When the winter was over, Attila made his appearance in Italy. Here Aëtius could only oppose to him the feeble, uncertain forces of a land which had become utterly unwarlike. Aquileia, Padua, and other towns were destroyed; all who did not flee, were murdered: people took refuge in the marshes, which was the occasion of the founding of Venice. The details which we have concerning the first tribunes of Venice, &c., are fabulous. Attila had been invited by the princess Honoria into Italy. The death of Attila, which soon followed, would perhaps have given rest to Italy, had not Aëtius, the only support of Rome, met with his death at the same time. Aëtius, had he wished to rebel, might long ago have taken the throne for himself; but he was satisfied with being the acknowledged and actual ruler of the empire: his title was that of Patrician; but he is also mentioned in the chronicles as _Dux Romanorum_. His younger son Gaudentius was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of Valentinian, both of them being very young; without doubt Aëtius thereby wished to secure the succession for Gaudentius. Valentinian, however, who was not yet old, expected that this would put an end to his own dominion; and therefore he formed a plot against Aëtius. The latter, suspecting nothing, went to the imperial palace at Rome on the Palatine, and there Valentinian stabbed him with his own hand: very likely, no one was allowed to present himself with arms before the emperor, as was the case in Constantinople. His son also, and many of his friends were murdered. One is tempted to think that this led to the rise of Ricimer; at least, he very soon after is met with in Aëtius’ place. Rome was now deprived of the great man, who alone could guarantee the safety of the empire: all the successors of Valentinian were merely emperors in name. Valentinian filled the measure of his wretchedness by an outrage on the wife of Petronius Maximus. He treacherously decoyed her into the palace, to gratify his infamous lusts; and by this deed he drove the injured husband into a conspiracy. Valentinian was murdered in the Field of Mars, and Petronius was proclaimed emperor.