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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 423 themselves in the rank of powerful princes, had been sent to ratify an alliance and society of arms with the emperor, or rather with the general, of the West. They related, duringtheir residence at Rome, the circumstances of an expedition which they had lately made into the East. After passing a desert and a morass, supposed by the Romans to be the lake Maeotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and arrived, at the end of fifteen days' march, on the confines of Media ; where they advanced as far as the unknown cities of Basic and Cursic.^'^ They encountered the Persian army in the plains of Media ; and the air, according to their own expression, was darkened by a cloud of arrows. But the Huns were obliged to I'etire, before the numbers of the enemy. Their laborious retreat was effected by a different road ; they lost the greatest part of their booty ; and at length re- turned to the royal camp, with some knowledge of the country, and an impatient desire of revenge. In the free conversation of the Imperial ambassadors, who discussed, at the court of Attila, the character and designs of their formidable enemy, the minis- ters of Constantinople expressed their hope that his strength might be diverted and employed in a long and doubtful contest with the princes of the house of Sassan. The more sagacious Italians admonished their Eastern brethren of the folly and danger of such a hope, and convinced them that the Medes and Persians were incapable of resisting the arms of the Huns, and that the easy and important acquisition would exalt the pride, as well as power, of the conqueror. Instead of contenting himself with a moderate contribution, and a military title which equalled him only to the generals of Theodosius, Attila would proceed to impose a disgraceful and intolei'able yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive Romans, who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the empire of the Huns.^'^ While the powers of Europe and Asia wei'e solicitous to avert They attack the impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained the empire, Vandals in the possession of Afinca. An enterprise had been concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, for the recovery of that valuable province ; and the ports of Sicily were already filled with the military and naval forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotia- tions round the world, prevented their designs by exciting the king of the Huns to invade the Eastern empire ; and a trifling 1 [Basich and Cursich are not names of cities, but of two men, commanders of large bands of the Huns who invaded Persia. Gibbon misunderstood Priscus.] 18 See the original conversation in Priscus, p. 64, 65 [p. 90].