Thorismund

Thorismund, Thorismud in Jordanes, was one of the two elder sons of Theodoric I and king of the Visigoths from 451 to 453.^[1] He fought beside Aetius against Attila on the Catalaunian Plains, where his father fell.^[2] Jordanes credits him with a second victory over Attila, beyond the Loire.^[3] No other writer reports it.^[4]

The battle of 451

When the Visigoths marched against Attila, Theodorid sent four of his sons home. He took only the two elder, Thorismund and Theoderic, with him.^[5] In the campaign in Gaul, father and son reached Orléans with Aetius before the Huns.^[6] On the Catalaunian Plains Thorismund and Aetius took the summit of the hill first. They drove the Huns back as the Huns came up.^[7]

In the darkness of the night Thorismund rode into the enemy’s wagons, thinking he had reached his own lines. As he fought, someone wounded him in the head and dragged him from his horse. His men rescued him.^[8] Aetius, too, lost his men in the dark. He spent the rest of the night among the shields of the Goths.^[9] The fact that both commanders found themselves among the Huns has been taken as a sign that the allies were pursued, and not the Huns.^[10]

The return to Toulouse

The Goths found the body of Theodorid where the dead lay thickest. Thorismund, as befitted a son, followed his father’s remains.^[11] Then he wanted to avenge his father on the Huns who remained. He asked Aetius, the older man, for advice. Aetius feared that if the Goths destroyed the Huns altogether, the Roman empire would be overwhelmed. He urged Thorismund to go home and take up his father’s rule before his brothers seized the kingdom. Thorismund accepted the advice “without perceiving its double meaning”. He left the Huns and returned to Gaul.^[12] Some historians hold that Thorismund was eager to storm Attila’s wagon camp. Aetius, they add, did not wish to destroy the Huns or to raise the prestige of his Visigothic allies.^[13]

Thorismund entered Toulouse in royal state. His brothers and companions were still rejoicing over the victory. He began to rule so mildly that no one strove with him for the succession.^[14] A violent rivalry between the Visigothic princes after Theodorid’s death is also suggested. It kept the bishops beyond the Alps from travelling to Rome until January 452.^[15]

The second campaign

After his return from Italy, Jordanes writes, Attila threatened the eastern emperor Marcian but turned against the Visigoths. He set out from Dacia and Pannonia, where the Huns then dwelt with their subject peoples. His aim was to bring under his rule the part of the Alans settled beyond the Loire.^[16] Thorismund saw through the plan. By forced marches he reached the Alans first. When Attila came, they joined battle “in almost the same way as before at the Catalaunian Plains”. Thorismund routed him and drove him back to his own country.^[3] No other author mentions this second defeat. Historians generally disbelieve it.^[4]

Death

After the Huns had been repulsed without hurt to his own men, Thorismund returned to Toulouse. He gave his people a settled peace. In the third year of his reign he fell sick. While he was being bled, his client Ascalc betrayed him to his enemies. Ascalc told them that Thorismund’s weapons were out of reach. Thorismund seized a footstool in his free hand. He killed several of the men who lay in wait for him.^[17] The chroniclers Prosper, Hydatius and Isidore say that his brothers and their followers killed him.^[4] The two accounts can be reconciled if Ascalc was the betrayer.^[4] His brother Theodorid succeeded him as king of the Visigoths.^[18]

References

^ Mierow 1915, p. 40
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 201, p. 107; § 209, p. 109
^ a b Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 227, p. 114–115
^ a b c d Mierow 1915, p. 175
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 190, p. 104
^ Bury 1923, p. 292
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 201, p. 107
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 211, p. 109–110
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 212, p. 110
^ Yavuz 2025, p. 101
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 214–215, p. 110–111
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 215–216, p. 111
^ Bury 1923, p. 293
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 218, p. 112
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 131
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 225–226, p. 114
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 228, p. 115
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 229, p. 115

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)