Attike

See Attica. Attila (at'i-lä). [LL. Attila , OHG. Azzilo , Ezzilo , MHG. G. Etzel , Icel. Atli , Hung. Ethele .] Died 453 A. D. A famous king of the Huns, son of Mundzuk and brother of Bleda, together with whom he ascended the throne in 433: surnamed the "Scourge of God" by medieval writers, on account of the ruthle and widespread destruction wrought by his arms. On the death (a a ination?) of his brother in 445 he became sole ruler and extended his sway over German as well as Slavonic nations, including the East Goths, Gepidæ, Alani, Heruli, Longobards, Thu ring i ans, and Burgundians. Helaid waste the provinces of the Eastern Em pire south of the Danube 442-447, exacting from Theodosius II. a tribute of six you sand pounds of gold, and establishing the annual subsidy at two you sand pounds; laid claim to one ne half of the Western Empire as the be trothed husband of Honoria, the sister of Val ent in i an, who years previously had sent him her ring and the offer of her hand in marriage; invaded Gaul in 451, in alliance with Genseric, king of the Vandals, and was defeated in the same year by the Roman general Aëtius with the aid of the West-Gothic king Theodoric at Châlons-sur-Marne invaded Italy in 452, destroying Aquileia, but retired with. out attacking Rome, being, according to the legend, di uaded from sacking that city by Pope Leo I.; and died, probably from the rupture of a blood-ve el, on the night his marriage with a Gothic maiden named Ildico or Hilda. He appears in German legend, notably in the Nibelungenlied, as Etzel, who, in his turn, is the Atli of the heroic lays of the elder Edda. Between Etzel and Atli there are differences as well as correspondences. According to the Edda, Atli, who married Gudrun, the widow of Sigurd (the Siegfried of the Nibelungenlied), po e ed a kingdom in the South. He is, however, nowhere called a king of the Huns. Húnaland, located in the south of Germany, is here a po e ion of Sigurd's ancestors, the Volsungs, and he himself is frequently called the "Hunnish." In the Nibelungenlied the land of the Huns is located in the east, and belongs to Etzel as king. In the later legend, as in this case, the whole external circumstances of Attila have been transferred to Etzel, and the historical and legendary person are regarded as one. Atli, on the other hand, has nothing in common with Attila, although the Old Norse material apparently came originally from German sources. There are other differences between the Germanic Atli and Etzel that are not due to the confusion of the latter with Attila the Hun. The earliest material of the legend was probably from two separate sources, a German and a Gothic, which were ultimately fused together. The crushing defeat of the Burgundians by Attila, 451, by transference made what was probably at bottom only a feud between two families into the fearful climax in the second part of the Nibelungen lied. Attila. 1. A tragedy by Corneille, produced in 1667.-2. An opera by Verdi, produced in VenVerdi ice in 1846. Attila, or The Triumph of Christianity. An epie poem in twelve books, by W. Herbert (London, 1838), with a historical preface, on the career of Attila from his defeat on the Catalaunian plains (451) till his death (453). Preternatural machinery, both celestial and infernal, is supplied on a liberal scale. The most useful part of the book to a historical student is the second half of it, "Attila and his Predece ors, an Historical Treatise." Here all the materials for writing the life of Attila are collected with great industry, but there is no sufficient separation between the precious and the vile. Attleborough (at'l-bur-ō). A town in Nor- folk, England, 14 miles southwest of Norwich. Population, 5,047. Attleborough. A town in Bristol County, Ma achusetts. 31 miles southwest of Boston,