406 



ATTILA. 



ATTIRET, JEAN DENYS. 



406 



phical opinions Attieus belonged to the Epicurean sect, as we see from 

 various passages in Cicero's ' Letters ;' and, conformably to the views 

 of this sect, he avoided the troubles and the cares of public life. He 

 inherited from his father great wealth, and he knew well how to 

 increase it. His equestrian rank enabled him to hold a share in one 

 or more of those lucrative societies which farmed the public revenues. 

 He engaged also in mercantile pursuits, and he had a great number of 

 well-educated slaves, who served him as amanuenses and transcribers 

 of books, which he sold to the public. 



(Held, Prolegom. ad Vitam Attici qua vulgo Corn. Nepoti adscribitur, 

 Vratislav., 1826; T. Pomp. Attic'M, Sine Apologie, Eisenach, 1784; 

 Hisely, De Fontibia Corn. A'epotis, Drumann, Rom. v. V.) 



A'TTILA. This formidable conqueror was the son of Mundzukun, 

 and nephew of Roas, a king or leader of the Huns, who at the begin- 

 ning of the 5th century was established with his hordes in Pannonia, 

 on the south bank of the Danube. Attila and his brother Bleda suc- 

 ceeded Roas about A.D. 430. The first act of their reign was to conclude 

 a peace with the Emperor Theodosius II., on terms disgraceful to the 

 majesty of the Roman empire. Being thus at liberty to pursue their 

 conquests in the north, Attila and Bleda extended their dominions from 

 the Danube eastward to the Volga, and northward even to the Baltic, 

 violation of existing treaties, to cross the Danube ; and they led an irre- 

 sistible force through Moesia into Thrace and Macedonia, on their way 

 A doubtful provocation, or an unscrupulous ambition, urged them, in 

 defeating on three occasions the forces of the Eastern empire. The 

 coast of the Archipelago, from Thermopylae! to Constantinople, 

 was exposed to their ravages; and Theodosius in alarm retired into Asia. 

 In 445 Attila procured the assassination of his brother and coadjutor 

 Bleda, and in 446 Theodosius was forced to consent to terms of peace 

 Btill more humiliating than before, ceding the tract along the banks of 

 the Danube extending to the breadth of 15 days' journey, and consenting 

 to the payment of an increased tribute. In 448 the historian Priscus 

 accompanied ambassadors sent to apologise to Attila for the non-fulfil- 

 ment of some articles of this treaty ; and we derive from him some ac- 

 count of the domestic manners of the Huns. The palace of Attila, which 

 was situated in the plains of Upper Hungary, was entirely of wood : 

 the houses of the Huns were of the same or some meaner material, 

 and the only stone building was a set of baths erected by the king's 

 favourite Onegesius. But the wood was fashioned into columns, 

 carved and polished ; and the ambassadors could discover some 

 evidence of taste in the workmanship, as well as barbarous magni- 

 ficence in the display of the rich spoils of more civilised nations. 

 Around the palace a large village had grown up. The ambassadors 

 were invited to a sumptuous entertainment, at which the guests were 

 all served in silver and gold : but a dish of plain meat on a wooden 

 trencher was set before the king, of which he partook very sparingly. 

 His beverage was equally simple and frugal. The rest of the company 

 were excited into loud and frequent laughter by the fantastic extra- 

 vagances of two buffoons; but Attila preserved his usual inflexible 

 gravity. A secret agent in this embassy was charged with the disgrace- 

 ful tnsk of procuring the assassination of this formidable enemy. 

 Attila was acquainted with the real object of the mission ; but he 

 dismissed the culprit, as well as his innocent companions, uninjured. 

 The emperor Theodosius was compelled however to atone for his base 

 attempt by a second embassy, loaded with magnificent presents, 

 which the king of the Huns was prevailed on to accept, and he 

 even made some concessions in return. Theodosius died not Icng 

 after (July 450) and was sutceeded by the more virtuous and able 

 Marcian. 



Attila at this time was collecting an enormous army, ami threatened 

 both divisions of the Roman world. To each emperor he sent the 

 hauuhty message, " Attila, my lord and thy lord, commands thee to 

 prepare a palace for his immediate reception." To this insult was 

 added a demand upon Marcian for the arrears of tribute due from the 

 late emperor Theodosius. Marcian's reply was in the same laconic 

 style, " I have gold for my friends, and steel for my enemies." Attila 

 determined to make war first on the emperor Yalentinian. The 

 pretext for hostility was this. Valentinian's sister Honoria, who was 

 confined in Constantinople in consequence of some youthful errors, 

 had maintained a secret correspondence with Attila, and sent him a 

 ring in token of her affection. It now suited him to demand her 

 hand, with half the western empire as her dowry. The demand was 

 refused, and Attila professed to be satisfied by the reasons assigned : 

 but he did not the less turn his arms against Gaul. Beginning by 

 craft what was to be carried on by violence and terror, he agreed to 

 give assistance to the son of Genseric, king of the Vandals, in attacking 

 Theodoric, king of the Goths. Assuring Valentinian that his warlike 

 preparations were levelled against Theodoric ouly, lie at the same time 

 exhorted Theodoric to join him against the Roman?, as their common 

 foe. Meanwhile, he marched through Germany without halting till 

 he reached the Rhine, where he defeated the Franks, cut down whole 

 forests to build boats, and passing the river entered Gaul, several 

 cities of which opened their gates to him, on his professions of friend- 

 ship to the Romans. He soon threw off the mask. The calamities 

 attendant on this invasion have been described in frightful colours by 

 Sidouius, a contemporary, afterwards bishop of Clermont, and by the 

 historians of France. The approach of the Romans and the Goths, 

 under the command of yEtius and Theodoric, compelled him to make 



a hasty retreat from the siege of Orleans. The combined army came 

 up with him in the extensive plains surrounding Chalons-sur-Marne, 

 a country well adapted to the cavalry of the Huns. There took place 

 the last great battle ever fought by the Romans, and one of the most 

 sanguinary contests recorded in history. Theodoric was slam. Attila 

 was defeated and forced to retreat ; he moved slowly to the Rhine 

 without molestation, and retired into Paunonia in 451. 



After having reinforced his army, he returned to repeat his demand 

 of the princess Honoria in the plains of Italy. He mastered the 

 unguarded passes of the Alps, and advanced at once to Aquileia, the 

 metropolis of the province of Venetia, which he invested, and utterly 

 destroyed after a siege of three months. Verona, Mantua, Cremona, 

 Brescia, and Bergamo underwent the same fate. It has been con- 

 jectured that Venice owed its origin to the inhabitants of the main- 

 land taking. refuge from his ravages on the islands in the Delta of the 

 Po. Milan and Pavia, Attila treated with unusual clemency : he 

 neither fired the buildings nor massacred the inhabitants. From 

 Milan he purposed to advance upon Rome : but as he lay encamped 

 on the banks of Lake Benacus, he was approached by a supplicatory 

 embassy, led by Avienus and Pope Leo I. [AviENUS.] He received 

 them with kindness and, respect, and consented to a truce with Rome, 

 the duration of which was to depend either on the fulfilment of his 

 claims on the princess Honoria, or the payment of a proportionate 

 ransom. Atti'a's troops, inured to the rigours of a northern climate, 

 and the rude simplicity of a pastoral life, began to melt away in the 

 luxurious plains of Italy : and the great ^Etius, unable to oppose his 

 progress, still hung on his march with a constant hostility. In these 

 circumstances he deemed it prudent, on the signature of the treaty 

 with Rome, to retire beyond the Danube. 



The death of Attila took place in 453. The commonly received 

 account is that given by Jornandes, that he died by the bursting of a 

 blood-vessel on the night of his marriage with a beautiful maiden, 

 whom he added to his many other wives; some, with a natural suspi- 

 cion, impute it to the hand of his bride. Priscus observes, that no 

 one ever subdued so many countries in so short a time. The vanity 

 of the Romans refused to honour Attila with the title of king ; they 

 only styled him general of their armies, disguising an annual tribute 

 under the specious name of military pay. His portrait, given by 

 Jornandes, presents the genuine features of the Mongolian race : he 

 was low in stature, broad-chested, and of powerful frame dark-com- 

 plexioned, with a few straggling hairs in the place of beard with a 

 large head, flat nose, and small eyes. His carriage was fierce and 

 haughty ; and no one could behold him without concluding that he 

 was sent into the world to disturb it. It was a saying of his own, 

 that the grass never grew on a spot where his horse had trod. His 

 empire was overthrown and disjointed immediately upon his death, 

 by the disputes and dissensions of his sons and chieftains the fata of 

 most unwieldy empires hastily erected by violence. 



(Jornandes, De Jlebui (/elicit, and Priscus, Excerpta dc Legationibus, 

 furnish the best ancient materials for the history of Attila. For modern 

 compilations, see Buat, Ilistoirc dcs Pcuples de I Europe, and De Guig- 

 nes, Hist, dcs Hum ; Gibbon, cc. xxxiv. and xxx v.) 



ATTIRET, JEAN DENYS, called Frere Atliret, a French painter 

 attached to the Jesuit mission at Peking, in the middle of the 18th 

 century. He was born at D61e, in the Franche-Comte', July 31, 1702, 

 and was first instructed by his father, an obscure painter of Dole. He 

 completed his studies at Rome, whither he was sent by the Marquis 

 de Broissia. After practising a short time at Lyqn, he settled in 

 Avignon, and became a lay-brother of the Jesuits of that place ; and 

 when, in 1737, the French Jesuits of Peking requested their brothers 

 at home to send them a painter, Attiret undertook to go. In China, 

 Attiret soon obtained the favour of the emperor Kcen-Loong, by pre-' 

 senting him with a picture of the Adoration of the Kings, which he 

 ordered to be placed in one of his own apartments ; he however 

 expressed a dislike to the gloss of oils, and employed Attiret only as 

 a water-colour painter. Attiret became an object of envy to his 

 Chinese rivals from an order he received from the emperor to restore 

 a painting in one of the inner apartments of the palace. This com- 

 mission from the extreme inconvenience of the ceremonial etiquette, 

 which clogged his every movement, was as disagreeable as it was 

 honourable to the French painter. Attiret met also with many 

 vexations from the Chinese court painters until he employed them to 

 execute the secondary portions of his works, and conformed himself 

 in some degree to the Chinese taste. Between 1753 and 1760 the 

 emperor Keen-Loon? was at war with the Tartars on the north- 

 western confines of his empire, and he commanded Attiret to join 

 him, and prepare some designs to illustrate his triumphs. Attiret 

 arrived at the seat of war in 1754, and made many accurate drawings 

 of triumphs, processions, festivals, &c., from which he afterwards 

 painted pictures, some of which were preserved in the palace, and 

 shown only by special permission of the emperor. Attiret painted the 

 emperor's portrait, and introduced into his drawings a great manv 

 portraits of Chinese officers, many of whom had to journey as much 

 as 800 leagues merely for the purpose of being painted. Sixteen of 

 these drawings were engraved iu France, by various artists, on a largo 

 scale, and both prints and plates were sent back to China, a few 

 impressions only being reserved for the royal family of France and 

 for the Parisian library. They are defective in design, and it is 



