The
nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of
Chalons; but many of these nations had been divided by faction or
conquest or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns,
which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war.
The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an interesting
part of their national manners. The attentive study of the military
operations of Xenophon or Caesar or Frederic, when they are described by
the same genius which conceived and executed them, may tend to
improve--if such improvement can be wished--the art of destroying the
human species. But the battle of Chalons can only excite our curiosity
by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by the blind
impetuosity of barbarians, and has been related by partial writers,
whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the
knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorus, however, had familiarly
conversed with many Gothic warriors who served in that memorable
engagement; "a conflict," as they informed him, "fierce, various,
obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in the
present or in past ages.
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