Singidunum (Belgrade) and Margus (the last through the treachery
of the bishop, who was afraid of being delivered up) and pressed,
devastating as they went, into the interior of the Balkan lands as far as
the neighbourhood of Constantinople, where they conquered cities like
Naissus (Nisch), Philippopolis and Arcadiopolis. Other Hunnish bands
joined with the Persians made an inroad at the same time over the
Caucasus into the frontier lands of the Eastern Empire. The Roman
army which had in the meantime been called from Sicily by Theodosius
was decisively beaten in the Thracian Chersonesus. The kings of the
Huns dictated peace; and its conditions were still more disgraceful
than before:—the yearly tribute was raised to 2100 lbs. of gold besides
the stipulation of the payment of an indemnity of 6000 lbs. of gold,
and the surrender of fugitives was insisted upon (443).
Already in the year 447 the Huns invaded once more, and again brought the most terrible calamities upon the Balkan lands. Amegisclus, the general who opposed the enemy, was beaten and killed after valiant resistance on the river TJtus (Wid) in Lower Moesia, after which the Hunnish cavalry pressed up the valley of the river Margus (Morava) and through Thessaly as far as Thermopylae. Some 70 cities and fortresses are said to have fallen victims to them at that time. When in the year 448 peace was again concluded, Attila demanded that besides the usual money payments a broad tract of a five days' journey on the right bank of the Danube from Singidunum to Novae (Sistova) should be left waste; the boundary was placed at Naissus. But even now Attila would not leave the Emperor at peace. Embassy after embassy went to Constantinople and, on the standing pretext that not all deserters had yet been delivered up, continually asserted fresh humiliating claims, the king being however chiefly desirous of giving his messengers an opportunity of enriching themselves with the customary gifts. The Eastern Empire was near a financial collapse; as it could not exert itself to armed resistance the thought came to the Imperial Government, that is to say to the court eunuch Chrysaphius in particular, of getting rid of the king of the Huns by murder. For this deed the co-operation of the Scirian prince Edeco was sought: he declared himself ready to assist but immediately betrayed the plan to Attila. The king revenged himself only by scorning the despicable enemy; the Roman envoys who had come with Edeco to him, amongst whom was the historian Priscus, he allowed to withdraw, respecting the law of nations; he promised besides to maintain the peace and give up the waste frontier territory on the Danube, and he did not once press the demand, made in his first anger, that Chrysaphius should be put to death. But he sent word to the Emperor that as Attila was a king’s son so was Theodosius an emperor’s son, but that as the latter had rendered himself tributary to the former he thus became his slave and that it was a shameful action that he, as such, should aim [at the life of his master
