Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/448

 428 THE DECLINE AND FALL subjects wliom they led away into captivity. In the hands of a wise legislator, such an industrious colony might have contributed to diffuse through the deserts of Scythia, the rudiments of tlie useful and ornamental arts ; but these captives, who had been taken in war, were accidently dis])ersed among the hords that obeyed the eni})ire of Attila. The estimate of their respective value was formed by the simple judgment of unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians. Perhaj)s they might not understand the merit of a theologian, profoundly skilled in the controversies of the Trinity and the Incarnation ; yet they respected the ministers of every religion ; and the active zeal of the Christian missionaries, without approaching the person or the palace of the monarch, successfully laboured in the propagation of the gospel.-^ The pastoral tribes, who were ignorant of the distinc- tion of landed property, must have disregarded the use, as well as the abuse, of civil jurisprudence ; and the skill of an eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt, or their abhorrence.-'^' The perpetual intercourse of the Huns and the Goths had com- municated the familiar knowledge of the two national dialects ; and the Barbarians were aml)itious of conversing in Latin, the military idiom even of the Eastern empire.'^*' But they disdained the language, and the sciences, of the Greeks ; and the vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to find that his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance than himself. The mechanic arts wex'e encouraged and esteemed, as they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect, in the service of Onegesius, one of the favourites of Attila, was employed to construct a bath ; but this work was a rare ex- ample of private luxury ; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter, the armourer, were much more adapted to supply a wandering people with the useful instruments of peace and war. 28 The missionaries of St. Chrysostom had converted great numbers of the Scythians, who dwelt beyond the Danube in tents and waggons. Theodoret, 1. V. c. 31, Phoiius, p. 1517. The Mahometans, the Nestorians, and the Latin Chris- tians thought themselves secure of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis, who treated the rival missionaries with impartial favour. -" The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his legions, had been particularly offended with the Roman laws and lawyers. One of the Barbarians, after the effectual precautions of cutting out the tongue of an advocate and sewing up his mouth, observed with nmch satisfaction that the viper could no longer hiss. Florus, iv. 12. '■^ Priscus, p. 59 [p. 86]. It should seem that the Huns preferred the Gothic and Latin language to their own; which was probably a harsh and barren idiom.