Theodoric I

Theodoric I, whom Jordanes calls Theodorid, was king of the Visigoths from 419 to 451.^[1] He succeeded Valia. Jordanes calls him “the more fortunate and prosperous Theodorid”, a man of the greatest moderation, notable for vigour of mind and body.^[2] He fought the Huns twice. The first time they were auxiliaries of the Romans, in the 430s. The second time they were the army of Attila and the Hun empire, on the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he fell.^[3]^[4]

War with the Hun auxiliaries

Theodoric’s Goths besieged Narbonne. Huns under Litorius, the lieutenant of the commander Aetius, drove them off and brought grain into the starving town.^[5] In 439 the Huns of Litorius laid siege to Theodoric’s capital at Toulouse.^[6] In the battle Litorius was taken prisoner and his Huns were destroyed to a man. He was put to death in the city.^[6] After a drawn battle with Aetius, the future emperor Avitus arranged a peace.^[6]

Jordanes tells it briefly. In the consulship of Theodosius and Festus the Romans broke the truce and took up arms against Theodorid in Gaul. The Huns were their auxiliaries, under their leader Litorius. The two lines stood facing each other for a long time, neither side the weaker. Then they returned to their old alliance by treaty.^[7] The consulship is that of 439.^[8]

The peace did not end his hostility to Aetius.^[9] Towards 440 Theodoric received Sebastian, Aetius’s old enemy, at his court. In 449 the Suevian king Rechiarius married his daughter.^[9] Aetius was as hostile to him in the spring of 450 as he had ever been.^[10]

Gaiseric and Attila

Another daughter of Theodoric had married Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Gaiseric. On a mere suspicion that she meant to poison him, Huneric cut off her nose and ears and sent her back to her father in Gaul. Jordanes writes that Gaiseric feared Theodorid’s revenge. With many gifts he drove Attila into war on the Visigoths.^[11] The picture of Vandal agents carrying bags of gold from Africa to Hungary has been called grotesque.^[12] Others find the claim unlikely, given the dynamics between Vandals and Visigoths.^[13]

Attila wrote to the emperor Valentinian that his quarrel was with Theodorid alone. To Theodorid he wrote that he should break his alliance with the Romans. He reminded him of the battles to which they had lately provoked him.^[14] Attila may have told Theodoric to denounce the treaty of 439.^[15]

The alliance of 451

It has been argued that the Visigoths had decided to remain neutral.^[16] Others hold that they were resigned to fighting Attila alone in their own country. The reason was that twenty years of hostility from Aetius had left them no hope of help from him.^[17] Valentinian’s envoys urged them to unite “against the lord of the earth who wishes to enslave the whole world”. Theodorid answered: “Romans, you have attained your desire; you have made Attila our foe also. We will pursue him wherever he summons us, and though he is puffed up by his victories over divers races, yet the Goths know how to fight this haughty foe.”^[18] Avitus carried a letter from Valentinian to the king. He persuaded him to join the man he had spent his life fighting.^[19] It has been questioned whether Avitus owed his success to diplomacy or to the fact that Attila was already turning towards the Loire.^[16]

For the war against Attila Theodorid led out a countless host. He sent four of his sons home: Friderich, Eurich, Retemer and Himnerith. He took only the two elder, Thorismund and Theoderic, with him.^[20] The Alan king Sangiban promised to hand Orléans over to Attila. Theodorid and Aetius raised great earthworks round the city before Attila arrived.^[21]

Death on the Catalaunian Plains

In the battle Theodorid held the right wing with the Visigoths. Aetius held the left with the Romans.^[22] On Attila’s wings stood his subject peoples, among them the Ostrogoths under Valamir and his brothers.^[23] The Gepids and Ostrogoths faced their kinsmen the Visigoths.^[24] Theodorid rode along his lines to encourage his army. He was thrown from his horse and trampled by his own men, “thus ending his days at a ripe old age”. Others said that he was killed by the spear of Andag, one of the Ostrogoths who were then under Attila’s rule. Attila’s seers had foretold that the supreme commander of the enemy would fall. Attila had taken it for Aetius.^[25]

When the battle seemed won, the Visigoths missed their king. After a long search they found him where the dead lay thickest. They honoured him with songs and bore him away in sight of the enemy. “It was death indeed,” Jordanes writes, “but the Huns are witness that it was a glorious one.”^[26] His body was found only on the day after the battle.^[24] A grave found at Pouan in 1842, with weapons and gold ornaments, has been taken for his. There is no evidence that connects it with the battle of 451.^[27]^[24]

His son Thorismund entered Toulouse in royal state.^[28] Some argue that a violent rivalry between the Visigothic princes followed his death.^[29]

References

^ Mierow 1915, p. 40
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 176, p. 100
^ Thompson 1948, p. 67–68, 141
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 130–131
^ Thompson 1948, p. 67
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 68
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 176–177, p. 100–101
^ Mierow 1915, p. 100
^ a b Thompson 1948, p. 126
^ Thompson 1948, p. 129
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 184, p. 103
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 130
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 98
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 185–186, p. 103
^ Thompson 1948, p. 132
^ a b Bury 1923, p. 292
^ Thompson 1948, p. 138
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 187–189, p. 103–104
^ Thompson 1948, p. 139
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 190, p. 104
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 194–195, p. 105
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 197, p. 106
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 198–199, p. 106–107
^ a b c Thompson 1948, p. 141
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 209, p. 109
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 214, p. 110–111
^ Bury 1923, p. 293
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 218, p. 112
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 131

Sources

Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

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)