The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire - Ganino.com

22 DEATH OF TIIEODOniC. [CH. XXXT.familiarly conversed with many Gothic Tvarriors, who servedin that memorable engagement; "a conflict," as they informedhim, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody; suchas could not be paralleled, either in the present, or in pastages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundredand sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account,three hundred thousand persons ;* and these incredibleexaggerations suppose a real and etFective loss, sufficient tojustify the historian's remark, that whole generations maybe swept away by the madness of kings in the space ofa single hour. After the mutual and repeated dischargeof missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia mightsignalize their superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantryof the two armies were furiously mingled in closer combat.The Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king, piercedthrough the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies, separatedtheir wings from each other, and wheeling, with arapid effort, to the left, directed their whole force againstthe Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, toanimate his troops, he received a mortal stroke from thejavelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediatelytell from his horse. The wounded king was oppressed inthe general disorder, and trampled under the feet of hisown cavalry ; and this important death served to explainthe ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila alreadyexulted in the confidence of victory, when the valiantTorismond descended from the hills, and verified the remainderof the prediction. The Visigoths, who had beenthrown into confusion by the flight or defection of, theAlani, gradually restored their order of battle ; and theHuns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was com-* The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of Cassiodonis, are extremelystrong. Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, pertinax, cui simileniilla usquam uarrat antiquitas : ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil assetquod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus miraculi privareturaspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i, p. 392, 393) attemptsto reconcile the one hundred and sixty-two thousand of Jornandeswith the three hundred thousand of Idatius and Isidore, by supposing,that the larger number included the total destruction of the war, theeffects of disease, the slaughter of the unarmed people, &c. [In aucha battle, there mu.st of course have been great slaughter ; but it isevident that its extent has been largely overrated. Mebuhr remarksveiy justly, that "the numbers which have been given, of those who wer«kil'ed or taken prisoners, are beyond all belief." (Lect. 3, 341).— En.j