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434 THE DECLINE AND FALL The embasay of Maximin to Attila. A.D. 448 [Sofia] oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable return ; he Aveighed, with suspicious pride, the character and station of the Imperial envoys ; but he condescended to promise that he would advance as far as Sardica, to receive any ministers who had been invested with the consular dignity. The council of Theodosius eluded this proposal by representing the desolate and ruined condition of Sardica ; and even ventured to insinuate that eveiy officer of the army or household was qualified to treat with the most powerful princes of Scythia. Maximin,^^ a respectable comtier, whose abilities had been long exercised in civil and military employments, accepted with reluctance the troublesome, and, perhaps, dangerous commission of reconciling the angry spirit of the king of the Huns. His friend, the historian Priscus,*- embraced the opportunity of observing the Barbarian hero in the peaceful and domestic scenes of life ; but the secret of the embassy, a fatal and guilty secret, was entrusted only to the interpreter Vigilius. The two last ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain of the tribe of the Scyri, returned at the same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of their sons ; the two servants of Attila became the fathers of the last Roman emperor of the West and of the first Barbarian king of Italy. The ambassadors, who wei-e followed by a numerous train of men and horses, made their first halt at Sardica, at the distance of three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' journey, from Constantinople. As the remains of Sardic^i were still included within the limits of the empire, it was incumbent on the Romans to exercise the duties of hospitality. I'hey provided, with the assistance of the provincials, a sufficient number of sheep and oxen ; and invited the Huns to a splendid, or at least a plenti- ful, supper. But the harmony of the entertainment was soon ^1 In the Persian treaty, concluded in the year 422, the wise and eloquent Maximin had been the assessor of Ardaburius (Socrates, 1. vii. c. 20). When Marcian ascended the throne, the office of Great Chamberlain was bestowed on Maximin, who is ranked, in a public edict, among the four principal ministers of state (Novell, ad. Calc. Cod. Theod. p. 31). lie executed a civil and military commission in the Eastern provinces ; and his death was lamented by the savages of Ethiopia, whose incursions he had repressed. See Priscus, p. 40, 41. •*2 Priscus was a native of Panium in Thrace, and deserved, by his eloquence, an honourable place among the sophists of the age. His Byzantine history, which related to his own times, was comprised in seven books. See Fabricius, Bibliot. Grrec. torn. vi. p. 235, 236. Notwithstanding the charitable judgment of the critics, I suspect that Priscus was a Pagan.