Hunnic invasion of Gaul, 451

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

In 451 Attila led his army out of Pannonia, across the Rhine and into Gaul.^[1] The campaign took Metz and failed before Orléans. It ended at the battle on the Catalaunian Plains against the western Romans under Aetius and the Visigoths. After the battle Attila withdrew to the Danube.^[1] A Gallic chronicle gives the course of the campaign in one sentence. Attila entered Gaul demanding a wife as if she were his by right. There he inflicted a defeat and suffered one, and then went back to his own land.^[2]

The causes

Priscus reports that the new emperor Marcian refused Attila his tribute. Attila hesitated whom to attack first and decided on the more dangerous war in the West. There he would deal with the Italians, the Goths and the Franks. He would carry off Honoria with great wealth from the Italians. From the Goths he would earn the gratitude of the Vandal king Gaiseric.^[3] His quarrel with the Franks came from the death of their king. The elder son called in Attila, and the younger son called in Aetius. Before he set out, Attila demanded Honoria again and showed her ring. He claimed half the western empire as hers by right. When the western court refused, he called up his whole army.^[4]

Jordanes gives only the Vandal motive. Gaiseric had sent his son Huneric’s wife, the daughter of the Visigothic king Theodorid, back to her father with her nose and ears cut off. He feared the father’s revenge and drove Attila into war on the Visigoths with many gifts.^[5] The picture of Vandal agents carrying bags of gold from Africa to Hungary has been called grotesque.^[6] Jordanes’s account is questioned elsewhere, because he may be biased and contradicts himself. The explanation is sought instead among the Franks. Aetius had brought Gaul under his control with Hun help around 445. He and Attila then backed different claimants to the Frankish crown. The Romans took Attila’s wish to strengthen Hun influence among the Franks for a grab at half the western empire.^[7] Still others state bluntly that the reason is not known.^[8]

Attila wrote to the emperor Valentinian that he had no quarrel with the empire, only with Theodorid. He wrote to Theodorid that he should leave the Roman alliance.^[9] Later chronicles preserve a message, which reads correctly once the names are corrected. In it Attila orders Theodorid to make his palace ready for him, “my master and thy master”.^[10]^[11]

The march

The Huns left Pannonia soon after the new year.^[12] Jordanes says that Attila’s army was said to number half a million men.^[13] The figure has been taken as a sign of the panic it caused.^[12] A different estimate allows no more than a fifth of it, and probably less. A good part of this army was Germanic foot soldiers, but Attila would still have needed fifty or sixty thousand horses for the march.^[14] The Ostrogoths under Valamir and his brothers and the Gepids under Ardaric marched with him, together with many other subject peoples.^[15] A Gallic poet names Rugi, Gepids, Sciri, Burgundians, Thuringians and Franks among them. He adds peoples of old books who no longer existed.^[16]

Many cities fell when Attila crossed the Rhine, and on 7 April he took Metz.^[17] In the early summer the court at Rome still expected him to turn on Italy. At the same time Hun bands raided the Balkan provinces.^[18]

The western emperor’s envoys won Theodorid over. “Romans,” he answered, “you have attained your desire; you have made Attila our foe also.”^[19] The Visigoths feared that they would be next on Attila’s list.^[11] Aetius left Italy with few troops in a year of famine. He joined the Visigoths towards the end of April or the beginning of May.^[20] He knew the strength of the Huns, moved cautiously and withdrew deeper into Gaul.^[21] He gathered Franks, Sarmatians, Armoricans, Burgundians, Saxons and other peoples as auxiliaries.^[22]

Orléans

Sangiban, king of the Alans at Orléans, had promised to hand the city over to Attila. According to Jordanes, Theodorid and Aetius heard of it. They raised great earthworks round the city before Attila arrived and kept Sangiban under watch.^[23] The Huns may have besieged Orléans and actually broken into it. The approach of the allies then forced them to withdraw, and Attila suffered a major reverse there.^[24] In another account the Alans held Orléans against a Hun siege. When the siege dragged on, Attila surprised everyone by withdrawing towards Hungary. The allies followed and caught him on the Catalaunian Plains.^[21]

Battle and retreat

The armies met on the Catalaunian Plains, which Jordanes also calls the Mauriacian. Some calculations put the meeting in the first week of July, others about 20 June.^[25]^[6]^[26] Theodorid fell, and Attila shut himself in his wagon camp. The fighting is described in the article on the battle on the Catalaunian Plains. The Visigoths went home under their new king Thorismund, and Aetius sent his Frankish allies away.^[27]^[28] At first Attila took the Goths’ departure for a ruse and stayed in his camp. Then he turned back.^[29] Aetius may have let him retreat at his leisure, because he hoped to use the Huns again.^[30]

The losses of the Huns in 451 must have been very heavy.^[31] They were nonetheless by no means at the end of their power. A year later Attila invaded Italy.^[32] Jordanes adds a second campaign. After his return from Italy, Attila set out again from Dacia and Pannonia to subdue the Alans settled beyond the Loire. Thorismund beat him there in almost the same way as on the Catalaunian Plains.^[33] No other author mentions this campaign, and it is generally disbelieved.^[34]

References

^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 135–143
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 456
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 15, p. 98
^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 16, p. 99
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 184–185, p. 103
^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 130
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 98–99
^ Thompson 1948, p. 131
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 185–186, p. 103
^ Thompson 1948, p. 137–138
^ a b Yavuz 2025, p. 99
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 135
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 182, p. 102
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 213
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 198–199, p. 106–107
^ Thompson 1948, p. 136
^ Thompson 1948, p. 140
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 129–131
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 187–189, p. 103–104
^ Thompson 1948, p. 139
^ a b Yavuz 2025, p. 100
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 191, p. 105
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 194–195, p. 105
^ Thompson 1948, p. 140–141
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 192, p. 105
^ Thompson 1948, p. 141
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 215–217, p. 111–112
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 101
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 218, p. 112
^ Thompson 1948, p. 143
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 132
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 102
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 226–228, p. 114–115
^ Mierow 1915, p. 175

Sources

Priscus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, vol. I (1923)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)