intolerable yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive Romans, who
would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the empire of the Huns.

While the powers of Europe and Asia were solicitous to avert the
impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained the Vandals in the
possession of Africa. An enterprise had been concerted between the
courts of Ravenna and Constantinople for the recovery of that valuable
province; and the ports of Sicily were already filled with the military
and naval forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his
negotiations round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the
King of the Huns to invade the Eastern Empire; and a trifling incident
soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war. Under the
faith of the treaty of Margus, a free market was held on the northern
side of the Danube, which was protected by a Roman fortress surnamed
Constantia. A troop of Barbarians violated the commercial security,
killed or dispersed the unsuspecting traders, and levelled the fortress
with the ground. The Huns justified this outrage as an act of reprisal,
alleged that the Bishop of Margus had entered their territories to
discover and steal a secret treasure of their kings, and sternly
demanded the guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the fugitive
subjects who had escaped from the justice of Attila.

The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of war; and the
Mæsians at first applauded the generous firmness of their sovereign. But
they were soon intimidated by the destruction of Viminiacum and the
adjacent towns; and the people were persuaded to adopt the convenient
maxim that a private citizen, however innocent or respectable, may be
justly sacrificed to the safety of his country. The Bishop of Margus,
who did not possess the spirit of a martyr, resolved to prevent the
designs which he suspected. He boldly treated with the princes of the