the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of
hope, fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier
which delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that
period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest
of the maritiine cities of the Hadriatic coast. The Gothic
auxiliaries, who appear to have served under their native
princes Alaric and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit ;
and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful
resistance, which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inex orable
[Maximin] Barbarian, who disgraced the majesty of the Roman
purple. Three months were consumed without effect in the
siege of Aquileia ; till the want of provisions, and the clamoure
of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise, and
reluctantly to issue his orders that the troops should strike
their tents the next morning and begin their retreat. But, as
he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he
observed a stork preparing to leave her nest, in one of the
towers, and to fly with her infant family towards the country.
He seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman, this
trifling incident, which chance had offered to superstition ; and
exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone, that such a domestic
bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never
have abandoned her ancient seats, unless those towers had been
devoted to impending ruin and solitude.[1] The favourable
omen inspired an assurance of victory ; the siege was renewed,
and prosecuted with fresh vigour ; a large breach was made in
the part of the Avail from whence the stork had taken her flight ;
the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury ; and
the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of
Aquileia.[2] After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued
his march ; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia,
[Patavium]
[Vicentia]
[Bergamum] and Padua, were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The
inland towns, A icenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to
[Medioianum Ticinum] the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth ; and applauded
- ↑ The same story is told by Joinandes, and by Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4, p. 187, 188); nor is it easy to decide which is the original. But the Greek historian is guilty of an inexcusable mistake in placing the siege of Aquileia after the death of Aelius.
- ↑ Jornandes, about an hundred years afterwards, affirms that Aquileia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus vestigia, ut appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 42, p. 673. Paul. Diacon. 1. ii. c. 14, p. 785. Liutprand, Hist. 1. iii. c. 2. The name of Aquileia was sometimes applied to Forum Julii (Cividad del Friuli), the more recent capital of the Venetian province.
