inimicum,
nisi quod impune. De Moribus Germ. c. 25. The Heruli, who were the
subjects of Attila, claimed, and exercised, the power of life and death
over their slaves. See a remarkable instance in the second book of
Agathias]

[Footnote 32: See the whole conversation in Priscus, p. 59-62.]

The timid or selfish policy of the Western Romans had abandoned the
Eastern empire to the Huns. [33] The loss of armies, and the want of
discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the personal character of the
monarch. Theodosius might still affect the style, as well as the title,
of Invincible Augustus; but he was reduced to solicit the clemency of
Attila, who imperiously dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions
of peace. I. The emperor of the East resigned, by an express or tacit
convention, an extensive and important territory, which stretched along
the southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as far
as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace. The breadth was defined by the vague
computation of fifteen [3311] days' journey; but, from the proposal of
Attila to remove the situation of the national market, it soon appeared,
that he comprehended the ruined city of Naissus within the limits of
his dominions. II. The king of the Huns required and obtained, that his
tribute or subsidy should be augmented from seven hundred pounds of gold
to the annual sum of two thousand one hundred; and he stipulated
the immediate payment of six thousand pounds of gold, to defray the
expenses, or to expiate the guilt, of the war. One might imagine, that
such a demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth,
would have been readily discharged by the opulent empire of the East;
and the public distress affords a remarkable proof of the impoverished,
or at least of the disorderly, state of the finances. A large proportion
of the taxes extorted from the people was detained and intercepted
in their passage, though the foulest channels, to the treasury of
Constantinople. The revenue was dissipated by Theodosius and his
favorites in wasteful and profuse luxury; which was disguised by the
names of Imperial magnificence, or Christian charity. The immediate
supplies had been exhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military
preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, but capriciously,
imposed on the members of the senatorian order, was the only expedient
that could disarm, without loss of time, the impatient avarice of
Att