his race. He had given himself up to excessive joy at
his wedding, and as he lay on his back, heavy with wine
and sleep, a rush of superfluous blood, which would ordinarily
have flowed from his nose, streamed in deadly
course down his throat and killed him, since it was hindered
in the usual passages. Thus did drunkenness put a
disgraceful end to a king renowned in war. On the following
day, when a great part of the morning was spent,
the royal attendants suspected some ill and, after a great
uproar, broke in the doors. There they found the death
of Attila accomplished by an effusion of blood, without
any wound, and the girl with downcast face weeping
beneath her veil. Then, as is the custom of that race, 255
they plucked out the hair of their heads and made their
faces hideous with deep wounds, that the renowned warrior
might be mourned, not by effeminate wailings and
tears, but by the blood of men. Moreover a wondrous
thing took place in connection with Attila's death. For
in a dream some god stood at the side of Marcian, Emperor
of the East, while he was disquieted about his
fierce foe, and showed him the bow of Attila broken in
that same night, as if to intimate that the race of Huns
owed much to that weapon. This account the historian
Priscus says he accepts upon truthful evidence. For so
terrible was Attila thought to be to great empires that
the gods announced his death to rulers as a special boon.

We shall not omit to say a few words about the many 256
ways in which his shade was honored by his race. His
body was placed in the midst of a plain and lay in state