Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/471

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 449 the two famous antagonists appear to have been connected by a personal and military friendship, which they afterwards con- firmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the education of Carpilio, the son of Aetius, in the camp of Attila. By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the Scythian con- queror, who pressed the two empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold, which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military governors of Noi'i- curai were immediately dispatched to satisfy his complaints ; ^ and it is evident from their conversation with Maximin and Priscus in the royal village, that the valour and prudence of Aetius had not saved the Western Romans from the common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous policy prolonged the advantages of a salutaiy peace, and a numerous army of Huns and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in the defence of Gaul. Two colonies of these Barbarians were judiciously fixed in the territories of Valence and Orleans ; ^ Sw^^umS] and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhone and of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of conquest ; and the province through which they marched was exposed to all the calamities of an hostile in- vasion.^ Strangers to the emperor or the republic, the Alani of '' The embassy consisted of Count Romulus ; of Promotus, president of Nori- cum ; and of Romanus, the mihtary duke. They were accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio [Pettau] in the same province, and father of Ores- tes, who had married the daughter of Count Romulus. See Priscus, p. 57, 65 [p. 84, gi]. Cassiodorius (Variar. i. 4) mentions another embassy, which was executed by his father and Carpilio, the son of Aetius ; and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their manly intrepid behaviour in his presence. 8 Deserta Valentinse urbis rura Alanis partienda traduntur. Prosper. Tironis Chron. [ad ann. 440] in Historiens de France, torn. i. p. 639. A few lines after- w^ards. Prosper observes that lands in the ulterior Gaul were assigned to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of Dubos (torn. i. p. 300), the reason- able supposition of two colonies or garrisons of Alani will confirm his arguments and remove his objections. [Cp. Dahn, Kon. der Germanen, i. 264. Von Wietersheim argues for only one settlement in the neighbourhood of Orleans, Volkerw. ii. p. 213 (ed. Dahn). The gratuitous correction of Dubos was Au7-elianae urbis. ' 9 See Prosper Tiro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246) complains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country, Litorius Scythicos equites tunc [le^. turn] forte subacto Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen Per terras, Arverne, tuas, qui proxima quseque VOL. III. 29