H U 
the Danube on one hand, and reached, with the other, 
ru far as the Tanais. In the reign of his father the em¬ 
peror Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged 
the provinces of the eaft; from whence they brought away 
rich ipoils and innumerable captives. They advanced by 
a fecret path along the Ihores of the Cafpian fea; tra¬ 
velled the fnowy mountains of Armenia ; palled the Ti¬ 
gris, the Euphrates, ahd the Halys; recruited their weary 
cavalry with the generous breed of Cappadocian horfes ; 
occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, and dilturbed the 
ferial longs and dances of the citizens of Antioch. Egypt 
trembled at their approach; and the pilgrims of the Holy 
Land prepared to efcape their fury by a fpeedy embarka¬ 
tion. The memory of this invafion was ftill recent in the 
minds of the Orientals. The fubjeCts of Attila might- 
execute with fuperior forces the deiign which thefe ad¬ 
venturers had fo boldly attempted ; and it loon became 
the fubject of anxious conjecture, whether the temped 
would fail on the dominions of Rome or of Periia. Some 
of the great vaiTals of the king of the Huns, who were 
, themfelves in the rank of powerful princes, had been lent 
to ratify an alliance and fociety of arms with the emperor, 
or rather with the general of the Weft. They related, 
during their reiidence at Rome, the circumftances of an 
expedition which they had lately made into the ealt. 
After palling a defert and a moral's, fuppofed by the Ro¬ 
mans to be the lake Mceotis, they penetrated through the 
mountains, and arrived, at the end of fifteen days march, 
on the confines of Media ; where they advanced as far as 
the unknown cities of Balic and Curfic. They encoun¬ 
tered the Perfian army in the plains of Media ; and the 
air, according to their own expreflion, was darkened by a 
•cloud of arrows. But the Pluns were obliged to retire 
before the numbers of the enemy. Their laborious re¬ 
treat was effected by a different road ; they loft the greatefl 
part of their booty’; and at length returned to the royal 
camp, with fome knowledge of the country, and an im¬ 
patient defire of revenge. 
While the powers of Europe and Afia were alike foli- 
citous to avert the impending danger, the alliance of At¬ 
tila maintained the Vandals in the poffeflion of Africa. 
An enterprile had been concerted between the courts of 
Ravenna and Conftantinople for the recovery of that va¬ 
luable province ; and the ports of Sicily were already 
filled with the military and naval forces of Theodolius. 
But the fubtle Genleric, who lpread his negociations 
round the world, prevented their deligns by exciting the 
king of the Huns to invade the eaftern empire ; and a 
trifling incident loon became the motive ,or pretence of 
a deltruCtiv.e war. Under the faith of the treaty of Mar- 
gus, a free market' was held on the northern fide of the 
Danube, which was protected by a Roman fortrefs, l'ur- 
named Conltantia. A troop of barbarians violated the 
commercial fecurity, killed or difperfed the unlufpecting 
traders, and levelled the fortrefs with the ground. The 
Huns justified this outrage as an aft of repriial ; alleged 
that the bilhop of .Margus had entered their territories to 
dilcover and ileal a fecret treafure of their kings ; and 
fternly demanded the guilty prelate, the facrilegious fipoil, 
and the fugitive fubjefts who had efcaped from the jul- 
tice of Attila. The refufal of the Byzantine court, in 
the year 441, was the fignal of war; and the Medians' at 
firft applauded the generous firmnefs of their fovereign. 
But they were foon intimidated by the dellruftion of Vi- 
miniacum and the adjacent towns; and the people was 
perfuaded to adopt the convenient maxim, that a private 
citizen, however innocent or refpeefable, may be jultly 
facrificed to the lafety of his country. The bilhop of 
Margus, who did not pofiefs the fpirit of a martyr, re- 
folved to prevent the deligns which he fufpefted. He 
boldly treated with the princes of the Huns ; fecured, by 
1'olemn oaths, his pardon and reward.; polled a numerous 
detachment of barbarians, in filent ambulh, on the banks 
of the Danube ; and, at the appointed hour, opened, with 
bis own hand, the gates of ins epifcopal city. This ad- 
Vol. X. No. 677. 
N S. 473 
vantage, which had been obtained by treachery, ferved 
as a prelude to more honourable and decifive victories. 
The Illyrian frontier was covered b)r a line of caltles and 
fortrefles; and though the greatefl part of them confided' 
only of a fingle tower with a fmall garrifon, they were 
commonly-fufficient to repel or to intercept the inroads 
of an enemy who was ignorant of the art, and impatient 
of the delay, of a regular fiege. But thefe flight obi’racles 
were inliantly f’wept away by the inundation of the Huns. 
They deftroyed with fire and fword the populous cities 
of Sinnium and Singidunuih, of Ratiaria and Marciana- 
polis, of Naifius’and Sardica ; where every circumitance, 
in the difcipline of the people, and the coiaitmction of 
the buildings, had been gradually adapted to the foie 
purpole'of defence. The whole breadth of Europe, as it 
extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the 
Adriatic, was at once invaded and occupied and delb- 
lated by the myriads of barbarians whom Attila let into 
the field. The public danger and diftrefs could not, how¬ 
ever, provoke Theodolius to interrupt his amuiements, or 
to appear in perfon at the head of the Roman legions. 
But the troops which had been lent again ft Genleric 
were haftily recalled from Sicily; thegarrifons on the fide 
of Periia were exhaufte.d; and a naintary force was col¬ 
lected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, 
if the generals had underltood the fcience of command, 
and their foldiers the duty.of obedience. The armies of 
the eaftern empire were vanquilhed in three fucceflive en¬ 
gagements ; and the progrefs of Attila may be traced by 
the fields of battle. The two former, on the banks of 
the Utus, and under the walls of Marcianapolis, were 
fought in the extenfive plains between the Danube and 
Mount Hcemus. As the Romans were prefled by a vic¬ 
torious enemy, they gradually and unlkilfully retired 
towards the Cherfonefus of Thrace; and that narrow pe- 
ninfula, the lall extremity of the land, was marked by their 
third and irreparable defeat. By the deftruclion of this 
army, Attila acquired the indifputable pofiefllon of the 
field. From the Helieipont to Thermopylae, and the 
fuburbs'of Conltantinople, he ravaged without refinance 
and without mercy the provinces of Thrace and Mace¬ 
donia.’ Heraclea and Adrianople might, perhaps, efcape 
this dreadful irruption of the Hurts; but the words, the 
molt expreillve of total extirpation and endure, are ap¬ 
plied to the calamities which they inflicted on fe veil tv- 
cities of the eaftern empire. Theodolius, his court, and 
the unwarlike people, were protected by the walls of Con- 
flantinople; but thole walls had been fliaken by a recent 
earthquake, and the fall of fifty-eight towers had opened 
a large and tremendous breach. The damage indeed was 
fpeedily repaired ; but this accident was aggravaed by a 
fuperltitious fear, that Heaven ltfelf had delivered the im¬ 
perial city to the Ihepherds of Scythia, who were It ran¬ 
gers to the laws, the language, and the religion, of the 
Romans. 
Theodofius was now reduced to folicit the clemency of 
Attila, who imperioufly dictated thefe harlh and humili¬ 
ating conditions of peace. 1. The emperor of the eaft re- 
ligned, by an exprefs convention, an extenfive and im¬ 
portant territory, which ftretched along the foutliern banks 
of the Danube, from Singidunum or Belgrade, as far as 
Novae, in the diocefe of Thrace. The breadth was de¬ 
fined by the vague computation of fifteen days journev ; 
but, from the propofal of Attila, to remove the (ituation 
of the national market, it foon appeared that he compre¬ 
hended the ruined city of Naifl'us within the limits of his 
dominions. 2. The king of the Huns required and ob¬ 
tained, that his tribute or lubfidy fliould be augmented 
from leven hundred pounds of gold to the annual fum of 
two thouiand one hundred ; and he Itipulated the imme¬ 
diate payment of fix thouiand pounds of gold to defray 
the expences, or to expiate the guilt, of the war. 3. The 
king of the Huns appears to have eitabliflied, as a prin- 
ciple'of national jurifpruden.ee, that he could'never lofe 
the property which Ue had once acquired, in the perfons 
6 E who 
