Battle of the Catalaunian Plains

On or around 20 June 451, somewhere in the Champagne country of north-eastern Gaul, a Roman-led coalition fought the army of Attila, king of the Huns. The Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I commanded one side; Attila led his Huns and a host of subject peoples on the other. The fighting was bloody and the result is usually judged inconclusive, but it was among the last great campaigns of the Western Roman Empire, and Attila never again invaded Gaul.

By 450 Roman authority in Gaul rested heavily on Germanic and other peoples settled under treaty as federates. Visigoths held the Garonne valley, Burgundians lived in Sapaudia, Alans guarded the Loire, and Salian Franks had in practice been left the far north. Several stories circulated about why Attila turned west. One held that Honoria, sister of the emperor Valentinian III, had appealed to Attila for help and sent him her ring, which he treated as an offer of marriage with half the empire as dowry. Another linked the campaign to a succession dispute among the Franks, in which one claimant sought Attila's help and the other Aetius's.

Attila crossed the Rhine early in 451 with a large and mixed army. Saints' lives credit various bishops with saving their towns, but archaeology has found little sign of widespread destruction, and the main column probably followed the Roman roads through cities such as Worms, Mainz, Trier, Metz and Reims. By June Attila was besieging Aurelianum, modern Orléans, defended by the Alans. His final assault began on 14 June but was abandoned when Aetius's relief army approached. Many modern historians see this successful defence as the decisive moment of the whole campaign.

Aetius hurried from Italy with, according to the poet Sidonius Apollinaris, very few regular troops, and he needed the Visigoths, whom Avitus, a Gallo-Roman aristocrat, reportedly persuaded to join. The coalition also included Alans, Franks, Burgundians, Saxons, Armoricans and others. Attila brought Gepids under Ardaric, Goths led by the Amal brothers Valamir, Theodemir and Videmir, and contingents of other peoples. Ancient figures are not credible; one chronicler claimed almost 300,000 dead. Modern estimates differ widely, though some scholars suggest that more than 100,000 men may have taken part in all.

The two armies met on the Catalaunian Plains, whose exact location is unknown; proposals include sites near Châlons-en-Champagne and the ridge of Montgueux, just west of Troyes. The main source, the sixth-century historian Jordanes, describes a struggle for a ridge that dominated the field. Attila delayed the attack until mid-afternoon. Theodoric was killed while leading his Visigoths, and Attila was driven back into his camp, fortified with wagons. In the darkness, Theodoric's son Thorismund strayed into the Hunnic camp and was wounded, and Aetius became separated from his own men.

The next day the coalition hemmed Attila into his camp. According to Jordanes, Attila prepared a pyre of saddles on which to burn himself rather than be captured. But Aetius persuaded Thorismund to hurry home to Toulouse to secure his father's throne, and the Huns were allowed to withdraw. Jordanes claims Aetius feared that destroying the Huns would leave the Visigoths too strong. Contemporary chroniclers describe great slaughter without a clear victor; later writers increasingly portrayed it as a Roman or Gothic triumph.

In 452 Attila invaded Italy instead, destroying Aquileia before withdrawing, probably because of famine and disease in his army. He died in 453, and after the Battle of Nedao in 454 his empire broke apart. Aetius himself was later assassinated. Older historians, from Edward Gibbon onwards, treated the battle as a turning point that saved western civilisation; most modern scholars give it a more modest place in the fall of the Western Roman Empire, stressing instead how it weakened Roman power in northern Gaul and helped the Franks rise.

Our 400 map shows the Western Roman Empire beside the Hunnic Empire, with Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians already inside Gaul. The 500 map shows the Franks and Visigoths holding much of Gaul.