The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, also known as the Battle of Chalons, was a major battle which was fought between a Roman-led alliance led by the Western Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I and a Hunnic-led alliance led by Attila the Hun. In the ensuing battle, the Romans defeated the Huns and halted their advance into Gaul, and Attila died two years later; his empire collapsed at the 454 Battle of Nedao.
History[]
In the 5th century AD the incursions of the Huns, led by Attila, struck terror into the settled populations of the Roman Empire. It seemed that no army could resist the Huns' swarms of horsemen, who darted around the battlefield, showering their enemy with bone-tipped arrows, before closing in to finish off survivors with swords and lassos. In 451, however, the Roman general Flavius Aetius caught up with Attila in Gaul, at a site sometimes called the Catalaunian plains. Both armies were a mix of peoples. Aetius' force included Alans and Franks, as well as an army of Visigoths under their king, Theodoric I. Attila had Ostrogoths and Gepids alongside his Huns. The details of the battle are unclear, but it was certainly a bloody affair in which the Visigoths distinguished themselves, despite Theodoric being killed. The Huns were forced to withdraw to their wagon-circle camp, which Aetius and his allies failed to assault. It was, nonetheless, a serious defeat for Attila.