a large city of the Carni, or Veneti, and a noble Roman colony, which was led thither between the first and second Macedonian wars, (Livy). It is washed by two rivers, the Natiso and Turrus, (Pliny). The reason of leading this colony was, in order to be a bulwark against the neighbouring barbarians. The colony was afterwards increased with 1500 families by a decree of the senate, (Livy); from which it became a very famous port town, (Herodian). The emperor Julian ascribes the appellation to the augury of an eagle at the time of building it; but Isaac Vossius on Mela, to the great plenty of water, as if the town were called Aquilegia. The harbour, at the mouth of the Natiso, is distant 60 stadia from the city; so that ships of burden are towed up the river, (Strabo). In 452 it was besieged by Attila with an innumerable host of barbarians. The walls were assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, moveable turrets, and engines that threw stones, darts, and fire; and the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime cities of the Hadriatic coast. Three months were consumed without effect in the siege; till the want of provisions and the clamours of his army compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise, and reluctantly to issue his orders that the troops should strike their tents the next morning and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing to leave her nest in one of the towers, and to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident which chance had offered to superstition; and exclaimed in a loud and cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats, unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and solitude. The favourable omen inspired an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigour; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. The place, however, is still called Aquileia; and there are several inscriptions and antiquities to be seen in it, which are worthy of a traveller's notice; and, though dwindled into a poor village, it gives a title to the patriarch of Aquileia. The patriarch is named by the Venetians, and resides at Udino, because the town of Aquileia belongs to the House of Austria. E. Long. 13° 20' N. Lat. 45° 40'.