ila; and the poverty of the nobles compelled them to adopt the
scandalous resource of exposing to public auction the jewels of their
wives, and the hereditary ornaments of their palaces. [34] III. The
king of the Huns appears to have established, as a principle of national
jurisprudence, that he could never lose the property, which he had
once acquired, in the persons who had yielded either a voluntary,
or reluctant, submission to his authority. From this principle he
concluded, and the conclusions of Attila were irrevocable laws, that
the Huns, who had been taken prisoner in war, should be released without
delay, and without ransom; that every Roman captive, who had presumed
to escape, should purchase his right to freedom at the price of twelve
pieces of gold; and that all the Barbarians, who had deserted the
standard of Attila, should be restored, without any promise or
stipulation of pardon.

In the execution of this cruel and ignominious treaty, the Imperial
officers were forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters, who
refused to devote themselves to certain death; and the Romans forfeited
all reasonable claims to the friendship of any Scythian people, by this
public confession, that they were destitute either of faith, or power,
to protect the suppliant, who had embraced the throne of Theodosius.
[35]

[Footnote 33: Nova iterum Orienti assurgit ruina... quum nulla ab
Cocidentalibus ferrentur auxilia. Prosper Tyro composed his Chronicle in
the West; and his observation implies a censure.]

[Footnote 3311: Five in the last edition of Priscus. Niebuhr, Byz. Hist.
p 147--M]

[Footnote 34: According to the description, or rather invective,
of Chrysostom, an auction of Byzantine luxury must have been very
productive. Every wealthy house possessed a semicircular table of massy
silver such as two men could scarcely lift, a vase of solid gold of the
weight of forty pounds, cups, dishes, of the same metal, &c.]

[Footnote 35: The articles of the treaty, expressed without much order
or precision, may be found in Priscus, (p. 34, 35, 36, 37, 53, &c.)
Count Marcellinus dispenses some comfort, by observing, 1. That Attila
himself solicited the peace and presents, which he had formerly refused;
and, 2dly, That, about the same time, the ambassadors of India presented
a fine large tame tiger to the emperor Theodosius.]

The firmness of a single town, so obscure, that, except on this
occasion, it has never been ment