‘The Destruction of Aquileia’: History and Poetry

In 452, the year after his massive invasion of Gaul culminated in the seemingly inconclusive Battle of Catalunian Fields, Attila the Hun invaded Italy. This strategic choice says nothing conclusive about the result of Catalunian Fields or the success of the Eastern Roman Empire’s dealing with Hunnic raids into the Balkans, even if the Chronicle of 452 suggests that Attila targeted Italy to avenge his ‘defeat’ in Gaul the previous year.

The Hunnic invasion of Italy is usually viewed as a failure due to not capturing either of the imperial capitals – Ravenna or Rome itself, the latter reputedly saved by the intervention of Pope Leo III. Attila may have been forced into returning east by disease, Italian famine, harassment by the army of Aetius and an Eastern Roman attack on his lands in Pannonia, but it could also be that he withdrew from Italy because he had achieved his objectives. Indeed, the list of cities sacked by the Hunnic army in 452, and therefore surely the extent of the war booty it stripped from northern Italy and its population, is rather impressive – Padua, Mantua, Vicentia, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo and Milan – with the Hunnic hammer falling particularly hard the regions of Venetia and Lombardy.

But the city to face the most devastating and seemingly consequential Hunnic attack in 452 was Aquileia. By invading through Pannonia into Venetia, Attila saw his lines of communication and potential retreat threatened by the garrison of Aquileia, which may have been recently strengthened by Aetius.

The city itself boasted strong defences, which had been seen in action less than a century earlier in 361 when it had remained loyal to Constantius II in the face of the usurpation of Julian the Apostate. The walls were protected by the waters of the Natissa river, which prevented siege engines being brought to bear against much of the circuit. The pro-Julian besiegers in 360/361 floated large siege towers on three boats, attempting to reach the walls, only for them to be set on fire by the defenders, with the towers collapsing and sinking into the river. In attempts to use thirst to cause capitulation, the Julian attackers destroyed the Aquileian aqueducts and even redirected the Natissa, but the garrison of 3,000 pro-Constantian defenders refused to surrender to their 10,000 besiegers. It was only the death of Constantius in 361 and the accession of Julian as sole Augustus that brought an end to the siege, leaving Aquileia a city that had never been stormed or forced to surrender (Ammianus XXI.11-12; XXII.8.49)…

Until 452…

But even then, the great Hunnic leader did not have it all his own way.

“(220) The siege was long and fierce, but of no avail, since the bravest soldiers of the Romans withstood him from within. At last his army was discontented and eager to withdraw. Attila chanced to be walking around the walls, considering whether to break camp or delay longer, and noticed that the white birds, namely, the storks, who build their nests in the gables of houses, were bearing their young from the city and, contrary to their custom, were carrying them out into the country. (221) Being a shrewd observer of events, he understood this and said to his soldiers: “You see the birds foresee the future. They are leaving the city sure to perish and are forsaking strongholds doomed to fall by reason of imminent peril. Do not think this a meaningless or uncertain sign; fear, arising from the things they foresee, has changed their custom”. Why say more? He inflamed the hearts of his soldiers to attack Aquileia again. Constructing battering rams and bringing to bear all manner of engines of war, they quickly forced their way into the city, laid it waste, divided the spoil and so cruelly devastated it as scarcely to leave a trace to be seen.”

This record comes from the sixth-century Gothic historian, Jordanes, Getica 52.220-221, who clearly had read the contemporary material of Priscus, possibly through his use of the works of Cassiodorus. Jordanes, Getica 52.221 seems to be almost directly lifted from Priscus’ history (it is listed as fr.66A). Another similar record of the sack of Aquileia comes from the eighth century work of Paul the Deacon, specifically his Historia Romana 14.9.

The devastating Hunnic sack of Aquileia is usually seen as a major catalyst for the rise of Venice, a settlement traditionally founded a generation earlier. Certainly, the whole area of Venetia, including Aquileia and the town of Altinum which was on the mainland coast opposite Venice, faced the wrath of the Huns, so many may have sought refuge in the lagoons, not just of Venice but also that of Grado, which was down river of Aquileia.

It must be said that despite the reputation that the Attilan sack has received for leading to the end or at least the decline of the city, Aquileia continued to exist after the Huns withdrew from Italy in 452. As a centre of government, commerce, finance, defence, with a mint, imperial and bishopric residences, it had a position of significant importance from which to decline from for. It could be that with the sack of 452, Aquileia did lose all of that importance besides the religious, being reduced to a small village but still being the site of a bishopric and then later patriarchal basilica. Certainly, Aquileia continued to elect archbishops and then patriarchs in the immediate aftermath of the Hunnic sack, on through the sixth century and beyond, even being the centre of a schism with Rome regarding the Three Chapters Controversy and papal support for the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, a schism that lasted until the Synod of Pavia in 698/699. It is also worth noting that the patriarchate of Aquileia survived until 1751, although any remaining temporal authority had been lost to Venice in 1420.

However, with regard to the story of the Hunnic sack of Aquileia, one of the more interesting individuals to ascend to the patriarchate of Aquileia came in 787 in the form of Paulinus II of Aquileia. From a family enriched in the aftermath of the suppression of Lombard rebellions in the 770s, Paulinus was a priest, theologian, and eminent scholar of the Carolingian Renaissance, part of the Italian milieu that “Charlemagne aspired to attract to his courts” (Godman (1985) 2).

As a churchman, he was involved in the major religious disputes of the day – Spanish Adoptionism and Filioque – and in bringing Christianity to the Avars and proto-Slovenes. And for the Attilan sack of Aquileia, another of Paulinus’ scholarly skills comes into play – Paulinus was a poet, perhaps “the foremost religious poet of Charlemagne’s reign” (Godman (1985) 6). One of his poetic works – a rhythmic lament, also known as a planctus, entitled ‘Versus de destructione Aquileiae’ – ‘The Destruction of Aquileia’.

It must be said that that while Paulinus is attributed with the writing of this poem, it is not completely certain if he did. It seems that the main basis for the attribution is that the poem is written in pseudo-sapphics, a style that is claimed as being invented by Paulinus (Godman (1985) 28; Norberg (1979) 82).

The author, Paulinus or not, does show knowledge of the record of the sack from Priscus/Jordanes/Paul the Deacon, particularly on the supposed actions of the birds and Attila’s reading of the meanings or omens involved, only with the added “passionate tones of a Biblical lamentation” (Godman (1985) 28-29). He claims that Attila burned Bibles and other Christian texts, stole holy vessels, and killed or captured women, children, and priests. This would not be at all surprising if Attila did indeed devastate Aquileia to the point of rendering it nothing more than “a hovel for paupers” ([Paulinus], Destruction of Aquileia 16), with a patriarchal palace… These actions were avenged though through the demise of Attila and his subsequent eternity in Hell.

The question might be why did Paulinus write his poetic lament when he did (if he did)? Might he have been encouraging the Franks to target the Avars, the current occupants of Pannonia and the Hungarian Plain, even more than they already had in military or conversion terms? Was he looking to justify the Frankish advance against the Bavarians and Avars? Paulinus was involved in the Christianising of Avars after their defeat in 795.

The lament may also have bene meant as a warning to Charlemagne and the Franks on the destruction that could be wrought on the prideful. Through the last years of the eighth century until his death in 814, Charlemagne had been expanding Aachen as a new imperial capital for the Frankish Empire. And Paulinus may be highlighting to the Frankish ruler that for all the mighty splendour of Aquileia’s reputation as a defensive bastion and as an architectural marvel, it had been reduced to a “yokel’s cave” because it had been a den of sin and arrogance (Godman (1985) 30): a cautionary tale of what fate could bring to even the mightiest imperial city.

‘Versus de destructione Aquileiae’ – ‘The Destruction of Aquileia’

Paulinus of Aquileia (?)

1. To lament your ashes, Aquileia,

no tears of mine can suffice;

words fail me, bitter grief at heart

has taken away my understanding.

2. Beautiful, exalted, rich and eminent,

you were once famous for your buildings,

renowned for your walls, but more renowned

for your countless throngs of citizens.

3. All the other towns in the Veneto were your subjects

and acknowledged you as their capital and chief city,

with your flourishing clergy and resplendent churches

dedicated to Christ.

4. While you had at your command every sort of delight,

puffed up with swelling pride, unhappily

you incited the wrath

of the eternal judge.

5. Anger vent from heaven upon you

immediately stirred up a cruel people

which hastened from the rising of the sun

to destroy you.

6. Roaring like a lion, most savage Attila,

knowing not God, pitiless, most impious,

surrounded you on every side

with five hundred thousand men.

7. He saw the birds carrying their young

from the lofty towers out into the countryside

and shrewdly foresaw from this that your destruction

was soon to take place.

8. Instantly he urged on his army,

violently they shook the walls with engines,

without delay they captured and burned down Aquileia,

levelling it to the ground.

9. What grief could there be on that day,

when flames and swords raged in fury on every side,

and the enemy had no mercy

upon tender years or sex?

10. Those spared from the sword they took captive,

young men and old, women, little children;

whatever remained from the fire was plundered

by the brigands’ hands.

11. The two testaments of God’s law

and the ingenious findings of scholars

the pagan in his wicked madness threw

into the fire and burned up.

12. The priests of the Lord lay dead

and there was no one to bury their limbs.

Others, their hands bound behind their backs, were captured

and carried into slavery.

13. Clutched by the wicked, the holy vessels

and all the offerings of the throngs of the faithful

were divided by lot and sent abroad

never to return.

14. Once you raised your head high in pride,

now you lie shunned, useless,

crushed and in ruins, never to be repaired

for all time!

15. Instead of your singing, your lyres and pipes,

mourning, lamentations and groans are come upon you,

the voices of those playing in the place where you stood

have disappeared.

16. Once a city of nobles,

you have now become a yokels’ cave.

Formerly a royal city, you now survive

as a hovel for paupers.

17. Once you were richly provided with superb houses,

wondrously adorned with snow-white marbles,

now you bear fruit at harvest, your boundaries marked

by the paltry ropes of peasants.

18. The temples of the saints that used to be packed with throngs

of noblemen are now filled with thorns;

alas, they have become a refuge

for foxes and serpents.

19. You are put up for sale everywhere throughout the world,

nor is there rest even for those buried in you,

soon their bodies are cast out of the tombs

for the sake of their marble which is bartered.

20. But your impious destroyer, Attila the savage barbarian,

did not escape vengeance;

now by hell-fire and worms

he is tortured.

21. Christ our king, most invincible. judge,

we entreat You, look upon us with pity,

turn away Your wrath, prevent such a fate

from coming to Your servants.

22. Let us offer hymns and prayers to the Lord,

so that He may curb the heathen and check the envious,

and protect us always with His powerful arm

in His mercy everywhere.

23. Correct us, highest father, with Your kindly zeal,

guide and attend Your followers’ path,

so that, taking the untroubled course,

we may be saved by You for all eternity.

Godman (1985) 105-113

Bibliography

Everett N. ‘Paulinus, the Carolingians and famosissima Aquileia’, in Chiesa, P. (ed.) Paulino d’Aquileia e il contributo italiano all’Europa carolingia, Udine (2003) 115–154.

Everett N. ‘Paulinus of Aquileia’s Sponsio Episcoporum: written oaths and clerical discipline in Carolingian Italy’, in Robins W. (ed) Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy. Toronto (2011) 167-216.

Godman P.  Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance. London (1985).

Norberg D. L'oeuvre poétique de Paulin d'Aquilée. Stockholm (1979).

Schutz H. The Carolingians in Central Europe, Their History, Arts, and Architecture: A Cultural History of Central Europe, 750–900. Leiden (2004).