Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/455

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 435 disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion. The greatness of the emperor and the empire was warmly maintained by their ministers ; the Huns, with equal ardour, asserted the superiority of their victorious monarch : the dispute was inflamed by the rash and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius, who passionately rejected the comparison of a mere mortal with the divine Theodosius ; and it was with extreme difficulty that Maximin and Priscus Avere able to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry minds of the Barbarians. When they rose from table, the Imperial ambassador presented Edecon and Orestes with rich gifts of silk robes and Indian pearls, which they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could not forbear insinuating that he had not always been treated with such respect and liberality ; the offensive distinction which was implied between his civil office and the hereditary rank of his colleague seems to have made Edecon a doubtful friend, and Orestes an irreconcileable enemy. After this entertainment, they travelled about one hundred miles from Saixlica to Naissus. That flourishing city, [Nisch] which had given birth to the great Constantine, was levelled with the ground ; the inhabitants were destroyed or dispersed ; and the appearance of some sick persons, who were still per- mitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served only to increase the horror of the prospect. The surface of the country- was covered with the bones of the slain ; and the ambassadors, who directed their course to the north-west, were obliged to pass the hills of modern Servia, before they descended into the flat and marshy grounds which are terminated by the Danube. The Huns were masters of the great river ; their navigation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree ; the ministers of Theodosius were safely landed on the opposite bank ; and their Barbarian associates immediately hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally prepared for the amusements of hunting or of war. No sooner had Maximin advanced about two miles from the Danube, than he began to experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror. He was sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal mansion. The ministers of Attila pressed him to communicate the business and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear of their sovereign. When Maximin temperately urged the contrary practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods them-