The name of the Huns ceased for some
centuries to inspire terror in Western Europe, and their ascendency
passed away with the life of the great King by whom it had been so
fearfully augmented.[25]
EDWARD GIBBON
The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of Gaul may
be ascribed to his insidious policy as well as to the terror of his
arms. His public declarations were skilfully mitigated by his private
assurances; he alternately soothed and threatened the Romans and the
Goths; and the courts of Ravenna and Toulouse, mutually suspicious of
each other's intentions, beheld with supine indifference the approach of
their common enemy. Aetius was the sole guardian of the public safety;
but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction which, since the
death of Placidia, infested the imperial palace; the youth of Italy
trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the barbarians, who, from fear
or affection, were inclined to the cause of Attila, awaited with
doubtful and venal faith the event of the war. The patrician passed the
Alps at the head of some troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely
deserved the name of an army.
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