The Great Nations of To-day

CHAPTER V. THE THIRD TRUMPET

By this prophecy we are directed to that other dreadful scourge, the haughty Attila with his frightful Huns, who, during his reign, became the “terror of the world.” Attila actually called himself the “Scourge of God;” “Grandson of Nimrod, nurtured in Engedi, by the grace of God, King of the Huns, Goths, Danes, and Medes, the terror of the world.” And “It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod.” He “alternately insulted and invaded the East and the West, and urged the rapid downfall of the Roman Empire.”—Gibbon, Chap. XXXIV, pars, 1, 8; XXXV, 12; Hodgkin, “Italy and Her Invaders,” Book II, Chap. IV, par. 7 from end. GNT 36.1

“If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized and the savage climates of the globe; between the inhabitants of cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds, who dwelt in tents; Attila might aspire to the title of supreme and sole monarch of the barbarians. He alone, among the conquerors of ancient and modern times, united the two mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague appellations, when they are applied to his reign, may be understood with an ample latitude. Thuringia, which stretched beyond its actual limits as far as the Danube, was in the number of his provinces; he interposed, with the weight of a powerful neighbor, in the domestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his lieutenants chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine. He subdued the islands of the ocean, the kingdoms of Scandinavia, encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns might derive a tribute of furs from that northern region, which has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity of the climate, and the courage of the natives. Toward the East, it is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of Attila over the Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured that he reigned on the banks of the Volga; that the king of the Huns was dreaded, not only as a warrior, but as a magician; that he insulted and vanquished the khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent ambassadors to negotiate an equal alliance with the empire of China.”—Gibbon, Id., par. 5. GNT 36.2

The Capital of this vast “Empire which did not contain in the space of several thousand miles, a single city,” was “an accidental camp which, by the long and frequent residence of Attila, had insensibly swelled into a huge village;” and seems to have been near, if not exactly at the place, where now Tokay is situated, a little east of the River Teyss in Hungary. “The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the Adriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads of barbarians whom Attila led into the field.”—Id., pars. 13, 7. GNT 37.1

It was at this point in Attila’s career that the Third Trumpet sounded, and his desolating hordes were poured upon the Western Empire: and it was through the scheming of “the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations around the world,” that this was brought about. The eldest son of Genseric had married a daughter of Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, who ruled in Spain. By some means, Genseric entertained a suspicion that this daughter-in-law had formed a conspiracy to poison him. With Genseric, his own suspicion was always sufficient proof of guilt; and, upon the hapless daughter of Theodoric, there was inflicted the horrible penalty of the cutting off of her nose and ears. Thus mutilated, she was sent back to the house of her father. By this outrage Theodoric was stirred up to make war upon the king of the Vandals,in which he was widely supported by the sympathy of his neighbors. To protect himself and his dominions from this dangerous invasion,—doubly dangerous just at the time when Rome was so determined to break his power,—Genseric, by “rich gifts and pressing solicitations, inflamed the ambition of Attila,” who, thus persuaded, marched, A. D. 451, with an army of seven hundred thousand men in his memorable invasion of Gaul. GNT 38.1

Thus and then it was that— GNT 39.1

“The third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven. burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Revelation 8:10, 11. GNT 39.2

The period covered by this trumpet was brief, as “a burning star,” 451-453. Of this prophecy Albert Barnes well says that in fulfillment of it “there would be some chieftain, or warrior, who might be compared to a blazing meteor whose course would be singularly brilliant; who would appear suddenly, LIKE a blazing star, and then disappear like a star whose light was quenched in the waters: that the desolating course of that meteor would be mainly on those portions of the world that abounded with springs of water and running streams: that an effect would be produced as if those streams and fountains were made bitter; that is, that many persons would perish, and that wild desolations would be caused in the vicinity of those rivers and streams, as if a baleful star should fall into the waters, and death should spread over lands adjacent to them and watered by them.” GNT 39.3

And further: “It is said particularly that the effect would be on ‘the rivers’ and on the ‘fountains of waters.’ If this has a literal application, or if, as was supposed in the case of the Second Trumpet, the language was such as had reference to the portion of the empire that would be particularly affected by the hostile invasion, then we may suppose that this refers to those portions of the empire that abounded in rivers and streams, and more particularly those in which the rivers and streams had their origin—for the effect was permanently in the ‘fountains of the waters.’” And as a matter of fact the principal operations of Attila as relates to the Western Empire, were in the regions of the Alps, and on the portions of the empire whence the rivers flow to the greater part of Europe in all directions. It was emphatically the region of the “fountains of waters.” GNT 39.4

The Trumpet sounded; and “the kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village in the plains of Hungary, his standard moved toward the west; and, after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Necker.... The hostile myriads were poured with resistless violence into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul was universal.... From the Rhine and the Moselle Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans.” GNT 40.1

AEtius, the Roman commander, gathered of all the peoples of the West, a great army “to give battle to the innumerable host of Attila.” The two great forces met on the plain of Chalons, where they engaged in “one of the most gigantic as well as most important contests recorded in history.”—Encyclopedia Britannica, “Attila.” GNT 40.2

“The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons.... The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real or effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian’s remark that whole generations may be swept away, by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour.” GNT 41.1

Although neither side gained an overwhelming victory, “the Huns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat.” “Yet neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation of Attila were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition.” “The course of the fiery meteor was changed, not stayed; and, touching Italy for the first time, the great star, after having burned as it were a lamp, fell upon a ‘third part of the rivers,’ and upon the fountains of waters. GNT 41.2

“In the ensuing spring [452] ... he took the field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of barbarians.... The walls of Aquileia were assaulted by a formidable train of battering-rams, movable turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; ... the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from flames the public as well as private buildings, and spared the lives of the captive multitudes.... [And] Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy, which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and the Apennines.”—Gibbon, Id., XXXV, pars. 7-12. GNT 41.3

“The valley of the Po was now wasted to the hearts’ content of the invaders. Should they cross the Apennines and blot out Rome as they had blotted out Aquileia from among the cities of the world? This was the great question that was now being debated in the Hunnish camp; and, strange to say, the voices were not all for war.... While this discussion was going forward in the barbarian camp, all voices were hushed, and the attention of all was aroused by the news of the arrival of an embassy from Rome.”—Hodgkin, “Italy and Her Invaders,” Book II, Chap. IV, par. 11. GNT 42.1

Before Attila’s raid into Gaul, he had demanded the hand of the princess Honoria, sister to the emperor Valentinian III; but his offer was rejected. The next year after the battle of Chalons he renewed his demand; and it being again rejected, he revenged himself by this raid into Italy. On Attila’s approach, the emperor Valentinian III had fled to Rome from his capital at Ravenna, and at Rome it was decided by the emperor, the senate, and the people to send a “solemn and suppliant embassy,” headed by Pope Leo the Great, to deprecate the wrath of Attila. “The barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even respectful, attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. GNT 43.1

“Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to return more dreadful and more implacable, if his bride, the princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the meanwhile, Attila relieved his tender anxiety by adding a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity at his wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures, or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing day, till the unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and after attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at length broke into the royal apartment. They found the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger as well as the death [A. D. 453] of the king, who had expired during the night. An artery had suddenly burst; and as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lung sand stomach.”—Gibbon “Decline and Fall,” Chap. XXXV, par. 15. GNT 43.2

“The sounding of the trumpets manifestly denotes the order of the commencement, not the period of the duration, of the wars, or events which they represent. When the second angel sounded, there was seen, as it were, a great mountain burning with fire. When the third angel sounded, there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. The symbol, in each instance, is expressly a similitude; and the one is to the other, in comparative and individual resemblance, as a burning mountain to a falling star; each of them was ‘great.’ The former was cast into the sea, the latter was first seen as falling, and it fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters. There is a discrimination in the similitude, in the description, and locality, which obviously implies a corresponding difference in the object represented.”—Keith. Accordingly the Second Trumpet—Genseric’s career on the sea, 439-477—began first and continued longer than did the Third Trumpet—Attila’s career at the place of rivers and fountains of waters, 451-453: as a burning mountain would naturally continue longer than would a falling star; and a mountain burning with fire would naturally blaze longer than would a falling star burning only as a lamp. GNT 44.1

Also a burning lamp falling into the water, would expire more quickly than would a burning mountain even cast into the sea. At the beginning of this chapter it was noted from Barnes that the Third Trumpet denoted a career that “would be singularly brilliant” “like a blazing star, and then disappear like a star whose light was quenched in the waters.” Even so the history declares: “With dramatic suddenness the stage after the death of Attila is cleared of all the chief actors.” It is the unanimous voice of history that “the death of Attila was followed by a dissolution of his empire, as complete, and more ruinous than that which befell the Macedonian monarchy on the death of Alexander.”—Hodgkin, “Italy and Her Invaders,” Book III, Chap. I, pars. 1, 2. Paragraph twelve of Chap. XXXV of the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” is entitled, “Invasions of Italy by Attila, A. D. 452;” paragraph fourteen, “Attila Gives Peace to the Romans;” paragraph fifteen, “The Death of Attila, A. D. 453;” and paragraph sixteen, “Destruction of His Empire.” GNT 45.1

This destruction of Attila’s Empire was wrought in the battle of the River Netad or Nedao, in Pannonia, a few months after his death. “Thirty thousand of the Huns and their confederates lay dead upon the field, among them Ellak, Attila’s firstborn.... The rest of his nation fled away across the Dacian plains and over the Carpathian mountains to those wide steppes of Southern Russia.... Ernak, Attila’s darling, ruled tranquilly under Roman protection in the district between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea, which we now call Dobrudscha, and which was then ‘the lesser Scythia.’ .. There is nothing in the after history of these fragments of the nation with which anyone need concern himself. The Hunnish Empire is from this time forward mere driftwood on its way to inevitable oblivion.”—Hodgkin, Id., par 3. “The immense empire which was founded by King Attila, was destined to be of but short duration after the death of its founder. His sons Aladar and Csaba, in their contention for the inheritance, resorted to arms. The war ended with the utter destruction of the nation.”—Arminius Vambery, “The Story of Hungary,” iii, par. 5. For additional authorities, see “Great Empires of Prophecy,” pp. 686-693. GNT 46.1