THE BATTLE OF CHALONS,
A.D. 451.
Attila The Hun.
"The discomfuture of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new anti, Christian dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal
power of Rome, at the end of the term of twelve hundred years, to which its duration had been limited by the forebodings of the
heathen."
HERBERT.
Chalons
Abroad expanse of plains, the Campi Catalaunici of the ancients, spreads far and wide around the city of
Chalons, in the northeast of France. The long rows of poplars, through which the River Marne winds its way, and a few thinly-scattered villages,
are almost the only objects that vary the monotonous aspect of the greater part of this region. But about five miles from Chalons, near the
little hamlets of Chape and Cuperly, the ground is indented and heaped up in ranges of grassy mounds and trenches, which attest the work of man's
hands in ages past, and which, to the practiced eye, demonstrate that this quiet spot has once been the fortified position of a huge military
host.
Local tradition gives to these ancient earth-works the name of Attila's Camp. Nor is there any reason to question the
correctness of the title, or to doubt that behind these very ramparts it was that over 1500 years ago, the most powerful heathen king that
ever ruled in Europe mustered the remnants of his vast army, which had striven on these plains against the Christian soldiery of Thoulouse
and Rome. Here it was that Attila prepared to resist to the death his victors in the field; and here he heaped up the treasures of his camp
into one vast pile, which was to be his funeral pyre should his camp be stormed. It was here that the Gothic and Italian forces watched,
but dared not assail their enemy in his despair, after that great and terrible day of battle when:
"The sound of conflict was o'erpast, the shout
of all
Whom earth could send from her remotest bounds.
Heathen or faithful; from thy hundred mouths,
That feed the Caspian with Rilphean snows.
Huge Volga! from famed Hypanis, which once
Cradled the Hun; from all the countless realms
Between Imaus and that utmost strand
Where columns of Herculean rock confront
The blown Atlantic; Roman, Goth, and Hun,
And Scythian strength of chivalry that tread
The cold Codanian shore, or what far lands
Inhospitable drink Cimmerian floods.
Franks. Saxons, ?uevic, and Sarmatian chiefs
And who from green Armorica or Spain
Flocked
to the work of death."
Herbert's "Attila,".
The victory which the Roman general, Aetius, with his Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last victory
of imperial Rome. But among the long Fasti of her triumphs, few can be found that for their importance and ultimate benefit to mankind, are
comparable with, this expiring effort of her arms.
It did not, indeed, open to her, any new career of conquest - it did not consolidate the relics of her power - it did not
turn the rapid ebb of her fortunes. The mission of imperial Rome was, in truth, already accomplished. She had received and transmitted
through her once ample dominion the civilization of Greece. She had broken up the barriers of narrow nationalities among the various states
and tribes that dwelt around the coasts of the Mediterranean. She had fused these and many other races into one organized empire, bound
together by a community of laws, of government, and institutions.
Under the shelter of her full power tue True Faith had arisen in the earth, and during the years of her decline it had
been nourished to maturity, it had overspread all the provinces that ever obeyed her sway. For no beneficial purpose to mankind could the
dominion of the seven-hilled city have been restored or prolonged. But it was all-important to mankind what nations should divide among
them Rome's rich inheritance of empire.
Chalons
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