ifferent principle. Sangiban, the faithless
king of the Alani, was placed in the centre, where his motions might be
strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly punished.
AEtius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric of the right wing;
while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which appear to
have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army.
The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain
of Chalons; but many of these nations had been divided by faction, or
conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns,
which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war.

The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an interesting
part of their national manners. The attentive study of the military
operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic, when they are described
by the same genius which conceived and executed them, may tend to
improve (if such improvement can be wished) the art of destroying the
human species. But the battle of Chalons can only excite our curiosity
by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by the blind
impetuosity of Barbarians, and has been related by partial writers,
whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the
knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorus, however, had familiarly
conversed with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable
engagement; "a conflict," as they informed him, "fierce, various,
obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in the
present or in past ages." The number of the slain amounted to one
hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three
hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a
real and effective loss sufficient to justify the historian's remark,
that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings, in
the space of a single hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of
missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their
superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were
furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under the eyes
of their king pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the
allies, separated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with
a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole force against the
Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, to animate his tro