ATTILA 



169 



AUBURN 



ATTILA, at' tila, a famous king of the 

 Huns whose merciless treatment of conquered 

 peoples gave him among the Christians of the 

 fifth century the name "Scourge of God." In 

 434 he became joint ruler with his brother, 

 Bleda, over countless hordes of fierce barbar 

 in Northern Asia and Europe; ten years later 

 he caused his brother to be put to death. In 

 1 17 Attila laid waste all the countries between 

 Black Sea and the Mediterranean, easily 

 defeated the weak Theodosius II, ruler over 

 the Eastern Roman Empire, and after overrun- 

 ning Thrace, Macedon and Greece, forced the 

 emperor to grant him territory south of the 

 Danube and to pay him tribute. 



Gaul was invaded in 451, but in the famous 

 Battle of Chalons the Huns were completely 

 defeated by the Roman army of the West, 

 commanded by Aetius and Theodoric, king of 

 the Visigoths. The following year Attila re- 

 sumed his terrifying work of conquest, and 

 Rome itself was saved only by the personal 

 plea of the saintly Pope Leo I. In 453, on the 

 night of his marriage with the beautiful Hilda 

 (or Ildico), Attila died very suddenly, in the 

 mil 1st of preparations for another invasion of 

 Italy. Whether he died at the hands of a 

 friend of Rome or was killed by the bursting 

 of a blood vessel or murdered by his reluctant 

 bride has never been determined. The descrip- 

 tion of Attila which has come down to us 

 states that he had a large head, a flat nose, 

 broad shoulders and a short and ill-formed 

 body, but that his eyes were brilliant, his walk 

 stately and that he possessed a voice strong 

 and \vell-t. 



ATTLEBORO, MASS., a town composed of 

 several small villages in Bristol County, in 

 tin- southeastern part of the state. Boston is 

 thirty miles northeast and Providence, R. I., 

 is twelve miles southwest. Transportation is 

 I.. I by the New York, New Haven A 

 II nurd Railway and by electric lines to 

 ;l>oring cities. Attlcboro has large bleat-h- 

 and ilyr-houses and gold 



:m hers. The leading man 



- are jewelry and silverware, but buttons, 

 cotton goods, yarn and leather arc also made 



The town has a public library, a State 



TV, an nlinshouse and the Attleboro Home 

 Sanitarium. Attlcboro was settled in 1660 and 

 Was I'.ngli.-h city i f A 

 borough. Originally it was a part of Ri-lm 1 



l>nt was incorporated as a 'sep.< \ in 



1694. In 1910 the population was 16,215; m 

 1915 it was 18,480. 



ATTORNEY-GENERAL, atur'ni jenefal, 

 the chief law officer of the United States or 

 of a state. The Attorney-General of the 

 United States is a member of the President's 

 Cabinet, and the head of the Department of 

 Justice. He is the fourth member of the 

 Cabinet in the order of succession to the 

 Presidency. It is his duty to conduct all suits 

 in the Supreme Court in which the United 

 States is concerned, and to advise the Presi- 

 dent and the members of the Cabinet upon 

 points of law bearing upon matters in their 

 respective departments when he is requested 

 to do so (see JUSTICE, DEPARTMENT OF). His 

 salary is $12,000 per year. 



The attorney-general of a state occupies a 

 position in the state government similar to 

 that of the Attorney-General of the United 

 States in the national government, except that 

 he is not a member of a Cabinet; he is an 

 independent officer of the state. He conducts 

 cases in the state Supreme Court to which the 

 state is a party, and is the legal adviser of the 

 governor and the heads of departments of the 

 state government. 



In Canada both Dominion and provincial 

 attorneys general are Cabinet members. 



ATTRACTION, a Irak' shun, in physics, is 

 the force through which particles of matter 

 belonging to the same system are drawn toward 

 one another. Gravitation, whereby the planets 

 are held in their relative positions in the solar 

 system and falling bodies are drawn to the 

 earth, is an example of attractive force which 

 operates universally. Other illustrations of at- 

 traction are cohesion, the force that holds to- 

 gether like molecules; adhesion, the force that 

 holds together unlike molecules; magnetic at- 

 (ruction, represented by the pulling up of iron 

 filings when a horseshoe magnet is held 

 them; and electrical at tract ion. illustrated hy 

 the drawing near of a pith hall to an ! rtriti. d 

 body. See Gi \ ; ADHESION ; COHESION ; 



MAGNETISM; KLEOU. : 



In chemistry, attraction is represented by the 

 l>y which the elements in a compound 

 substance are retained in combination. Tin- 

 force, which is known as chemical affinity, is 

 illustrated by the union of hydrogen (two 

 parts) and oxygen (one part) to form a mole- 

 cule of wat r. whoM- symbol thus becomes II < 



AUBURN, a u MB., one of the most 



s in the state, is 



noted for its < shoe-manufacturing in- 



n founded in 1789. and incorpor- 

 ated in 1860; the population, largely American, 



