Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/442

 422 THE DECLINE AND FALL will, they executed, without murmur or hesitation, his stem and absolute commands. In time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national troops, attended the royal camp in regular succession ; but, when Attila collected his military force, he was able to bring into the field an army of five, or according to another account of seven, hundred thousand Barbarians. ^^ The Hubs In- The ambassadovs of the Huns might awaken the attention of AD. 430-440' Thcodosius, by reminding him that they were his neighbours both in Europe and Asia ; since they touched the Danube on one hand, and reached, with the other, as far as the Tanais. In the reign of his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the provinces of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils and innumerable captives. ^'^ They advanced, by a secret path, along the shores of the Caspian sea ; traversed the snowy mountains of Armenia ; passed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Halys ; recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of Cappadocian horses ; occu- pied the hilly country of Cilicia ; and disturbed the festal songs and dances of the citizens of Antioch. Egypt trembled at their approach ; and the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land prepared to escape their fury by a speedy embarkation. The memory of this invasion Avas still recent in the minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Attila might execute, with superior forces, the design which these adventurers had so boldly attempted ; and it soon became the subject of anxious conjecture, whether the tempest would fall on the dominions of Rome or of Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the Huns, who were 15 Jornandes, c. 35, p. 661, c. 37, p. 667. See Tillemont's Hist, des Empereurs, torn. vi. p. 129, 138. Corneilli! has represented the pride of Attila to his subject kings ; and his tragedy opens with these two ridiculous lines : lis ne sont pas venus, nos deux rois ! qu'on leur die Quils se font trop attendre, et qu' Attila s'ennuie. The two kings of the Gepidas and the Ostrogoths are profound politicians and sentimental lovers ; and the whole piece exhibits the defects, without the genius, of the poet. ifi alii per Caspia claustra Armeniasque nives inopino tramite ducti Invadunt Orientis opes : jam pascua fumant Cappadocum, volucrumque parens Argaeus equorum. Jam rulx;t altus Halys, nee se defendit iniquo Monte Cilix ; Syrice tractus vastantur amoeni ; Assuetumque choris et laeta plebe canorum Proterit imbellem sonipes hostilis Orontem. Claudian, in Rufin. 1. ii 28-35. See likewise, in Eutrop. 1. i. 243-251, and the strong description of Jerom, who wrote from his feelings, torn. i. p. 26, ad Heliodor. [ep. 60], p. 220, ad Ocean [ep. 77]. Philostorgius (1. ix. c. 8) mentions this irruption.