Romans centred in him. And since the eunuchs who were in attendance upon
the emperor were well-disposed toward him, he persuaded the emperor by
their devices that Aetius was setting on foot a revolution. And
Valentinian, judging by nothing else than the power and valour of Aetius
that the report was true, put the man to death. [Sept. 21, 454 A.D.]
Whereupon a certain Roman made himself famous by a saying which he
uttered. For when the emperor enquired of him whether he had done well
in putting Aetius to death, he replied saying that, as to this matter,
he was not able to know whether he had done well or perhaps otherwise,
but one thing he understood exceedingly well, that he had cut off his
own right hand with the other.

So after the death of Aetius,[24] Attila, since no one was a match for
him, plundered all Europe with no trouble and made both emperors
subservient and tributary to himself. For tribute money was sent to him
every year by the emperors. At that time, while Attila was besieging
Aquileia, a city of great size and exceedingly populous situated near
the sea and above the Ionian Gulf, they say that the following good
fortune befell him. For they tell the story that, when he was able to
capture the place neither by force nor by any other means, he gave up
the siege in despair, since it had already lasted a long time, and
commanded the whole army without any delay to make their preparations
for the departure, in order that on the morrow all might move from there
at sunrise. And the following day about sunrise, the barbarians had
raised the siege and were already beginning the departure, when a single
male stork which had a nest on a certain tower of the city wall and was
rearing his nestlings there suddenly rose and left the place with his
young. And the father stork was flying, but the little storks, since
they were not yet quite ready to fly, were at times sharing their
father's flight and at times riding upon his back, and thus they flew