. The Russian road to China . f realms were, about this date, in peace and pro-sperity. There is even a record of trade betweenthem, the Chinese annals telling of an expedition ofKing An-tun, or Antoninus, in i66 , to Burmah,from which his factors reached the Middle King-dom ; and of glass, drugs, metals, and game obtainedoverland by way of Parthia from Ta-tsin, the GreatEmpire. Pliny writes of silk, iron, furs, and skins,caravan-brought from China. So moved the twoempires until 376 , when Valens the Irresolutereigned in Byzantium. To him came messengersbringing word of great
. The Russian road to China . f realms were, about this date, in peace and pro-sperity. There is even a record of trade betweenthem, the Chinese annals telling of an expedition ofKing An-tun, or Antoninus, in i66 , to Burmah,from which his factors reached the Middle King-dom ; and of glass, drugs, metals, and game obtainedoverland by way of Parthia from Ta-tsin, the GreatEmpire. Pliny writes of silk, iron, furs, and skins,caravan-brought from China. So moved the twoempires until 376 , when Valens the Irresolutereigned in Byzantium. To him came messengersbringing word of great alarm from the whole nation of Goths were on the bank, beg-ging a refuge in Roman territory. Wild enemies, from where we know not, areupon us! they cried. The Goths, who were to subvert the decliningempire, were escaping from before the western divi-sion of the old Hiung-nu. Valens had the Gothsferried over the Danube, and the Huns establishedthemselves in the vacated places of what is nowAustria. 8 ; ^~ ^-:>i^. CO > til ^O bn =■ B -I o iaii9«^i(gBa^ijoa>i(;«?(i(y»fe THE STORY OF THE HORDES 333 Amid those hordes arose a leader destined to leavea memory in the sagas of the Scandinavian bards,in the Niebelungenlied of the Teutons, and a luridtrail in the annals of the Csesars. He called himselfa descendant of the great Nimrod, nurtured inEngaddi, by the grace of God, King of the Huns,the Goths, the Danes, the Medes; the Dread of theWorld,—Attila. A profound politician, he alternately cajoled andthreatened the peoples whose conquest he under-took ; a true barbarian, no food save flesh and milkpassed his lips. He and his men worshiped the mys-teriously discovered scimitar of Mars, and fromPersia to Gaul, from Finland to the walls of Con-stantinople, his armies ranged. Ambassadors wentfrom his Court to China. The great battle of Cha-lons, in which, aided by the Goths, the dwindlingforces of Romes Western Empire won their lastvictory, alone preserved Europ
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecttranssi, bookyear1910
