CHAP.!.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  233

the  emperor  of  the  East,  in  three  bloody  battles,  and  after  ravaging
Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  pursued  his  desolating  march  west-
ward  into  Gaul,  but  was  defeated  by  the  Romans  and  their  Gothic
allies  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Chalons.1  (A.  D.  451.)  The  next
year  the  Huns  poured  like  a  torrent  upon  Italy,  and  spread  their
ravages  over  all  Lombardy.  This  visitation  was  the  origin  of  the
Venetian  republic,2  which  was  founded  by  the  fugitives  who  fied  at
the  terror  of  the  name  of  At'  tila.
