empires, and an embassy was sent to
him at his camp. The Huns would not dismount, and thus the Romans were
forced to address them on horseback. The only condition upon which he
would abstain from invading the empire was the paying of an enormous
tribute, beyond what almost any power of theirs could attempt to raise.
However, he did not then attack Italy, but turned upon Gaul. So much was
he hated and dreaded by the Teutonic nations, that all Goths, Franks,
and Burgundians flocked to join the Roman forces under Aëtius to drive
him back. They came just in time to save the city of Orleans from being
ravaged by him, and defeated him in the battle of Chalons with a great
slaughter; but he made good his retreat from Gaul with an immense
number of captives, whom he killed in revenge.
The next year he demanded that Valentinian's sister, Honoria, should be
given to him, and when she was refused, he led his host into Italy and
destroyed all the beautiful cities of the north. A great many of the
inhabitants fled into the islands among the salt marshes and pools at
the head of the Adriatic Sea, between the mouths of the rivers Po and
Adige, where no enemy could reach them; and there they built houses and
made a town, which in time became the great city of Venice, the queen of
the Adriatic.
[Illustration: ST. MARK'S, VENICE.]
Aëtius was still in Gaul, the wretched Valentinian at Ravenna was
helpless and useless, and Attila proceeded towards Rome. It was well for
Rome that she had a brave and devoted Pope in Leo. I., who went out at
the head of his clergy to meet the barbarian in his tent, and threaten
him with the wrath of Heaven if he should let loose his cruel followers
upon the city. Attila was struck with his calm greatness, and,
remembering that Alaric had died soon after plundering Rome, became
afraid. He consented to accept of Honoria's dowry instead of herself,
and to be content with a great ransom for the city of Rome. He then
turned to his camp on the Danube with all his horde, and soon after
his arrival he married a young girl whom he had made prisoner. The next
morning he was found dead on his bed in a pool of his own blood, and she
was gone; but as there was no wound about him, it was thought that he
had broken a blood-vessel in the drunken fit in which he fell asleep,
and that she had fled in terror. His warriors tore their cheeks with
their daggers, saying that he ought to be mourned only with tears of
blood; but as they had no chief as able and daring as he, they gradually
fell back again to their north-eastern settlements, and troubled Europe
no more.
Valentinian thought the danger over, and when Aëtius came back to
Ravenna, he grew jealous of his glory and stabbed him with his own hand.
Soon after he offended a senator named Maximus, who killed him in
revenge, became Emperor, and married his widow, Eudoxia, the daughter of
Theodosius II. of Constantinople, telling her that it was for love of
her that her husband was slain. Eudoxia sent a message to invite the
dreadful Genseric, king of the Vandals, to come and deliver her from a
rebel who had slain the lawful Emperor. Genseric's ships were ready, and
sailed into the Tiber; while the Romans, mad with terror, stoned
Maximus in their streets. Nobody had any courage or resolution but the
Pope Leo, who went forth again to meet the barbarian and plead for his
city; but Genseric being an Arian, had not the same awe of him as the
wild Huns, hated the Catholics, and was eager for the prey. He would
accept no ransom instead of the plunder, but promised that the lives of
the Romans should be spared. This was the most dreadful calamity that
Rome, once the queen of cities, had undergone. The pillage lasted
fourteen days, and the Vandals stripped churches, houses, and all alike,
putting their booty on board their ships; but much was lost in a storm
between Italy and Africa. The golden candlestick and shew-bread table
belonging to the Temple at Jerusalem were carried off to Carthage with
the spoil, and no less than sixty thousand captives, among them the
Empress Eudoxia, who had been the means of bringing in Genseric, with
her two daughters. The Empress was given back to her friends at
Constantinople, but one of her daughters was kept by the Vandals, and
was married to the son of Genseric. After plundering all the south of
Italy, Genseric went back to Africa without trying to keep Rome or set
up a kingdom; and when he was gone, the Romans elected as Emperor a
senator named Avitus, a Gaul by birth, a peaceful and good man.
[Illustration: THE POPE'S HOUSE.]
His daughter had married a most excellent Gaulish gentleman named
Sidonius Apollinaris, who wrote such good poetry that the Romans placed
his bust crowned with laurel in the Capitol. He wrote many letters, too,
which are preserved to this time, and show that, in the midst of all
this crumbling power of Rome, people in Southern Gaul managed to have
many peaceful days of pleasant country life. But Sidonius' quiet days
came to an end when, layman and lawyer as he was, the people of Clermont
begged him to be their Bishop. The Church stood, whatever fell, and
people trusted more to their Bishop than to any one else, and wanted him
to be the ablest man they could find. So Sidonius took the charge of
them, and helped them to hold out their mountain city of Clermont for a
whole year against the Goths, and gained good terms for them at last,
though he himself had to suffer imprisonment and exile from these Arian
Goths because of his Catholic faith.