A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

416 ATTILA. ATTILA.
as being the most formidable of the invaders of the defeated in the last great battle ever fought by tha
Roman empire, and (except Radagaisus) the only Romans, and in which there fell 252,000 (Jornanone of them who was not only a barbarian, but a des, Reb. Get. 42) or 300,000 men. (Idatius and
savage and a heathen, and as the only conqueror Isidore.) He retired by way of Troyes, Cologne,
of ancient or modern times who has united under and Thuringia, to one of his cities on the Danube,
his rule the German and. Sclavonic nations. He and having there recruited his forces, crossed the
was the son of Mundzuk, descended from the an- Alps in A. D. 451, laid siege to Aquileia, then the
cient kings of the Huns, and with his brother second city in Italy, and at length took and utBleda, in German Blodel (who died, according terly destroyed it. After ravaging the whole of
to Jornandes, by his hand, in A. D. 445), at- Lombardy, he was then preparing to march upon
tained in A. D. 434 to the sovereignty of all the Rome, when he was suddenly diverted from his
northern tribes between the frontier of Gaul and purpose, partly perhaps by the diseases which had
the frontier of China (see Desguignes, Hist. des begun to waste his army, partly by the fear inIHuns, vol. ii. pp. 295-301), and to the command stilled into his mind that he, like Alaric, could not
of an army of at least 500,000 barbarians. (Jor- survive an attack upon the city, but ostensibly and
nandes, Reb. Get. cc. 35, 37, 49.) In this position, chiefly by his celebrated interview with Pope Leo
partly from the real terror which it inspired, partly the Great and the senator Avienus at Peschiera or
from his own endeavours to invest himself in the Governolo on the banks of the Mincius. (Jornandes,
eyes of Christendom with the dreadful character of Reb. Get. 42.) The story of the apparition of St.
the predicted Antichrist (see Herbert, Attila, p. Peter and St. Paul rests on the authority of an
360), and in the eyes of his own countrymen with ancient MS. record of it in the Roman church, and
the invincible attributes attendant on the possessor on Paulus Diaconus, who wrote in the eighth cenof the miraculous sword of the Scythian god of war tury, and who mentions only St. Peter. (Baronius,
(Jornandes, Reb. Get. 35), he gradually concentrated Ann. Eccl. A. D. 452.)
upon himself the awe and fear of the whole an- He accordingly returned to his palace beyond
cient world, which ultimately expressed itself by the Danube, and (if we except the doubtful story
affixing to his name the well-known epithet of in Jornandes, de Reb. Get. 43, of his invasion of the
"the Scourge of God." The word seems to have Alani and repulse by Thorismund) there remained
been used generally at the time to denote the bar- till on the night of his marriage with a beaubarian invaders, but it is not applied directly to tifal girl, variously named Hilda, Ildico, Mycolth,
Attila in any author prior to the Hungarian Chro- the last of his innumerable wives, possibly by her
nicles, which first relate the story of his receiving hand (Marcellin. C'ironicon), but probably by the
the name from a hermit in Gaul. The earliest bursting of a blood-vessel, he suddenly expired,
contemporary approaches to it are in a passage in and was buried according to the ancient and savage
Isidore's Chronicle, speaking of the Huns as "virga customs of his nation. (A. D. 454.) The instanDei," and in an inscription at Aquileia, written a taneous fall of his empire is well symbolized in the
short time before the siege in 451 (see Herbert, story that, on that same night, the emperor
Attila, p. 486), in which they are described as Marcian at Constantinople dreamed that he saw
"imminentia peccatorum flagella." the bow of Attila broken asunder. (Jornandes,
His career divides itself into two parts. The Reb. Get. 49.)
first (A. D. 445-450) consists of the ravage of In person Attila was, like the Mongolian race in
the Eastern empire between the Euxine and general, a short thickset man, of stately gait, with
the Adriatic and the negotiations with Theo- a large head, dark complexion, flat nose, thin beard,
dosius II., which followed upon it, and which and bald with the exception of a few white hairs,
were rendered remarkable by the resistance of his eyes small, but of great brilliancy and quickAzimus (Priscus, cc. 35, 36), by the embassy ness. (Jornandes, Reb. Get. 11; Priscus, 55.) He
from Constantinople to the royal village beyond is distinguished from the general character of sathe Danube, and the discovery of the treacherous vage conquerors only by the gigantic nature of his
design of the emperor against his life. (Ib. 37-72.) designs, and the critical era at which he appeared,
They were ended by a treaty which ceded to Attila -unless we add also the magnanimity which he
a large territory south of the Danube, an annual shewed to the innocent ambassador of Theodosius II.
tribute, and the claims which he made for the sur- on discovering the emperor's plot against his life,
render of the deserters from his army. (Ib. 34-37.) and the awe with which he was inspired by the
The invasion of the Western empire (A. D.450- majesty of Pope Leo and of Rome. Among the
453) was grounded on various pretexts, of which few personal traits recorded of him may be menthe chief were the refusal of the Eastern emperor, tioned the humorous order to invert the picture
Marcian, the successor of Theodosius II., to pay at Milan which represented the subjugation of the
the above-mentioned tribute (Priscus, 39, 72), and Scythians to the Caesars (Suidas, s.v. KopuvKos); the
the rejection by the Western emperor Valentinian command to burn the poem of Marullus at Padua,
III. of his proposals of marriage to his sister Ho- who had referred his origin to the gods of Greece
noria. (Jornandes, Regn. Succ. 97, Reb. Get. 42.) and Rome (Hungarian Chronicles, as quoted by
Its particular direction was determined by his alli- Herbert, Attila, p. 500); the readiness with which
ance with the Vandals and Franks, whose domi- he saw in the flight of the storks from Aquileia a
nion in Spain and Gaul was threatened by Antius favourable omen for the approaching end of the
and Theodoric. With an immense army composed siege (Jornandes, Reb. Get. 42; Procop. Bell. Vand.
of various nations, he crossed the Rhine at Stras- i. 4); the stern simplicity of his diet, and the imburg, which is said to have derived its name from moveable gravity which he alone maintained amidst
his having made it a place of thoroughfare (Klemm, the uproar of his wild court, unbending only to
Attila, p. 175), and marched upon Orleans. From caress and pinch the cheek of his favourite boy,
hence he was driven, by the arrival of AAtius, to Irnac (Priscus, 49-70); the preparation of the
the plains of Chalons on the Marne, where he was funeral pile on which to burn himself, had the