Theodosius was reduced to the more humble expedient of stipulating
an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and of
disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title of general, which the
king of the Huns condescended to accept. The public tranquillity was
frequently interrupted by the fierce impatience of the Barbarians, and
the perfidious intrigues of the Byzantine court. Four dependent nations,
among whom we may distinguish the Barbarians, disclaimed the sovereignty
of the Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected by a Roman
alliance; till the just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas, were
effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his ambassador. Peace was the
unanimous wish of the senate: their decree was ratified by the emperor;
and two ambassadors were named, Plinthas, a general of Scythian
extraction, but of consular rank; and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise
and experienced statesman, who was recommended to that office by his
ambitious colleague.

[Footnote 2: Hungary has been successively occupied by three Scythian
colonies. 1. The Huns of Attila; 2. The Abares, in the sixth century;
and, 3. The Turks or Magiars, A.D. 889; the immediate and genuine
ancestors of the modern Hungarians, whose connection with the two former
is extremely faint and remote. The Prodromus and Notitia of Matthew
Belius appear to contain a rich fund of information concerning ancient
and modern Hungary. I have seen the extracts in Bibli otheque Ancienne
et Moderne, tom. xxii. p. 1-51, and Bibliotheque Raisonnee, tom. xvi. p.
127-175. * Note: Mailath (in his Geschichte der Magyaren) considers
the question of the origin of the Magyars as still undecided. The old
Hungarian chronicles unanimously derived them from the Huns of Attila
See note, vol. iv. pp. 341, 342. The later opinion, adopted by Schlozer,
Belnay, and Dankowsky, ascribes them, from their language, to the
Finnish race. Fessler, in his history of Hungary, agrees with Gibbon in
supposing them Turks. Mailath has inserted an ingenious dissertation
of Fejer, which attempts to connect them with the Parthians. Vol. i.
Ammerkungen p. 50--M.]

[Footnote 3: Socrates, l. vii. c. 43. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36. Tillemont,
who always depends on the faith of his ecclesiastical authors,
strenuously contends (Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 136, 607) that the wars
and personages were not the same.]

The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty. His two
neph