Honoria, sister of Valentinian III, the emperor of the West, had sent to
Attila to offer him her hand and her supposed right to share in the
imperial power. This had been discovered by the Romans, and Honoria had
been forthwith closely imprisoned. Attila now pretended to take up arms
in behalf of his self-promised bride, and proclaimed that he was about
to march to Rome to redress Honoria's wrongs. Ambition and spite against
her brother must have been the sole motives that led the lady to woo the
royal Hun; for Attila's face and person had all the natural ugliness of
his race, and the description given of him by a Byzantine ambassador
must have been well known in the imperial courts. Herbert has well
versified the portrait drawn by Priscus of the great enemy of both
Byzantium and Rome:
"Terrific was his semblance, in no mould
Of beautiful proportion cast; his limbs
Nothing exalted, but with sinews braced
Of Chalybean temper, agile, lithe,
And swifter than the roe; his ample chest
Was overbrow'd by a gigantic head,
With eyes keen, deeply sunk, and small, that gleam'd
Strangely in wrath as though some spirit unclean
Within that corporal tenement install'd
Look'd from its windows, but with temper'd fire
Beam'd mildly on the unresisting.
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