Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/483

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 461 who at that time were in the mature vigom* of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war, prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under the standai-d of their aged king, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric, to command in person his numerous and valiant people. The example of the Goths determined several tribes or nations that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects or soldiers of the repub- lic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary service and the rank of independent allies ; the Laeti, the Armoricans, the Breones, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Sannatians or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks who followed Meroveus as their lawful pi-ince. Such was the various army, which, under the conduct of Aetius and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches, to relieve Orleans, and to give battle to the innumerable host of Attila.si^ On their approach the king of the Huns immediately raised t^*the piaiSI* the siege, and sounded a retreat to recal the foremost of his ?5^/^?^«"* troops from the pillage of a city which they had already en- tered.^*^ The valour of Attila was always guided by his pru- dence ; and, as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he i-epassed the Seine and expected the enemy in the plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary retreat the vanguard of the Romans and their and the historian were both biassed by personal or national prejudices. The former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus ; orbis, Avite, salus, &c. ! The latter is anxious to show the Goths in the most favourable light. Yet their agreement, when they are fairly interpreted, is a proof of their veracity. 39 The review of the army of Aetius is made by Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23, of the Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine Editor. The L<sii were a promiscuous race of Barbarians, born or naturalized in Gaul; and the Riparii, or Ripiiarii, derived their name from their posts on the three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle; the Ar7noricafis possessed the independent cities between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of Saxons had been planted in the diocese of Bayeux ; the Burgundians were settled in Savoy ; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhaetians, to the east of the lake of Con- stance. [The list in Jordanes is: " Franci, Sarmatas, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Bur- gundiones, Saxones, Ripari, Olibriones, aliaeque nonnulli Celticse vel Ger- maniae nationes ". The Sarmatse are probably the Alans who were settled round Valence ; the Liticiani may be the Leeti ; the Ripari the Ripuarian Franks. The Olibriones are quite uncertain.] ■*" Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio, nee direptio, 1. v. Sidon. Apollin. 1. viii. epist. 15, p. 246. The preservation of Orleans might be easily turned into 1 miracle, obtained and foretold by the holy bishop.