st; from whence they
brought away rich spoils and innumerable captives. They advanced, by a
secret path, along the shores of the Caspian Sea; traversed the snowy
mountains of Armenia; passed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Halys;
recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of Cappadocian
horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, and disturbed the festal
songs and dances of the citizens of Antioch. Egypt trembled at their
approach; and the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land prepared to
escaped their fury by a speedy embarkation. The memory of this invasion
was still recent in the minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Attila
might execute, with superior forces, the design which these adventurers
had so boldly attempted; and it soon became the subject of anxious
conjecture, whether the tempest would fall on the dominions of Rome, or
of Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the Huns, who were
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, during their 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 retire 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 returned 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 ministers 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