The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields

JORDANES

THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS

551 AD

translated by Charles C. Mierow

Princeton University Press, 1915

The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields

During this peace Attila was lord over all the Huns and almost the sole earthly
ruler of all the tribes of Scythia; a man marvellous for his glorious fame among
all nations. The historian Priscus, who was sent to him on an embassy by the younger
Theodosius, says this among other things: “Crossing mighty rivers–namely, the
Tisia and Tibisia and Dricca–we came to the place where long ago Vidigoia, bravest
of the Goths, perished by the guile of the Sarmatians. At no great distance from
that place we arrived at the village where King Attila was dwelling,–a village,
I say, like a great city, in which we found wooden walls made of smooth-shining
boards, whose joints so counterfeited solidity that the union of the boards could
scarcely be distinguished by close scrutiny.

There you might see dining halls of large extent and porticoes planned with
great beauty, while the courtyard was bounded by so vast a circuit that its very
size showed it was the royal palace.” This was the abode of Attila, the king of
all the barbarian world; and he preferred this as a dwelling to the cities he
captured.

Now this Attila was the son of Mundiuch, and his brothers were Octar and Ruas
who are said to have ruled before Attila, though not over quite so many tribes
as he. After their death he succeeded to the throne of the Huns, together with
his brother Bleda. In order that he might first be equal to the expedition he
was preparing, he sought to increase his strength by murder. Thus he proceeded
from the destruction of his own kindred to the menace of all others.

But though he increased his power by this shameful means, yet by the balance
of justice he received the hideous consequences of his own cruelty. Now when his
brother Bleda, who ruled over a great part of the Huns, had been slain by his
treachery, Attila united all the people under his own rule. Gathering also a host
of the other tribes which he then held under his sway, he sought to subdue the
foremost nations of the world–the Romans and the Visigoths.

His army is said to have numbered five hundred thousand men. He was a man born
into the world to shake the nations, the scourge of all lands, who in some way
terrified all mankind by the dreadful rumors noised abroad concerning him. He
was haughty in his walk, rolling his eyes hither and thither, so that the power
of his proud spirit appeared in the movement of his body. He was indeed a lover
of war, yet restrained in action, mighty in counsel, gracious to suppliants and
lenient to those who were once received into his protection. He was short of stature,
with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled
with gray; and he had a flat nose and a swarthy complexion, showing the evidences
of his origin.

And though his temper was such that he always had great self-confidence, yet
his assurance was increased by finding the sword of Mars, always esteemed sacred
among the kings of the Scythians. The historian Priscus says it was discovered
under the following circumstances: “When a certain shepherd beheld one heifer
of his flock limping and could find no cause for this wound, he anxiously followed
the trail of blood and at length came to a sword it had unwittingly trampled while
nibbling the grass. He dug it up and took it straight to Attila. He rejoiced at
this gift and, being ambitious, thought he had been appointed ruler of the whole
world, and that through the sword of Mars supremacy in all wars was assured to
him.”

Now when Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, whom we mentioned shortly before, learned
that his mind was bent on the devastation of the world, he incited Attila by many
gifts to make war on the Visigoths, for he was afraid that Theodorid, king of
the Visigoths, would avenge the injury done to his daughter. She had been joined
in wedlock with Huneric, the son of Gaiseric, and at first was happy in this union.
But afterwards he was cruel even to his own children, and because of the mere
suspicion that she was attempting to poison him, he cut off her nose and mutilated
her ears. He sent her back to her father in Gaul thus despoiled of her natural
charms. So the wretched girl presented a pitiable aspect ever after, and the cruelty
which would stir even strangers still more surely incited her father to vengeance.

Attila, therefore, in his efforts to bring about the wars long ago instigated
by the bribe of Gaiseric, sent ambassadors into Italy to the Emperor Valentinian
to sow strife between the Goths and the Romans, thinking to shatter by civil discord
those whom he could not crush in battle. He declared that he was in no way violating
his friendly relations with the Empire, but that he had a quarrel with Theodorid,
king of the Visigoths. As he wished to be kindly received, he filled the rest
of the letter with the usual flattering salutations, striving to win credence
for his falsehood.

In like manner he despatched a message to Theodorid, king of the Visigoths,
urging him to break his alliance with the Romans and reminding him of the battles
to which they had recently provoked him. Beneath his great ferocity he was a subtle
man, and fought with craft before he made war.

Then the Emperor Valentinian sent an embassy to the Visigoths and their king
Theodorid, with this message:

“Bravest of nations, it is the part of prudence for us to unite against the
lord of the earth who wishes to enslave the whole world; who requires no just
cause for battle, but supposes whatever he does is right. He measures his ambition
by his might. License satisfies his pride. Despising law and right, he shows himself
an enemy to Nature herself. And thus he, who clearly is the common foe of each,
deserves the hatred of all.

Pray remember–what you surely cannot forget–that the Huns do not overthrow
nations by means of war, where there is an equal chance, but assail them by treachery,
which is a greater cause for anxiety. To say nothing about ourselves, can you
suffer such insolence to go unpunished? Since you are mighty in arms, give heed
to your own danger and join hands with us in common. Bear aid also to the Empire,
of which you hold a part. If you would learn how such an alliance should be sought
and welcomed by us, look into the plans of the foe.”

By these and like arguments the ambassadors of Valentinian prevailed upon King
Theodorid. He answered them, saying: “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. I call no war dangerous save one whose cause is
weak; for he fears no ill on whom Majesty has smiled.”

The nobles shouted assent to the reply and the multitude gladly followed. All
were fierce for battle and longed to meet the Huns, their foe. And so a countless
host was led forth by Theodorid, king of the Visigoths, who sent home four of
his sons, namely Friderich and Eurich, Retemer and Mimnerith, taking with him
only the two elder sons, Thorismud and Theodorid, as partners of his toil. O brave
array, sure defense and sweet comradeship, having the aid of those who delight
to share in the same dangers!

On the side of the Romans stood the Patrician Aius, on whom at that time
the whole Empire of the West depended; a man of such wisdom that he had assembled
warriors from everywhere to meet them on equal terms. Now these were his auxiliaries:
Franks, Sarmatians, Armoricians, Liticians, Burgundians, Saxons, Riparians, Olibriones
(once Romans soldiers and now the flower of the allied forces), and some other
Celtic or German tribes.

And so they met in the Catalaunian Plains, which are also called Mauriacian,
extending in length one hundred leuva, as the Gauls express it, and seventy in
width. Now a Gallic leuva measures a distance of fifteen hundred paces. That portion
of the earth accordingly became the threshing-floor of countless races. The two
hosts bravely joined battle. Nothing was done under cover, but they contended
in open fight.

What just cause can be found for the encounter of so many nations, or what
hatred inspired them all to take arms against each other? It is proof that the
human race lives for its kings, for it is at the mad impulse of one mind a slaughter
of nations takes place, and at the whim of a haughty ruler that which nature has
taken ages to produce perishes in a moment.

But before we set forth the order of the battle itself, it seems needful to
relate what had already happened in the course of the campaign, for it was not
only a famous struggle but one that was complicated and confused. Well then, Sangiban,
king of the Alani, smitten with fear of what might come to pass, had promised
to surrender to Attila, and to give into his keeping Aureliani, a city of Gaul
wherein he dwelt.

When Theodorid and Aius learned of this, they cast up great earthworks around
that city before Attila’s arrival and kept watch over the suspected Sangiban,
placing him with his tribe in the midst of their auxiliaries. Then Attila, king
of the Huns, was taken aback by this event and lost confidence in his own troops,
so that he feared to begin the conflict. While he was meditating on flight–a
greater calamity than death itself–he decided to inquire into the future through
soothsayers.

So, as was their custom, they examined the entrails of cattle and certain streaks
in bones that had been scraped, and foretold disaster to the Huns. Yet as a slight
consolation they prophesied that the chief commander of the foe they were to meet
should fall and mar by his death the rest of the victory and the triumph. Now
Attila deemed the death of Aius a thing to be desired even at the cost of his
own life, for Aius stood in the way of his plans. So although he was disturbed
by this prophecy, yet inasmuch as he was a man who sought counsel of omens in
all warfare, he began the battle with anxious heart at about the ninth hour of
the day, in order that the impending darkness might come to his aid if the outcome
should be disastrous.

The armies met, as we have said, in the Catalaunian Plains. The battle field
was a plain rising by a sharp slope to a ridge, which both armies sought to gain;
for advantage of position is a great help. The Huns with their forces seized the
right side, the Romans, the Visigoths and their allies the left, and then began
a struggle for the yet untaken crest. Now Theodorid with the Visigoths held the
right wing and Aius with the Romans the left. They placed in the centre Sangiban
(who, as said before, was in command of the Alani), thus contriving with military
caution to surround by a host of faithful troops the man in whose loyalty they
had little confidence. For one who has difficulties placed in the way of his flight
readily submits to the necessity of fighting.

On the other side, however, the battle line of the Huns was arranged so that
Attila and his bravest followers were stationed in the centre. In arranging them
thus the king had chiefly his own safety in view, since by his position in the
very midst of his race he would be kept out of the way of threatening danger.
The innumerable peoples of the divers tribes, which he had subjected to his sway,
formed the wings.

Amid them was conspicuous the army of the Ostrogoths under the leadership of
the brothers Valamir, Thiudimer and Vidimer, nobler even than the king they served,
for the might of the family of the Amali rendered them glorious. The renowned
king of the Gepidae, Ardaric, was there also with a countless host, and because
of his great loyalty to Attila, he shared his plans. For Attila, comparing them
in his wisdom, prized him and Valamir, king of the Ostrogoths, above all the other
chieftains.

Valamir was a good keeper of secrets, bland of speech and skilled in wiles,
and Ardaric, as we have said, was famed for his loyalty and wisdom. Attila might
well feel sure that they would fight against the Visigoths, their kinsmen. Now
the rest of the crowd of kings (if we may call them so) and the leaders of various
nations hung upon Attila’s nod like slaves, and when he gave a sign even by a
glance, without a murmur each stood forth in fear and trembling, or at all events
did as he was bid.

Attila alone was king of all kings over all and concerned for all.

So then the struggle began for the advantage of position we have mentioned.
Attila sent his men to take the summit of the mountain, but was outstripped by
Thorismud and Aius, who in their effort to gain the top of the hill reached
higher ground and through this advantage of position easily routed the Huns as
they came up.

Now when Attila saw his army was thrown into confusion by this event, he thought
it best to encourage them by an extemporaneous address on this wise: “Here you
stand, after conquering mighty nations and subduing the world. I therefore think
it foolish for me to goad you with words, as though you were men who had not been
proved in action. Let a new leader or an untried army resort to that.

It is not right for me to say anything common, nor ought you to listen. For
what is war but your usual custom? Or what is sweeter for a brave man than to
seek revenge with his own hand? It is a right of nature to glut the soul with
vengeance.

Let us then attack the foe eagerly; for they are ever the bolder who make the
attack. Despise this union of discordant races! To defend oneself by alliance
is proof of cowardice. See, even before our attack they are smitten with terror.
They seek the heights, they seize the hills and, repenting too late, clamor for
protection against battle in the open fields. You know how slight a matter the
Roman attack is. While they are still gathering in order and forming in one line
with locked shields, they are checked, I will not say by the first wound, but
even by the dust of battle.

Then on to the fray with stout hearts, as is your wont. Despise their battle
line. Attack the Alani, smite the Visigoths! Seek swift victory in that spot where
the battle rages. For when the sinews are cut the limbs soon relax, nor can a
body stand when you have taken away the bones. Let your courage rise and your
own fury burst forth! Now show your cunning, Huns, now your deeds of arms! Let
the wounded exact in return the death of his foe; let the unwounded revel in slaughter
of the enemy.

No spear shall harm those who are sure to live; and those who are sure to die
Fate overtakes even in peace. And finally, why should Fortune have made the Huns
victorious over so many nations, unless it were to prepare them for the joy of
this conflict. Who was it revealed to our sires the path through the Maeotian
swamp, for so many ages a closed secret? Who, moreover, made armed men yield to
you, when you were as yet unarmed? Even a mass of federated nations could not
endure the sight of the Huns. I am not deceived in the issue;–here is the field
so many victories have promised us. I shall hurl the first spear at the foe. If
any can stand at rest while Attila fights, he is a dead man.” Inflamed by these
words, they all dashed into battle.

And although the situation was itself fearful, yet the presence of their king
dispelled anxiety and hesitation. Hand to hand they clashed in battle, and the
fight grew fierce, confused, monstrous, unrelenting–a fight whose like no ancient
time has ever recorded. There such deeds were done that a brave man who missed
this marvellous spectacle could not hope to see anything so wonderful all his
life long.

For, if we may believe our elders, a brook flowing between low banks through
the plain was greatly increased by blood from the wounds of the slain. It was
not flooded by showers, as brooks usually rise, but was swollen by a strange stream
and turned into a torrent by the increase of blood. Those whose wounds drove them
to slake their parching thirst drank water mingled with gore. In their wretched
plight they were forced to drink what they thought was the blood they had poured
from their own wounds.

Here King Theodorid, while riding by to encourage his army, was thrown from
his horse and trampled under foot by his own men, thus ending his days at a ripe
old age. But others say he was slain by the spear of Andag of the host of the
Ostrogoths, who were then under the sway of Attila. This was what the soothsayers
had told to Attila in prophecy, though he understood it of Aius.

Then the Visigoths, separating from the Alani, fell upon the horde of the Huns
and nearly slew Attila. But he prudently took flight and straightway shut himself
and his companions within the barriers of the camp, which he had fortified with
wagons. A frail defence indeed; yet there they sought refuge for their lives,
whom but a little while before no walls of earth could withstand.

But Thorismud, the son of King Theodorid, who with Aius had seized the hill
and repulsed the enemy from the higher ground, came unwittingly to the wagons
of the enemy in the darkness of night, thinking he had reached his own lines.
As he was fighting bravely, someone wounded him in the head and dragged him from
his horse. Then he was rescued by the watchful care of his followers and withdrew
from the fierce conflict.

Aius also became separated from his men in the confusion of night and wandered
about in the midst of the enemy. Fearing disaster had happened, he went about
in search of the Goths. At last he reached the camp of his allies and passed the
remainder of the night in the protection of their shields.

At dawn on the following day, when the Romans saw the fields were piled high
with bodies and that the Huns did not venture forth, they thought the victory
was theirs, but knew that Attila would not flee from the battle unless overwhelmed
by a great disaster. Yet he did nothing cowardly, like one that is overcome, but
with clash of arms sounded the trumpets and threatened an attack. He was like
a lion pierced by hunting spears, who paces to and fro before the mouth of his
den and dares not spring, but ceases not to terrify the neighborhood by his roaring.
Even so this warlike king at bay terrified his conquerors.

Therefore the Goths and Romans assembled and considered what to do with the
vanquished Attila. They determined to wear him out by a siege, because he had
no supply of provisions and was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows
from the bowmen placed within the confines of the Roman camp. But it was said
that the king remained supremely brave even in this extremity and had heaped up
a funeral pyre of horse trappings, 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.

Now during these delays in the siege, the Visigoths sought their king and the
king’s sons their father, wondering at his absence when success had been attained.
When, after a long search, they found him where the dead lay thickest, as happens
with brave men, they honored him with songs and bore him away in the sight of
the enemy. You might have seen bands of Goths shouting with dissonant cries and
paying the honors of death while the battle still raged. Tears were shed, but
such as they were accustomed to devote to brave men. It was death indeed, but
the Huns are witness that it was a glorious one. It was a death whereby one might
well suppose the pride of the enemy would be lowered, when they beheld the body
of so great a king borne forth with fitting honors.

And so the Goths, still continuing the rites due to Theodorid, bore forth the
royal majesty with sounding arms, and valiant Thorismud, as befitted a son, honored
the glorious spirit of his dear father by following his remains.

When this was done, Thorismud was eager to take vengeance for his father’s
death on the remaining Huns, being moved to this both by the pain of bereavement
and the impulse of that valor for which he was noted. Yet he consulted with the
Patrician Aius (for he was an older man and of more mature wisdom) with regard
to what he ought to do next.

But Aius feared that if the Huns were totally destroyed by the Goths, the
Roman Empire would be overwhelmed, and urgently advised him to return to his own
dominions to take up the rule which his father had left. Otherwise his brothers
might seize their father’s possessions and obtain the power over the Visigoths.
In this case Thorismud would have to fight fiercely and, what is worse, disastrously
with his own countrymen. Thorismud accepted the advice without perceiving its
double meaning, but followed it with an eye toward his own advantage. So he left
the Huns and returned to Gaul.

Thus while human frailty rushes into suspicion, it often loses an opportunity
of doing great things.

In this most famous war of the bravest tribes, one hundred and sixty five thousand
are said to have been slain on both sides, leaving out of account fifteen thousand
of the Gepidae and Franks, who met each other the night before the general engagement
and fell by wounds mutually received, the Franks fighting for the Romans and the
Gepidae for the Huns.

Now when Attila learned of the retreat of the Goths, he thought it a ruse of
the enemy,–for so men are wont to believe when the unexpected happens–and remained
for some time in his camp. But when a long silence followed the absence of the
foe, the spirit of the mighty king was aroused to the thought of victory and the
anticipation of pleasure, and his mind turned to the old oracles of his destiny.

Thorismud, however, after the death of his father on the Catalaunian Plains
where he had fought, advanced in royal state and entered Tolosa. Here although
the throng of his brothers and brave companions were still rejoicing over the
victory he yet began to rule so mildly that no one strove with him for the succession
to the kingdom.

But Attila took occasion from the withdrawal of the Visigoths, observing what
he had often desired–that his enemies were divided. At length feeling secure,
he moved forward his array to attack the Romans. As his first move he besieged
the city of Aquileia, the metropolis of Venetia, which is situated on a point
or tongue of land by the Adriatic Sea. On the eastern side its walls are washed
by the river Natissa, flowing from Mount Piccis.

The siege was long and fierce, but of no avail, since the bravest soldiers
of the Romans withstood him from within. At last his army was discontented and
eager to withdraw. Attila chanced to be walking around the walls, considering
whether to break camp or delay longer, and noticed that the white birds, namely,
the storks, who build their nests in the gables of houses, were bearing their
young from the city and, contrary to their custom, were carrying them out into
the country.

Being a shrewd observer of events, he understood this and said to his soldiers:
“You see the birds foresee the future. They are leaving the city sure to perish
and are forsaking strongholds doomed to fall by reason of imminent peril. Do not
think this a meaningless or uncertain sign; fear, arising from the things they
foresee, has changed their custom.” Why say more? He inflamed the hearts of his
soldiers to attack Aquileia again. Constructing battering rams and bringing to
bear all manner of engines of war, they quickly forced their way into the city,
laid it waste, divided the spoil and so cruelly devastated it as scarcely to leave
a trace to be seen.

Then growing bolder and still thirsting for Roman blood, the Huns raged madly
through the remaining cities of the Veneti. They also laid waste Mediolanum, the
metropolis of Liguria, once an imperial city, and gave over Ticinum to a like
fate. Then they destroyed the neighboring country in their frenzy and demolished
almost the whole of Italy.

Attila’s mind had been bent on going to Rome. But his followers, as the historian
Priscus relates, took him away, not out of regard for the city to which they were
hostile, but because they remembered the case of Alaric, the former king of the
Visigoths. They distrusted the good fortune of their own king, inasmuch as Alaric
did not live long after the sack of Rome, but straightway departed this life.

Therefore while Attila’s spirit was wavering in doubt between going and not
going, and he still lingered to ponder the matter, an embassy came to him from
Rome to seek peace. Pope Leo himself came to meet him in the Ambuleian district
of the Veneti at the well-travelled ford of the river Mincius. Then Attila quickly
put aside his usual fury, turned back on the way he had advanced from beyond the
Danube and departed with the promise of peace. But above all he declared and avowed
with threats that he would bring worse things upon Italy, unless they sent him
Honoria, the sister of the Emperor Valentinian and daughter of Augusta Placidia,
with her due share of the royal wealth.

For it was said that Honoria, although bound to chastity for the honor of the
imperial court and kept in constraint by command of her brother, had secretly
despatched a eunuch to summon Attila that she might have his protection against
her brother’s power;–a shameful thing, indeed, to get license for her passion
at the cost of the public weal.

So Attila returned to his own country, seeming to regret the peace and to be
vexed at the cessation of war. For he sent ambassadors to Marcian, Emperor of
the East, threatening to devastate the provinces, because that which had been
promised him by Theodosius, a former emperor, was in no wise performed, and saying
that he would show himself more cruel to his foes than ever. But as he was shrewd
and crafty, he threatened in one direction and moved his army in another; for
in the midst of these preparations he turned his face toward the Visigoths who
had yet to feel his vengeance.

But here he had not the same success as against the Romans. Hastening back
by a different way than before, he decided to reduce to his sway that part of
the Alani which was settled across the river Loire, in order that by attacking
them, and thus changing the aspect of the war, he might become a more terrible
menace to the Visigoths. Accordingly he started from the provinces of Dacia and
Pannonia, where the Huns were then dwelling with various subject peoples, and
moved his array against the Alani.

But Thorismud, king of the Visigoths, with like quickness of thought perceived
Attila’s trick. By forced marches he came to the Alani before him, and was well
prepared to check the advance of Attila when he came after him. They joined battle
in almost the same way as before at the Catalaunian Plains, and Thorismud dashed
his hopes of victory, for he routed him and drove him from the land without a
triumph, compelling him to flee to his own country. Thus while Attila, the famous
leader and lord of many victories, sought to blot out the fame of his destroyer
and in this way to annul what he had suffered at the hands of the Visigoths, he
met a second defeat and retreated ingloriously.

Now after the bands of the Huns had been repulsed by the Alani, without any
hurt to his own men, Thorismud departed for Tolosa. There he established a settled
peace for his people and in the third year of his reign fell sick. While letting
blood from a vein, he was betrayed to his death by Ascalc, a client, who told
his foes that his weapons were out of reach. Yet grasping a foot-stool in the
one hand he had free, he became the avenger of his own blood by slaying several
of those that were lying in wait for him.

After his death, his brother Theodorid succeeded to the kingdom of the Visigoths
and soon found that Riciarius his kinsman, the king of the Suavi, was hostile
to him. For Riciarius, presuming on his relationship to Theodorid, believed that
he might seize almost the whole of Spain, thinking the disturbed beginning of
Theodorid’s reign made the time opportune for his trick.

The Suavi formerly occupied as their country Galicia and Lusitania, which extend
on the right side of Spain along the shore of Ocean. To the east is Austrogonia,
to the west, on a promontory, is the sacred Monument of the Roman general Scipio,
to the north Ocean, and to the south Lusitania and the Tagus river, which mingles
golden grains in its sands and thus carries wealth in its worthless mud. So then
Riciarius, king of the Suavi, set forth and strove to seize the whole of Spain.

Theodorid, his kinsman, a man of moderation, sent ambassadors to him and told
him quietly that he must not only withdraw from the territories that were not
his own, but furthermore that he should not presume to make such an attempt, as
he was becoming hated for his ambition. But with arrogant spirit he replied: “If
you murmur here and find fault with my coming, I shall come to Tolosa where you
dwell. Resist me there, if you can.” When he heard this, Theodorid was angry and,
making a compact with all the other tribes, moved his array against the Suavi.
He had as his close allies Gundiuch and Hilperic, kings of the Burgundians.

They came to battle near the river Ulbius, which flows between Asturica and
Hiberia, and in the engagement Theodorid with the Visigoths, who fought for the
right, came off victorious, overthrowing the entire tribe of the Suavi and almost
exterminating them. Their king Riciarius fled from the dread foe and embarked
upon a ship. But he was beaten back by another foe, the adverse wind of the Tyrrhenian
Sea, and so fell into the hands of the Visigoths. Thus though he changed from
sea to land, the wretched man did not avert his death.

When Theodorid had become the victor, he spared the conquered and did not suffer
the rage of conflict to continue, but placed over the Suavi whom he had conquered
one of his own retainers, named Agrivulf. But Agrivulf soon treacherously changed
his mind, through the persuasion of the Suavi, and failed to fulfil his duty.
For he was quite puffed up with tyrannical pride, believing he had obtained the
province as a reward for the valor by which he and his lord had recently subjugated
it. Now he was a man born of the stock of the Varni, far below the nobility of
Gothic blood, and so was neither zealous for liberty nor faithful toward his patron.

As soon as Theodorid heard of this, he gathered a force to cast him out from
the kingdom he had usurped. They came quickly and conquered him in the first battle,
inflicting a punishment befitting his deeds. For he was captured, taken from his
friends and beheaded. Thus at last he was made aware of the wrath of the master
he thought might be despised because he was kind. Now when the Suavi beheld the
death of their leader, they sent priests of their country to Theodorid as suppliants.
He received them with the reverence due their office and not only granted the
Suavi exemption from punishment, but was moved by compassion and allowed them
to choose a ruler of their own race for themselves. The Suavi did so, taking Rimismund
as their prince. When this was done and peace was everywhere assured, Theodorid
died in the thirteenth year of his reign.

His brother Eurich succeeded him with such eager haste that he fell under dark
suspicion. Now while these and various other matters were happening among the
people of the Visigoths, the Emperor Valentinian was slain by the treachery of
Maximus, and Maximus himself, like a tyrant, usurped the rule. Gaiseric, king
of the Vandals, heard of this and came from Africa to Italy with ships of war,
entered Rome and laid it waste. Maximus fled and was slain by a certain Ursus,
a Roman soldier.

After him Majorian undertook the government of the Western Empire at the bidding
of Marcian, Emperor of the East. But he too ruled but a short time. For when he
had moved his forces against the Alani who were harassing Gaul, he was killed
at Dertona near the river named Ira. Severus succeeded him and died at Rome in
the third year of his reign. When the Emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in
the Eastern Empire, learned of this, he chose as emperor his Patrician Anthemius
and sent him to Rome. Upon his arrival he sent against the Alani his son-in-law
Ricimer, who was an excellent man and almost the only one in Italy at that time
fit to command the army. In the very first engagement he conquered and destroyed
the host of the Alani, together with their king, Beorg.

Now Eurich, king of the Visigoths, perceived the frequent change of Roman Emperors
and strove to hold Gaul by his own right. The Emperor Anthemius heard of it and
asked the Brittones for aid. Their King Riotimus came with twelve thousand men
into the state of the Bituriges by the way of Ocean, and was received as he disembarked
from his ships.

Eurich, king of the Visigoths, came against them with an innumerable army,
and after a long fight he routed Riotimus, king of the Brittones, before the Romans
could join him. So when he had lost a great part of his army, he fled with all
the men he could gather together, and came to the Burgundians, a neighboring tribe
then allied to the Romans. But Eurich, king of the Visigoths, seized the Gallic
city of Arverna; for the Emperor Anthemius was now dead.

Engaged in fierce war with his son-in-law Ricimer, he had worn out Rome and
was himself finally slain by his son-in-law and yielded the rule to Olybrius.

At that time Aspar, first of the Patricians and a famous man of the Gothic
race was wounded by the swords of the eunuchs in his palace at Constantinople
and died. With him were slain his sons Ardabures and Patriciolus, the one long
a Patrician, and the other styled a Caesar and son-in-law of the Emperor Leo.
Now Olybrius died barely eight months after he had entered upon his reign, and
Glycerius was made Caesar at Ravenna, rather by usurpation than by election. Hardly
had a year been ended when Nepos, the son of the sister of Marcellinus, once a
Patrician, deposed him from his office and ordained him bishop at the Port of
Rome.

When Eurich, as we have already said, beheld these great and various changes,
he seized the city of Arverna, where the Roman general Ecdicius was at that time
in command. He was a senator of most renowned family and the son of Avitus, a
recent emperor who had usurped the reign for a few days–for Avitus held the rule
for a few days before Olybrius, and then withdrew of his own accord to Placentia,
where he was ordained bishop. His son Ecdicius strove for a long time with the
Visigoths, but had not the power to prevail. So he left the country and (what
was more important) the city of Arverna to the enemy and betook himself to safer
regions.

When the Emperor Nepos heard of this, he ordered Ecdicius to leave Gaul and
come to him, appointing Orestes in his stead as Master of the Soldiery. This Orestes
thereupon received the army, set out from Rome against the enemy and came to Ravenna.
Here he tarried while he made his son Romulus Augustulus emperor. When Nepos learned
of this, he fled to Dalmatia and died there, deprived of his throne, in the very
place where Glycerius, who was formerly emperor, held at that time the bishopric
of Salona.

Now when Augustulus had been appointed Emperor by his father Orestes in Ravenna,
it was not long before Odoacer, king of the Torcilingi, invaded Italy, as leader
of the Sciri, the Heruli and allies of various races. He put Orestes to death,
drove his son Augustulus from the throne and condemned him to the punishment of
exile in the Castle of Lucullus in Campania.

Thus the Western Empire of the Roman race, which Octavianus Augustus, the first
of the Augusti, began to govern in the seven hundred and ninth year from the founding
of the city, perished with this Augustulus in the five hundred and twenty second
year from the beginning of the rule of his predecessors and those before them,
and from this time onward kings of the Goths held Rome and Italy. Meanwhile Odoacer,
king of nations, subdued all Italy and then at the very outset of his reign slew
Count Bracila at Ravenna that he might inspire a fear of himself among the Romans.
He strengthened his kingdom and held it for almost thirteen years, even until
the appearance of Theodoric, of whom we shall speak hereafter.

But first let us return to that order from which we have digressed and tell
how Eurich, king of the Visigoths, beheld the tottering of the Roman Empire and
reduced Arelate and Massilia to his own sway. Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, enticed
him by gifts to do these things, to the end that he himself might forestall the
plots which Leo and Zeno had contrived against him. Therefore he stirred the Ostrogoths
to lay waste the Eastern Empire and the Visigoths the Western, so that while his
foes were battling in both empires, he might himself reign peacefully in Africa.
Eurich perceived this with gladness and, as he already held all of Spain and Gaul
by his own right, proceeded to subdue the Burgundians also. In the nineteenth
year of his reign he was deprived of his life at Arelate, where he then dwelt.

He was succeeded by his own son Alaric, the ninth in succession from the famous
Alaric the Great to receive the kingdom of the Visigoths. For even as it happened
to the line of the Augusti, as we have stated above, so too it appears in the
line of the Alarici, that kingdoms often come to an end in kings who bear the
same name as those at the beginning. Meanwhile let us leave this subject, and
weave together the whole story of the origin of the Goths, as we promised.