Battle
Upon learning of the invasion, the Magister militum Flavius Aëtius moved quickly from Italy into Gaul. According to Sidonius Apollinaris, he was leading forth a force consisting of few and sparse auxiliaries without one regular soldier. He immediately attempted to convince Theodoric I to join him. The Visigothic king learned how few troops Aëtius had with him and decided it was wiser to wait to oppose the Huns in his own lands. Aëtius turned then to the powerful local magnate Avitus for help, who was not only able to convince Theodoric to join with the Romans, but also a number of other wavering "barbarians" resident in Gaul. The combined armies then marched for Aurelianum (Orléans), reaching that city about June 14.
According to the author of the Vita S. Anianus, they had reached the besieged Aurelianum literally at the last possible minute. Attila's men had made a breach in the city's walls and had positioned a party within the city. At this very moment, news of an advancing hostile army reached the Huns. They were virtually in control of the city, but to keep it meant to be besieged in it. Hence they broke camp and proceeded back homewards, doubtless looking for an advantageous spot to make a stand. Theodoric and Aëtius followed in close pursuit. The two forces at last met at the Catalaunian Fields on June 20, a date first proposed by J.B. Bury and since accepted by many, although some sources claim September 20.
The night before the main battle, one of the Frankish forces on the Roman side encountered a band of the Gepids loyal to Attila. Jordanes' recorded number of 15,000 dead on either side for this skirmish is not verifiable.
In accordance to Hunnic customs, Attila had his diviners examine the entrails of a sacrifice the morning before battle. They foretold disaster would befall the Huns and one of the enemy leaders would be killed. At the risk of his own life and hoping for Aëtius to die, Attila at last gave the orders for combat, but delayed until the ninth hour so the impending sunset would help his troops to flee the battlefield in case of defeat.
According to Jordanes, the Catalaunian plain rose on one side by a sharp slope to a ridge. This geographical feature dominated the battlefield and became the center of the battle. The Huns first seized the right side of the ridge, while the Romans seized the left, with the crest unoccupied between them. Jordanes explains that the Visigoths held the right side, the Romans the left, with Sangiban of uncertain loyalty and his Alans surrounded in the middle. The Hunnish forces attempted to seize the decisive central position,where the Frankish infantry stood. As the Hunnic and Alan cavalry charged, the Frankish warriors threw their national weapon, the Francisca, disrupting the charge, and counter-charged the Hunnic forces. The heavily armored Frankish footsoldiers cut down the relatively light Huns and Alans in a pitched melee, and the Hunnish warriors fled in disorder back into their own forces, thereby disordering the rest of Attila's army.
Attila attempted to rally his forces, struggling to hold his position. Meanwhile Theodoric, while leading his own men after the disordered enemy, was killed in the assault without his men noticing. Jordanes states that Theodoric was thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, but he also mentions another story that had Theodoric slain by the spear of the Ostrogoth Andag. Since Jordanes served as the notary of Andag's son Gunthigis, even if this latter story is not true, this version was certainly a proud family tradition.
The Visigoths outstripped the speed of the Alans beside them and fell upon Attila's own Hunnic household unit. Attila was forced to seek refuge in his own camp, which he had fortified with wagons. The Romano-Gothic charge apparently swept past the Hunnic camp in pursuit; when night fell, Thorismund, son of king Theodoric, returning to friendly lines, mistakenly entered Attila's encampment. There he was wounded in the ensuing mêlée before his followers could rescue him. Darkness also separated Aëtius from his own men. As he feared that disaster had befallen them, he spent the rest of the night with his Gothic allies.
On the following day, finding the battlefields "were piled high with bodies and the Huns did not venture forth", the Goths and Romans met to decide their next move. Knowing that Attila was low on provisions and "was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows placed within the confines of the Roman camp", they started to besiege his camp. In this desperate situation, Attila remained unbowed and "heaped up a funeral pyre of horse saddles, so that if the enemy should attack him, he was determined to cast himself into the flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him and that the lord of so many races might not fall into the hands of his foes".
While Attila was trapped in his camp, the Visigoths searched for their missing king and his son Thorismund. After a long search, they found Theodoric's corpse beneath a mound of corpses and bore him away with heroic songs in sight of the enemy. Upon learning of his father's death, Thorismund wanted to assault Attila's camp, but Aëtius dissuaded him. According to Jordanes, Aëtius feared that if the Huns were completely destroyed, the Visigoths would break off their allegiance to the Roman Empire and become an even graver threat. So Aëtius convinced Thorismund to quickly return home and secure the throne for himself, before his brothers could. Otherwise, civil war would ensue among the Visigoths. Thorismund quickly returned to Tolosa (present-day Toulouse) and became king without any resistance. Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum 2.7) claims Aëtius used the same stratagem to dismiss his Frankish allies, and collected the booty of the battlefield for himself. Then Thorismund ran around parading he was going to kill Attila.
On the Visigoths' withdrawal, Attila first believed it to be a feigned retreat to draw his battered forces out into the open for annihilation. So he remained within his defences for some time before he risked leaving his camp and returned home.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Catalaunian Plains
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