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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 425 populous cities of Sirmium and Singidunum, of Ratiaria 2"* and Marcianopolis, of Naissusand Sardica ; where every circumstance, in the discipUne of the people and the construction of the buildings, had been gradually adapted to the sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends above I'JJopYaf ar five hundred miles from the Euxine to the Hadriatic, was at ^„^°5'f '^'i- once invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads of Barbarians whom Attila led into the field. The public danger and distress could not, however, provoke Theodosius to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in person at the head of the Roman legions. But the troops which had been sent against Genseric were hastily recalled ft'om Sicily ; the garrisons on the side of Persia were exhausted ; and a military force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and their soldiers the duty of obedience. The armies of the Eastern empire were vanquished in three successive engagements ; and the progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. The two former, on the banks of the Utus, and under the walls of Marcianopolis, were fought in the extensive plains between the Danube and Mount Haemus. As the Romans were pressed by a victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired towards the Chersonesus of Thrace ; and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of the land, was marked by their third, and irreparable, defeat. By the destruction of this army, Attila acquii-ed the indisputable possession of the field. From the Hellespont to Thermopylae and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, without resistance, and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might, perhaps, escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns ; but the words the most expressive of total extirpation and erasure are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the Eastern empire. -^ Theodosius, his court, and the unwar- like people, were protected by the walls of Constantinople ; but those walls had been shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of fifty-eight tOAvers had opened a large and tremendous breach. The damage indeed was speedily repaired ; but this accident was aggravated by a superstitious fear that Heaven itself had delivered the Imperial city to the shepherds of 20a [Ratiaria was near the modern Ardscher below Widdin (Bononia).] 21 Septuaginta civitates (says Prosper-Tiro) deprasdatione vastatse. The lan- guage of count Marcellinus is still more forcible. Pene totam Europam, invasis cxcisisque civitatibus atque castellis, conrasit.