176 Mr. Thomas HodgMn [June 10, 



Emperor Augustus. His step-sons were waging war in the still 

 half-civilised province of Pannonia, and the Emperor took up his 

 head-quarters in the great city by the Natiso in order to guard their 

 lines of communication and quicken the supply of provisions and 

 munitions of war to their legions. He was accompanied by his wife 

 Livia, who seems to have been extremely partial to this part of Italy, 

 and who attributed her long life to her habitual use of the full-bodied 

 "Pucine" wine which was produced from the vineyard of the 

 Timavus. 



At this visit of Augustus to Aquileia he was met by Herod the 

 Great, who desired to obtain the Imperial sanction to the execution 

 of Alexander and Aristobulus, his sons by the Asmodean princess 

 Mariamne. They defended themselves, however, successfully, from 

 the charge of conspiring against their father's life, and the domestic 

 feud was for a time, but only for a time, composed by the influence of 

 Augustus. 



Under the Empire, Aquileia was chiefly famous for the number of 

 sieges which it underwent, and (until the last of the series was 

 reached) which it successfully resisted. The Marcomanni were 

 repulsed from before its walls about the year 167. Maximin, the 

 barbarian Emperor of Rome, who had been deposed by the Senate, 

 blockaded the city for some time, but was slain by his mutinous 

 soldiers (238) before he had succeeded in its capture. During this 

 siege the ladies of Aquileia cut off their hair in order to supply the 

 deficient stores of ropes for working the military engines. Their 

 patriotism was commemorated after the close of the siege by the 

 dedication of a temple " to the bald-headed Venus." 



In 361, Julian besieged the city, which was defended by the 

 troojjs of Constantius. The death of the latter emperor, which 

 occurred while the siege was still pending, ended the war. 



In 388, Theodosius pursued his defeated rival Maximus to the 

 gates of Aquileia. The city was practically undefended, and Maxi- 

 mus, dragged forth to the camj) of the conqueror at the third milestone 

 from the city, was there put to death. 



Lastly, in the year 452, Attila, with his terrible horde of Huns, 

 dragging the chief Teutonic nations of Europe in their train, crossed 

 the Julian Alps, and made his appearance before Aquileia. The 

 inhabitants resisted with the energy of despair, and Attila, after a 

 long blockade, was about to abandon the siege, when (according to 

 a well-known legend) he looked up and saw the storks preparing to 

 abandon the doomed city. Skilfully turning the natural omen to 

 account, he rallied his soldiers for another and a desperate assault, 

 which was successful. In his barbarous fury at the tenacity of the 

 defence he put all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, to the 

 sword, and then gave their city to the flames. According to a local 

 legend, a great mound at the neighbouring city of Udine was raised 

 by the Huns in order that their king might from the top of it the 

 better behold the burning of Aquileia. 



