replied saying that, as to this matter,
he was not able to know whether he had done well or perhaps otherwise,
but one thing he understood exceedingly well, that he had cut off his
own right hand with the other.

So after the death of Aetius,[24] Attila, since no one was a match for
him, plundered all Europe with no trouble and made both emperors
subservient and tributary to himself. For tribute money was sent to him
every year by the emperors. At that time, while Attila was besieging
Aquileia, a city of great size and exceedingly populous situated near
the sea and above the Ionian Gulf, they say that the following good
fortune befell him. For they tell the story that, when he was able to
capture the place neither by force nor by any other means, he gave up
the siege in despair, since it had already lasted a long time, and
commanded the whole army without any delay to make their preparations
for the departure, in order that on the morrow all might move from there
at sunrise. And the following day about sunrise, the barbarians had
raised the siege and were already beginning the departure, when a single
male stork which had a nest on a certain tower of the city wall and was
rearing his nestlings there suddenly rose and left the place with his
young. And the father stork was flying, but the little storks, since
they were not yet quite ready to fly, were at times sharing their
father's flight and at times riding upon his back, and thus they flew
off and went far away from the city. And when Attila saw this (for he
was most clever at comprehending and interpreting all things), he
commanded the army, they say, to remain still in the same place, adding
that the bird would never have gone flying off at random from there with
his nestlings, unless he was prophesying that some evil would come to
the place at no distant time. Thus, they say, the army of the barbarians
settled down to the siege once more, and not long after that a portion
of the wall--the very part which held the nest of that bird--for no
apparent reason suddenly fell down, and it became possible for the enemy
to enter the city at that point, and thus Aquileia was captured by
storm. Such is the story touching Aquileia.

Later on Maximus slew the emperor with no trouble and secured the
tyranny, and he married Eudoxia by force. [455 A.D.] For the wife to
whom he had been wedded had died not long before. And on one occasion in
private he made the statement to Eudoxi